Brompton Bike Hire/Subscription Reviews 

The Brompton bike hire scheme is a good concept in principle and can be a cost effective way of accessing a Brompton. The success of the scheme for you depends on what you want to use the bike for and how important the condition of the bike is to you.
First, in respect of condition. I have found the bikes to be very old, tatty with annoying rattles and poorly adjusted seats / levers and sometimes difficult gear changes etc.
i also recently had an unfortunate experience where my hire Brompton was stolen outside Borough Market in London despite being locked with a high quality D lock, in an area with lots of surveillance. I was charged £650 for a replacement bike. Bromptons position is that you can’t leave the bike unattended at any time, even if locked. This is in their terms and conditions. My point is that it is impractical to carry a folded bike with you in crowded areas and thus you need to be aware of this when considering the practicability of the bike hire scheme for your purposes. The issue is compounded as Brompton’s seem to be targeted by thieves, particularly in London. So, the scheme might be suitable for some but you need to be aware of the limitations / risks and be prepared to ride a pretty poor condition bike.

I suggest to download the app and upload passport and details a week before you plan on hiring, if it goes wrong you can get great support by chat or mail. We Had problems getting ID submitted by the app. It is great when all IT works swell, but bommer when not getting around error messages. Anyway, Brompton bikes are the best, and the Hire boxes should be all over Europe and beyond:)

Hiring process is easy and smooth. I had a problem with a wrong hire date once, but it was quickly resolved. Haven’t had any issues lately. Would recommend! The bikes are usually in a very good condition and the return policies are super nice.

​"This was my very first time using a Brompton bike, and I have to say, I was incredibly impressed with it. I hired it specifically for the London World Naked Bike Ride and ended up cycling about 15 miles completely naked!
​The bike handled beautifully and performed exceptionally well over the entire distance. I was thoroughly impressed with how it rides, and the whole experience was fantastic."

Oh dear

Another company offering a service they are unable to deliver

I had to cancel before I even received a bicycle after waiting for 6 days for some form of contact

Despite the three days delivery promise.

Still waiting for the response to my email of cancellation of the months hire!

That was sent three days ago and refund not received.

I laughed when I found out it was common knowledge that the months subscription didn't technically exist and is clearly one to be avoided.

Caveat emptor !

My experience of Brompton Bike Hire is of taking out a monthly subscription. I chose the year option, as this made the monthly cost a very reasonable £35. I naturally expected all mechanical aspects of the C 6 bike I hired to be perfect, which they were, but I was also amazed that the cosmetic aspects of the bike were as new too. I hired the bike for pleasure use, not hard daily commuting, so I only used it on fine days and on suitable road / path surfaces, so I did not need to make use of the right to return the bike for maintenance / service. I only ceased the subscription as I so liked the Brompton C 6 that I bought one directly from Brompton. The return of the hire bike and the delivery of my purchase were efficient , timely, without any problem, backed up by relevant email contact.

Fantastic customer service, always available for any request. Top quality same as the product. Thanks

I engaged with the support for the bike hiring. They were understanding and accommodated a reimbursement after I could not return the bike for a technical issue.
On the other hand, the Brompton hire technical service needs to be improved on latency level.

Rented a bike to follow girlfriend at Manchester Marathon. Downloaded the app, registered, and in the process they charge 1p for card verification. I went to Ken Fosters Cycles on the Saturday to collect and the QR code didn’t work so had to call the emergency/out of hours number and was met with an abrupt “Hello, can I help you?”. We explained the issue and later on, when the friendly shop assistant told her the collection wasn’t from a locker, she returned with “I didn’t know that, nobody told me!”. Ask the right questions, then! Anyway, eventually got it sorted. However, it was the same palaver to return it on Monday- app didn’t work again and had to call, except the emergency number didn’t work either and I could find any other number on their app or site. Eventually, the shop assistant provided the customer service number and ofter a while, eventually, we were able to finalise it. And today the £10 for the 2 days hire was charged instead of the remaining £9.99 after the card verification charge. So, for every 5 million registrations they make a cushty £50k. Nice!

I have hired Brompton bikes several times in the UK - London, Bristol and Birmingham and each time the bikes have been clean and well-maintained and I have been able to just ride and go. Once you know how to fold them, it's very easy.

A friend and I both hired a bike for a day in London. I had some issues at the start setting up my account - it rejected my ID (not taking a Government issued Veterans Card is not good enough), however we both got set up and booked a hire on the App. On collecting I was clearly luckier than my friend - I had a P line with 6 gears and in very good condition. He had a 2 speed C line which had clearly seen better days and had issues with the seat tube that required a call to support (not really helpful - we resolved it ourselves using brute force). Luckily we had bought a small tool kit and were able to tighten up the loose seatpost clamps (not entirely successful with the lower clamp so we still had to stop and adjust on a regular basis). On return we struggled to get the bikes folded and into the locker to meet the requirement so it didn’t register either. We were out of hours for phone support so took photos and emailed support. It took a couple of days to get everything resolved although the email support were really helpful.

A useful exercise and lessons have been learned, so I will use the hire again (but will bring a toolkit with a spanner as well as Allen keys). I like the bikes and for a £5 it’s good value for money. Just check your bike when you take it out of the locker.

Their online support was super...
The tech went beyond the technical issue (which he solved) to help me know how to hire a Brompton when I am in London in May for a conference. Thank you!

Excellent service from start to finish. Having the use of my hire Brompton has been a great way to test out what I need. At the end of my hire period returning was super easy too.

Good bike subscription service unless you need to contact them. They have changed their customer service. I’ve been trying to contact them for months and they have been ignoring my messages.

I was hoping to purchase a Brompton but this has left a sound taste in my mouth.

Happy with the service. Used a hired bike for 1 month, then purchased my own and unsubscribed. The subscription bike was perfectly serviced, no issues at all.
Onboarding and cancellation processes were smooth and easy. Chatted with support twice, great communication.

Absolutely awful experience
Gave the system a couple of tries - and a friend tried as well. The app is very buggy / the customer service, whilst on one occasion very helpful - on three other occasions totally unreachable leaving me stranded.

Easy to set up the scheme. Everything as porpmissed delivered.

We used it as a trial and enjoyed having the bike with us on an extended holiday.
Cancelation and return was equally easy.

When I've sold a couple of other bikes wil return to Brompton for a purchase.

With bike rental wrecked by vandals, Brompton Hire is all we have in Cardiff (and apparently Cardiff Council required the brompton bikes to only have 2 gears, not 3?!). But this is a great option if you ride the bumps. I tried to get the bike out in advance of my trip to learn to fold/unfold, but the app stalled at the scan (using all kinds of tactics to try and get the app to work - restart app/phone/wifi, etc. although I didnt reinstall the app - it started working when I had wandered off and was paying for a drink with another app on my phone which makes me wonder if that triggered it to start working) the QR code point (to get the dock door to open), which made me glad I wasnt in a rush. This same glitch happened when I wanted to return the bike (in the rain - and at no time over many attempts and days did the app get out of the spinning arrow and onto the 'scan the qr code'. Both times out/in I was 'out of hours' for phone support so return was delayed by 2 days. Once I'd made time to return the bike in the weekday-daytime, phone support was superb (as was chat and email support, although more patchy on the weekend). However, in spite of two attempts, I still did not apparently place the bike back in the dock perfectly, which meant suspending my account until a tech can get there to do it. Also, I see I am to be charged for the extra days (£30 is double what I should be paying) so will need to log another call about that - boring. The bikes are superb, the people are great, the app/dock (ease of getting the perfectly folded bike back into the dock perfectly so that the return is fully confirmed - when I took the bike out it wasnt folded correctly and yet that must have been acceptable... what did I do wrong) needs work. If they refund me my £30 I will elevate the option to hire to the top of my list.

the bikes are good, locations fine too, but the customer service.... they are useless. Phone never gets answered, the emergency lien only works when it wants, responses to email enquires are random and not addressing the issue raised.

I rented a Brompton C Line and was charged before the bike even arrived. When it finally did, it came with a flat tyre. I contacted customer support and was told someone would get back to me within 24 hours — it's now been over a week with no response.

I ended up cancelling my subscription due to the lack of support, but nothing has been actioned yet. When I followed up, I was told to take the bike to a repair shop and pay out of pocket, then provide the receipt — even though the issue was there on delivery.

Really disappointed with how this was handled. Great idea, poor execution and customer care.