Brompton Envy

“Dear Santa, if His Lordship and I are very good all this year, never argue, never shout, never roll our eyes in despair, and generally act like the coolest bus pass owners this side of the daisies, could you possibly send us two folding Brompton bikes for Christmas next year? We have no chimney, so you would have to leave them at the back door. Thank you Santa, you’re my man!
PS I rather like the pale blue finish, His Lordship might prefer the red or black. I suppose the nickel version is beyond the pale.”

Since we ditched the car and with it the ability to transport our ordinary bikes, we have missed our regular Sunday sorties around the byeways of East Lothian.
True, we could negotiate the horrors of Central Edinburgh traffic to cycle to the train and arrive in Longniddry fresh as daisies, but with folding bikes we could either put them on a bus at the nearest bus stop or put them in a Car Club car and tootle the 15miles to Longniddry, the place we consider the ideal starting point for our weekend cycle rides. We could also take them up to Orkney in the summer instead of hiring bicycles there.

However the price tag is such that we would have to convince ourselves that the number of outings justifies the expense, and that is extremely doubtful.
I guess looking at them through the bike shop window on our Sunday excursions to the Land of Toast is as far as we will get; but is a Brompton not a wonderful invention and a beautiful piece of engineering design to look at?