1976 MCL Micro

I have a new bike

Maybe I should have put it in the MTB section:

Completely barmy! There was one of these racked up at my local shopping centre at the weekend. What does it ride like? The only reason I ask is because I'm interested in how it handles with the mega short wheelbase compared to most small-wheelers.

Hehe, I couldn't resist it

I've only done 10 miles on it yet, but my initial impression is one of pleasant surprise. I read as many descriptions of how they rode as I could find before I bought it and the two main themes seemed to be that the front wheel came off the ground too easily and the short wheelbase made it hard to keep in a straight line. I didn't really have either of those problems on my first test though. The wheelbase is very short and once you get up to faster speeds (not fast, just relative for its size!) it does feel a little twitchy, but I think that will probably be quite easy to get used to once I've adjusted to how little input is required with the little wheels. The front wheel didn't come off the ground once, but the seatpost is a little too short for me, so maybe when I find a longer one that may start to be an issue.

I had great fun riding it on a local bike route, which is relatively flat but unpaved with plenty of potholes. The small wheels and short wheelbase made it incredible easy and fun the weave in and out avoiding the majority of the potholes, but I was surprised that when I failed and hit them it absorbed a lot more than I expected and it was actually comfy enough to ride over them. It only started feeling harder work in the deeper areas of mud and given the old (I assume original) tyres the traction and grip was very good.

If I don't use it on my commute this week I'll probably take it out for another test at the weekend, maybe with a bit more off-road! I'll also have to look for a bit more information about them, including which years they were produced and how many were made.

hi i really like these type of bikes for some reason
i saw a guy at a train station i think with a brombton yes the wheelbase did look
longer . your wheels look bigger and larger chainset looks good
concealed cabling!

Hand-brazed in England, sharp-handling, fun to ride, what's not to like?

The wheels should be the same size as a Brompton - imperial 16", so 349mm diameter rims. They probably just look bigger because the frame is compact.

I plan to keep it pretty much original, other than a longer seat post and different seat. A new seat post my prove hard to find though, as the diameter appears to be 25.6 or 25.8 mm - the existing post doesn't say, but testing with a 25.4 mm post there was a tiny bit of movement.

So maybe I'll just be slightly less cautious with how far up I use the existing seat post and not ride any long distances on it!

ha not a candidate for a plastic seat post then...will there be mountain bike ones out there. or lathe turn
a stepped bar from ally ? shes dinky man..

Yeah, I'll get hold of some vernier calipers and double check the size, then I can think about it. At least she is rideable as she is.

I'll have to get some action pictures, as I'm not the smallest person they'll probably look entertaining!