Monday 28 August 2017

Peter York's Hipster Handbook

Broadcast on BBC Four, Peter York's Hipster Handbook featured a Brox Compact as used by Square Root Sodas for ferrying produce.



It is an early Brox Compact with rear drum brakes and updated front mudguards.





Monday 17 April 2017

From Velovision - "Brox sells 50 Compacts to DHL"

Cloned from http://www.velovision.com/ftp-admin/VVArchive/www.velovisionmag.co.uk/showStoryeb48.html?storynum=37 as the future of Velovision is in doubt.

Brox sells 50 Compacts to DHL

Brox, the load-carrying quad bike manufacturer, has sold 50 of its machines to logistics giant DHL. They'll be put into service in London - and other cities may follow.

Posted by Peter Eland on Thursday 18 Jan 2001

Five pre-production Baby Broxes (or 'Compacts' as they are officially known), and some original Broxes, have been working in the City of London for some months. (The link takes you to a page on the Bikefix website - where there's lots of Brox info. Brox don't appear to have their own site, but you can email Rob Brock.)

According to Rob Brock of Brox, the deal was put together by Jim Geeling of E-mission Control, who ran a small fleet of Original BROXes for DHL under contract for six months before joining the DHL team as a consultant and introducing the Baby BROX to them. E-mission Control operated the Red Star HPV operation (before Lynx absorbed it) and also did HPV contract work for FedEx before finally teaming up with DHL.



As far as Rob is aware, the 50 are for London initially, but there are also feasibility studies underway for other large cities in Europe and one in the USA - probably New York. DHL have had a special 'Hi Cube' box designed, 20% bigger than the one pictured. They have ordered 50 vehicles to be delivered over a 12 months period starting the end of this month. The only other modification they have requested is that they are having disc brakes on the front, rather than hydraulic drums, and bigger Nokian tires as fitted on the original Brox.

Rob Brock is bullish about the prospects, and is looking forward to starting their first series production run: "Although we have approx a dozen Baby BROXes out there at present, the vehicle is still really only at a pre-production stage. The feedback from these initial customers will be incorporated where possible into the first production models - the DHL ones will be a large percentage of the first production run. The only reason that we are happy to go into series production at this early point is because the learning curve on the Baby should be considerably less than the Original BROX as we using existing technology such as the BROX torsional articulation and gauge of tubing etc - combined with tried and tested components from the AnthroTech trike. For instance, the kingpin layout and sliding bottom bracket system are basically AnthroTech designs beefed up for our use. I approached AnthroTech for permission to incorporate these parts because there is no point in re-inventing something that works right. They were kind enough to allow me to use them. That's the spirit of HPVers."

Brox Compact No 16

Found on LFGSS
Needs a service as the hydraulic brakes aren't working. Frame No 16 so quite an early one. Needs a good clean and going over. Can be ridden as is but the brakes are terrible. Selling on behalf of a friend who wants a very optimistic £900
Looks quite good with the replacement mudguards.



However, it is so early it has rear drum brakes.



I think some young person has enjoyed many a ride on this one.



I the price might be rather optimistic if the front brakes need replacement rather than straightforward servicing.

Saturday 1 February 2014

mADbikes advertising Trike

Bit of a mystery this one, can only find a couple of photos on the web.


From Gareth Lewis


From http://www.freewebs.com/adbike/madbikes.htm

The front looks like a copy of the original Brox.

Sunday 22 September 2013

Climate Change March 2006

It is not often I come across pictures of my machine on the web. I think the problem is that people don't consistently tag the Brox as they don't know what to call it.



Joe Rowing labled this one "Quadricycle" which is how I came across it.

Saturday 15 December 2012

Sky Ride 2012

I decided to try out the route this year, complete with sound system and trailer with A-board on the back. Here are a couple of photos off the web...



and from Ella who rode with me much of the way



Sadly the ride was a corporate exercise in advertising rather than a meaningful community event.



Saturday 8 September 2012

Sound System Rebuild

A couple of weeks ago the sound system got a makeover. Here it is in the original tatty green with the remains of all manner of posters and stickers all over it.





The old sticky-backed-plastic came off without too much difficulty, and much of the wiring was stripped out and tidied up.





The new covering of gloss sticky backed plastic went on without too much difficulty, though the finish isn't brilliantly smooth.



However, the general effect, with the new led reflector lights front, side and back is pretty good. I also managed to improve the bass end of the sound system by adjusting the crossover, resulting in a nice firm bottom end.



The system got it's first outing at last month's critical mass in Manchester.



Tuesday 28 August 2012

Brox Compact vs Mini

Cars used to be a lot smaller. It's quite striking when you do find proper old cars just how small they are.



This old Mini really is not much longer than a Brox, and the green colour almost matches.



Photos from MOSI Mini Maker Fair.

P.S. the following day the Brox was actually longer with trailer...



Trundling home fully loaded...


Monday 25 June 2012

Brox Sound System with ride on DJ

London Critical Mass May 2002.






Friday 15 June 2012

"Medwinds Bikes go to Manchester"

Here's a variation on the advertising Brox Compact done for clothing company Medwinds.



And some shots of them in Manchester back in March 2011.

from https://www.facebook.com/medwinds.uk







It's just a shame they had to stand in front of the machines in every photo...

Friday 8 June 2012

Monday 28 May 2012

Not a Brox but...

I know nothing about this home made 4 wheeler.

I found it here whilst doing an image search for Critical Mass

Monday 2 April 2012

March Manchester Critical Mass



Photo by Ness

Music was Spiro Kaleidophonica and Easy All Stars Dubber Side of the Moon

Wednesday 28 December 2011

Manchester Brox with sound system

I haven't posted too many pictures of my machine here, so here's one from the start of the Moving Planet Day, back in September.



And a couple of videos of it out on Critical Mass in back in May



Sunday 11 December 2011

The New Firebrox Web Site

Firebrox has undergone a major overhaul, and you can follow its progress over at the new web site http://www.firebrox.com/.



More photos here, including details of those new brakes.

Saturday 5 November 2011

Sim Bamford's Brox Based Sound System

A Brox Compact was fitted with a sound system by Sim Bamford in 2002.

These photos from Sim's web site show the first version.








It was photographed at the big stop the war march in 2003 after it had been modified to lower the centre of gravity.



This machine is not the same as Firebrox as far as I know.

Thursday 27 October 2011

Firebrox (take 2)

Probably the most well known Brox Compact in the UK, Firebrox is the main sound system for the London Friday Night Skate.



I caught up with it at the original 2007 London Freewheel. Note the striking blue wheel hubs.

The machine is heavilly modified to help carry the 2kW PA system, with 52 gears and from odd forum posts it seems the hard work it goes through results in it needing a significant amount of maintenance, there is a detailed post covering the problems here.

Thanks to dan_b's comments and his photos on Flickr (below) I can now tell the correct series of events. The version of Firebox in my photo above, piloted by dan_b, was bought as chassis plus the aluminium flatbed load tray in 2006 from an employee of Brixton Cycles.

There were two versions of Firebox, the first was based on the standard tray (plus a repaint) and a steel support for the speaker:



And the second has the reworked back,



dan-b also sais that "Sadly it's currently off the road *again* as the drive axle snapped earlier this year and we've been unable to source a replacement. We're planning to take it down to Kingsmead to get the rear frame rewelded: I'm told that their newer design uses a plain axle instead of the complicated piece of machinery in ours, and they can fit mountings for Magura brakes at the same time."

Sunday 16 October 2011

Back in Production

The Brox Compact is back in production at Kingsmead Associates.

The new machines will have Mangura Big brakes on all four wheels.

For more details contact broxsales@aol.com

Tuesday 11 October 2011

Back in Production?

from http://www.pedicabforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3255 3/10/2011


If anybody out there needs BROX COMPACT spares or service please email me at broxsales@aol.com.

We are located in Kent England, near the Channel port of Dover.

We are currently making a batch of BROX Delivery quads, and some advertising quads.

If you are interested email for prices and completion date

Happy cycling Clive


It would be nice to think we could get replacement parts, but sadly I think the front brakes are going to be a big chalenge. I assume this post came from Kingsmead Associates who manufactured the compact.