Brompton C-Line 2026 Overview

2025 was a seismic year for the Brompton C-Line, so what’s new for 2026? Turns out, quite a bit! In 2025, Brompton retired the long-running 6-speed platform and introduced a wider frame and a new 12-speed drivetrain. With that foundation in place, the 2026 Brompton C-Line represents the refinement stage. The long-anticipated 4-speed finally joins the lineup, the colour range expands, and the C-Line Electric becomes available with Brompton’s new in-house e-Motiq motor. If you’re researching what’s new on the 2026 Brompton C-Line — or deciding between the 4-speed, 12-speed, and Electric — this overview brings the changes into focus so you can choose the version that best fits how you move through the city.

What’s New

Gearing

In 2026, the Brompton C-Line finally gets the 4-speed drivetrain Brompton intended to launch in 2025. The delay had nothing to do with engineering. Retailers still had too many previous-generation 6-speed bikes on the floor, and releasing the new 4-speed would have immediately made those bikes harder to sell. Brompton paused the launch to protect dealers and allow the older generation to clear out. Now that the 6-speed era has closed, the 4-speed steps into the lineup on its own terms. It arrives as a return to Brompton’s core mission: producing cost-efficient, fast city bikes, where the real measure of performance isn’t watts or aero profiles, but minutes saved between everyday destinations.

As for the 12-speed? It continues exactly as it is. This model already experienced an epochal leap in 2025, when Brompton retired the classic 6-speed platform and nearly doubled the gear range. With such a wide range of gears, the C-Line 12-speed is the kind of bike you can commute with, or take on a multi-day European trip. Only the G-Line can compare with it for versatility, and that’s only because the G-Line is more off-road capable. At the end of the day, the C-Line 12-speed is small to pack up, can ride most road surfaces, and has a gear range few bikes can match.

Colours

For 2026, Brompton also shifts into a richer colour palette — Plum Red, Palm Green, Matte Black, Dune Sand, Amethyst Lacquer, and Cloud Metallic. Our first observation is that these don’t feel like typical “bike colours.” If anything, they feel like something you’d see in product design, like furniture, or architecture.

If you’re after a 2025 colour, then remember that Brompton’s rarely depreciate by model year and the only difference between 2025 and 2026 for the C-Line is colour. Chances are good that if you’re reading close to this blogs published date, the USA warehouse still has some 2025 colours left. You can check status and pre-order them here. Once ordered, they usually take 1-2 weeks to arrive.

The New E-Motiq Electric

Alongside the C-Line comes something new: the C-Line Electric powered by Brompton’s own e-Motiq motor. Brompton is convinced that no form of transportation can change cities faster than the electric bike. And because a Brompton moves frictionlessly between outside and inside, it doesn’t just compete with other bikes — it outcompetes transit and cars too. Sidewalk to subway platform to elevator to desk, the bike never becomes an obstacle. Electric assist removes the last barriers: hills, distance, and sweat.

The new e-Motiq system marks a generational shift. It arrives on the wider 4-speed and 12-speed frame, and that allowed Brompton to put the motor where acceleration happens — in the rear hub. The result feels like a push rather than a pull. Power delivery is intuitive while the handling stays pure Brompton.

Who Is This Bike For?

“Last Mile” City Cyclists

The original DNA of the C-Line understands city life. It’s built for people who move through the city with purpose — people who measure distance by time rather than kilometers. In dense cores, most trips fall into that strange midpoint of being too far to walk, too short to drive, and too unpredictable for transit. This is the last mile. The Brompton collapses those distances into minutes. It gets you from door to door without waiting, without planning, without thinking. The C-Line moves at the speed of your life.

The C-Line 4-speed is the purest expression of that idea. It’s a tool, not a toy. If you already have another bike for weekend rides or longer adventures, the 4-speed is the Brompton that lives strictly in the city. Just enough gearing to accelerate away from lights, hold momentum, and keep things simple. It’s about 1.5lb lighter than the 12-speed, and because it rolls like luggage, it rarely needs to be carried. When it does — up the stairs at a station or into a walk-up — every pound counts. If your Brompton exists to replace transit or short car trips, the 4-speed is the most economical, most efficient version of that idea.

Unlimited Mile – Recreational Cyclists

The 12-speed is for a different rider. It starts as a last-mile tool, but it doesn’t stay there. If you want a Brompton for the city and for everything outside the city — planes, trains, marina docks, camper vans, weekend rides that stretch into real distance — this is the bike.

With the 12-speed, the gearing opens up hills and longer routes, and the bike becomes less of a city tool and more of a single-bike solution. It’s slightly heavier up the stairs, but it pays you back in range and freedom. The 12-speed doesn’t just commute. It escapes.

Power-Assisted Transport/Sport

The C-Line Electric is for the rider who wants unwanted effort to disappear from the equation. With the new e-Motiq system, the motor doesn’t drag you or surge ahead — it mirrors your cadence. When you shift into an easier gear, the assist increases its support; when you spin faster on the flats, it backs off. You still ride the bike, but the bike does the heavy lifting. For a pure city cyclist, a four-speed electric is more than enough. The motor fills the gap that extra gears would normally cover: it adds torque when the road tilts upward, smooths acceleration away from lights, and keeps your speed without demanding more from your legs.

If your commute is longer, hillier, or simply hotter, this is the Brompton that removes friction from the day. No sweat, no grind, no thinking — just point and go. And if you’re the rider who wants this bike for life outside the city — for joy rides, for weekend distance, for spontaneous detours — the electric assist turns every incline into a flat and every far-off place into a quick decision. This bike fulfills a huge part of Brompton’s mission and promises big things to come.

How it Rides

The C-Line uses high-end chromoly steel, a material that flexes just enough to take the edge off rough pavement. It doesn’t float like the titanium rear triangle of the P-Line or carbon fork of the T-Line, but it absorbs vibration in a way aluminum folding bikes simply cannot. There are so many good reasons to buy a Brompton, but a big one is the acceleration and agility. The moment you push off, the small wheels accelerate like a rocket-ship. Perfect for cities filled with stoplights and stop-and-go traffic. Yet that quickness never feels twitchy because Brompton pairs those small wheels with a remarkably long wheelbase. It’s the geometry trick that defines Brompton: a bike that unfolds into something as stable as a full-size hybrid and folds into something smaller than a carry-on suitcase. And, it’s a cinch to fold and unfold.

For riders choosing the electric version, the experience gains another layer. The e-Motiq motor sits in the rear wheel, so the assist pushes from behind rather than pulling from the front. That simple shift restores the handling you expect — the wheel that steers is the wheel that steers, the wheel that drives is the wheel that drives. It feels natural, stable, and intuitive. The new Brompton Start Assist adds a burst of power the moment you push off, especially useful when a red light turns green halfway up a hill. Above all, riding electric doesn’t feel like cheating, because this bike is designed for transport, not sport. Save your sweat for the gym. In fact, this is the perfect bike to get you there!

What you gain / what you give up

The C-Line is Brompton’s value sweet spot, and understanding that requires a shift in mindset. People react to the price not because the bike is objectively expensive, but because we have been conditioned to think of bikes as leisure equipment; something for weekends rather than a tool for daily movement. Once you see the C-Line as transportation infrastructure, the economics snap into focus. The average North American car trip is under three miles, a distance a Brompton handles faster and more predictably than driving, transit, or walking. Every time it replaces a short drive, a rideshare, or a monthly transit pass, it pays itself back. Compared to car or transit use, the payback happens shockingly fast. The real question isn’t why the bike costs what it does; it’s what it saves: money, sanity, and your health.

When comparing the C-Line to other Brompton lines, the main upgrade is weight. Why does weight matter? First, let’s dispel a myth. Many people assume that owning a Brompton means carrying a bike through every building and hallway. The opposite is true. A Brompton spends almost no time in your hands. It rolls. In “suitcase mode,” it behaves like rolling luggage; compact, balanced, and effortless to guide with one hand. Rolling solves ninety percent of indoor situations. The remaining ten percent, where the city turns vertical, is where weight matters. Cities are built upward; transit stations have stairbanks that feel like cliffs. Condos and walk-ups exist without elevators. These are the actual moments when the difference between models becomes real.

If stairs are part of your daily rhythm, the C-Line 4-speed earns its place. It is 1.5 lb lighter than the C-Line 12-speed and keeps the focus on pure city efficiency. If you want the versatility of twelve speeds for weekend distance or travel, but still want meaningful weight savings for those stairs, move to the P-Line 12-speed. At roughly 21 lb, it is about five pounds lighter than the C-Line 4-speed and becomes the ideal blend of last-mile tool and weekend escape machine.

Which Brompton C-Line to Choose?

Choose the C-Line 4-speed if you live the pure urban life—short trips, no steep hills, and stairs are part of your daily ritual. It is the closest expression of Brompton’s original mission: to make cities smaller. These bikes are expected March 2026. Check below or visit our pre-orders page here. (Give the page a few seconds to load).