The Paris to Ancaster ain’t your average Sunday spin. It’s a gritty, muddy, and spirited spring tradition where roadies, mountain bikers, gravel grinders – and the occasional mad genius on a folding bike – line up to battle farm lanes, rail trails, creek crossings, and April weather. Born out of Belgian spring classics, it’s part bike race, part barn dance, part survival test. If you cross that finish line still upright and smiling, well, you’ve earned your slice of butter tart and bragging rights till next April. Especially if you’re that mad genius on a folding bike.

Why the Brompton G-Line Was Built for Canadian Cities

When Brompton launched the G-Line, we figured it wasn’t just built for Canada – it belonged here. This is a country where wildness doesn’t stop at the city limits. In Toronto, the Don and Humber rivers cut ribbons of raw, untamed green straight through the urban sprawl to Lake Ontario. It’s not the polite, pruned parkland of Europe. But, Toronto’s not alone. Vancouver’s got Pacific Spirit Park. Montreal has Mont Royal. Edmonton rides its River Valley like a spine. Commute to work, and when you’re done, just drop into the woods and ride. That makes the G-Line the perfect Canadian bike.

Of course we can go further. Sure, Europe’s got elegant boulevards and tidy bike lanes – but it doesn’t know potholes like Toronto or Montreal. That’s where the G-Line earns its stripes – especially when compared to the original Brompton. But, like every Brompton, it still folds down small enough to stash in a car trunk, a train rack, or an overhead bin. It’s the kind of bike you can cruise the museums of Paris or the galleries of Berlin – only with the G-Line, you could ride from Paris to Berlin.

Built for the City, Ready for the Dirt

If the G-Line gets misunderstood in Europe, it’s probably because their cities don’t know have any wilderness. Their streets are smooth and their parks are trimmed. So when reviewers treat the G-Line like a full-on gravel bike — the kind you load onto a car rack and drive out of town — it’s clear something’s been lost in translation. Because if you’re loading a bike onto a car, you might as well go with a proper gravel rig.

The G-Line was never meant to be a pure gravel bike. It’s a city bike that can punch above its weight. A folder that eats potholes, dodges streetcar tracks, and doesn’t flinch at a dirt path. But, we brought it to Paris-Ancaster for other reasons, to test for ourselves whether those Euro reviewers were correct. Is the G-Line also a proper gravel bike? Turns out the answer is yes.

From Incredulity to Belief: The Brompton Effect

Here’s the thing about selling Bromptons: it begins with incredulity and slowly the credulity builds until a test ride seals the deal. On first glance, a Brompton is a funny looking bike. It creates a lot of questions. It also creates a lot of answers, far more than a regular bike does. So, that’s why we took it to Paris-Ancaster. To make people first look in incredulity and then take a second look.

But, where would this second look occur? Where could we build that credulity? On the racetrack, of course! It helped that we ran into Connor Gregory – a semi-pro rider – at a party that Shimano (bike components) was holding. We hadn’t seen Connor in a few years and we asked him if he wanted to do something silly, which he said yes to before we even explained what it was. You have to love a guy like that.

One Race, 580 Double Takes

Connor is a name around the Toronto circuit and besides consistently placing in the top-ten, he also hosts the 100 Acre Gravel Race in Peterborough and the absolutely legendary Christie Cross. In other words, he’s fast and he’s well known. We offered Connor a jersey but he said he wanted to wear a button up shirt – a tribute to the business side of the G-Line, perhaps. (Connor also has a real corporate job). And while he got ready at the start line, we set up our Pedaal G-Line tent. By chance, our tent sat immediately next to the security station where riders after the race could pick up their freshly washed bike. This turned out to be the perfect spot.

Why? Because Connor scorched it. In a race of 2500 people, Connor did 70km in a blistering 2:24, placed in the top 10%, and passed – just wait for it – 580+ riders, which, if you run the numbers, is 25% of the overall participants. And, this with some pretty tired legs. That’s because Connor had placed top ten in a mountain bike race the day before. Next year, he claims, he’ll do even better. Turns out more people know about Brompton than we thought, because as Connor passed them, people asked, is that a Brompton? And, Connor said “yep,” threw a little sales pitch (he really was the sales pitch) and then flew forwards. You couldn’t ask for better advertising.

Wait… That Bike Passed Me?

We parked Connor’s mud-caked G-Line at our little Pedaal booth while riders lined up to reclaim their $20K carbon fibre gravel machines. One by one, they spotted the dirt-streaked orange folder and asked the same thing: “Wait… is that the bike that passed me?” You could see the incredulity, but also the respect. While they waited, quite a few jumped on for a test ride. And pretty soon, the conversation shifted – from race-day banter to summer plans: commuting downtown, riding the Irish coast, catching a VIA Rail train to Montreal and rolling part of La Route Verte, or just exploring Ontario’s endless trail networks. Racing is one thing, but having fun and going places is what the G-Line is all about.

Ride One Yourself!

So, that was Paris Ancaster. We came for the spectacle, and we certainly provided it too. But, beyond spectacle the G-line got respect. Big time respect. Sure, the G-Line isn’t a $20K carbon gravel bike, and sure, Connor probably would have placed top-ten on his regular gravel bike. But, it turns out that the G-Line can still race with the best of them. And, it looks good with a button up shirt. A bit of mad genius? Oh hell yes!

Ready to try a Brompton G-Line yourself? We have demo bikes ready so you can hit the trails. Book here for a test ride. Got any questions? We can do sales appointments either by the phone, online or in-store. Book here for a sales appointment!