Brompton Roller Wheel Replacement

I've been meaning for quite some time to get this done, but somehow other things got in the way. The problem: I didn't like either the stock roller wheels or the EZ wheels for my Brompton. The roller wheels hardly work at all, and the EZ wheels are much better--but I'm after the BEST!. So, my experiment begins . .

Removal of the stock roller wheels was a bit more challenging than expected, with the apparent use generous amounts of high-strength thread lock during installation. Here are the parts of the stock setup:

Pretty simple

Tons of thread lock

The wheels I went with for replacements are indoor hockey wheels, 72mm in diameter, with bearings included.

Should roll nicer

Not much difference in thickness

The inside diameter (I.D.) of the bearing is 5/16", so I was on the hunt for a shouldered cap screw. The stock cap screw is too short, and is a M6x1.0 thread, so there is excessive play between it and the I.D. of the bearing. My hardware store only had SAE-threaded shouldered bolts, so I went with a sleeve over a standard M6x1.0 bolt, 1.25 in in length (I think?). Like so:

I had to go with a brass sleeve, as the aluminum, steel, and nylon were too thick to both fit the I.D. of the bearing and the M6 cap screw.

I'm trying the setup for a while with the inside bearing removed, so the wheel bearing surface is shouldered against the frame, and if that doesn't work so well, I'll install the inside bearing and give that a shot. I used the stock sleeve as a spacer (see below). The idea here is that with the inside bearing removed, the wheel sits closer inward, away from heel strike.

I'll remove the silly graphics

Installed

Fun project! I took it on a test run and it does roll noticeably better.