The Brompton: The Amazing British Disappearing Bike

You ride it to the station, then it disappears into a shape roughly the size of a briefcase -- and quickly.

As Brompton Bikes MD Will Butler Adams says: "No good having a folding bike if it takes ten minutes to fold -- you've already missed the train!"

The Brompton is famous for its design, that some have copied (quite illegally) but none, so the company claims, have bettered.

It's that rare thing, a UK manufacturing success story. The company has continued to grow throughout the recession (although the bike has continued to shrink, and then grow again).

The new TV Choice release: Inside A Factory 7: Brompton Bicycle looks at all aspects of the product: the design, the manufacture, the marketing.