Brompton Right Shifter Fix (Without Butchering the Housing)

I recently got my brand new Brompton bike, and right out of the box, I ran into an issue with the right shifter. Shifting from gear 1 to 2 required pushing the lever way past the limiter just to get it to engage. As someone new to Brompton bikes, I assumed maybe I was doing something wrong—so I took it out for a test ride to confirm.

Nope. Still janky.

I brought the bike to a local shop, where the so-called “expert” told me it was a common problem caused by the local climate (seriously?). Because they had a queue, he said it would take a few days to fix. He also pulled up a YouTube video and hinted that I might want to try fixing it myself: Shifter Fix Video.

I watched it, but honestly, it didn’t make much sense at first—even though the comments claimed it worked. After a closer look, I realized the method involved sanding down the shifter housing and ridge to make the hole bigger, giving the lever more play so it could engage 2nd gear earlier.

That didn’t sit well with me.

Instead, I came up with a cleaner fix: I used a Dremel with a sanding disc attachment to carefully shave off a small amount of material (about 0.75 mm) from the pulley plate’s triangular section. That way, the 2nd gear could engage properly without pushing the lever past the limiter.

I took it slow—removing a tiny bit at a time and reassembling between each test. It took two rounds, but now the shifting is super smooth.

I’ll add pictures soon to make this clearer for anyone facing the same issue. Hope this helps someone avoid sanding down perfectly good housing parts!