At the end of the 1960s the 6-speed gear system was an unusual phenomenon, making the Moulton Speedsix twice as exotic. It was ahead of its time in its gear-shift technology, although in its design it was very contemporary. The Moultons from the first years of production were rather unexciting mass-market goods, but with the leap to high-end, small series production in the 1980s their street credentials went up.

The bicycle featured here is one of only 600 or so produced, and is number K65310046.

1965, GBR
Frame: Steel varnished
Bicycle gearing:
Brakes: Rim Side Pull / Rim Side Pull
Tyres: 17“ Wired Tyre / 17“ Wired Tyre
Weight: 29,32 lbs

Also in the collection, but not included in the book are a Mark 3, an AM-16, a New Series.

The book is published by Thames & Hudson and the ISBNs are 0500515581, 9780500515587.

The official launch of Cyclepedia: A Tour of Iconic Bicycle Designs is in London on Wednesday March 16th 2011 AT 18:30 at Look Mum No Hands! 49 Old Street, London ED1V9HX.

Jack Thurston, presenter of The Bike Show will be in conversation with Michael Embacher, looking and talking through their favourite bicycles in the collection. Given that Jack is a Moultoneer himself, you can expect the conversation will cover at least one of the Moultons.

From EMBACHER/COLLECTION – ALEX MOULTON Speed Six.

In this new book, Dr. Alex Moulton recounts, in his own words, his lifetime in engineering. The whole story – from building steam cars as a teenager, and working under Roy Fedden at Bristol Aeroplane, through the development of rubber suspension systems that led to collaboration with BMC, Dunlop and Sir Alec Issigonis in the creation of Hydrolastic and Hydragas, to the revolutionary Moulton bicycle that, together with the Mini, became an icon of the swinging sixties – is told in Dr. Moulton’s characteristic direct style.

The book promises

Hundreds of illustrations – sketches, photographs and calculations, many in colour – accompany the text as this fascinating memoir unfolds, giving the reader an insight into the mind of one of Britain’s most innovative engineers. For those who know little of Dr. Moulton’s work, this is a comprehensive account; and for those who have prior knowledge this book contains a wealth of previously unpublished details and illustrations.

The interviewer spent two half-days in conversation with Alex and described some of his daily routine.

He enters his adjoining workroom, where he pores over papers, manuals and books piled on long tables. For the next few hours, or “as long as I feel inspired and interested”, he works on the designs for his latest engineering creation

It explores in a fair amount of detail, Alex’s career, from the family business, through BMC and the Moulton Bicycle.

The Mini’s suspension was a crude compromise – which Lord demanded for reasons of economy and speed of production – compared with the advanced hydroelastic system that Moulton devised for Issigonis’s 1962 1100. That four-wheel independent system used fluid under pressure to connect the front suspension with the rear, providing a smoothness of ride which had never been known in a family car. The 1100 and its successor, the 1300, were Britain’s best-selling family cars throughout the 1960s, consistently beating their leading rival, the Ford Cortina.

Most interestingly, there were hints of a new bicycle under development

a machine “more radical than anything I have ever done”.

…

Moulton has never yet designed a bicycle made from carbon fibre – immensely strong but expensive, and impossible to repair when damaged – but he dropped a few hints in our interviews that carbon composite materials might be included in the new, radical bicycle he is presently designing. “Watch this space,” he twinkled.

The route is described as “Britain’s most beautiful canal scenery and architecture”.

A huge amount of detail on the route, including the photos here, is available on Paul’s Cycle Route Photo Tours website

If you’re making the annual Moulton Bicycle Club pilgrimage to Bradford-On-Avon in September, this route begs to be featured on your itinerary.

Other quirky rides include biking on Roman Roads, canals, aqueducts, bridges, and the London Underground. And lots, lots more.

50 Quirky Bike Rides can be bought from Eye Books’ Website

Via: The Bike Show

While he had suffered from Multiple Sclerosis for some time, his death was unexpected, and due to a sudden heart attack. He is survived by his wife Harriet, their daughter Tova and son George.

Sheldon Brown was a name familiar to anyone interested in bicycling, and in the technical aspects in particular. Most people became familiar with Sheldon in the internet age through his frequent posts on usenet, bikeforums.net and his comprehensive library of articles on his website, as well as through his writing in various bicycling magazines.

He was born in Massachussets in 1944, and from a very young age had an interest in bicycles. His father, an engineering graduate, died when Sheldon was aged 9, but had a profound influence on the young Sheldon. Sheldon, throughout his whole life, shared his father’s passion for cycling and photography. As a child, they shared time in the workshop in the cellar of their home.

George Brown’s cellar workshop

Sheldon described his father as being able to

ride a bicycle sitting on the handlebars, facing backwards.

Sheldon, far left, riding with his father, brother, sister and cousin

From a young age, Sheldon learned to repair old bikes, scavenged from the local dump, and with the help of a local bike shop owner.

I was (and am) a compulsive tinkerer, delighting in putting things together that were not made for each other.

Some notable achievements from his early life were turning a Sturmey Archer 4 speed into a twelve speed by adding a derailer and three sprocket cluster to it, and building a tandem by attaching two Raleigh 3-speeds together, first by lashing with rope, later by welding.
In the late 1960s he acquired, second-hand, a Moulton Deluxe.

Originally a 4-speed Sturmey-Archer, I converted the hub to 5-speeds, added a 4-speed cluster and double chainwheel. I took this on a solo guerilla camping tour from Boston to Montréal in 1969 or thereabouts.

Having a bike with full suspension in the late 1960s was quite a kick, and I am afraid I rather abused it. On on occasion I “lead assed” it while riding off a curb near Boston Common, and managed to bend the seat tube pretty badly. I “straightened” it out by bending it back, using a handy parking meter as a fulcrum.

The Moulton was quite a sight with the front and rear racks piled high with cheap camping gear, and when I got to the border entry point I had a bit of difficult with the Canadian customs agent, who was suspicious that I didn’t have a license plate on what he assumed was a motorcycle of some sort. I explained as well as I could that it was a bicycle (his English wasn’t much good, and I didn’t speak French at that time.) He thought the water bottles were the gas tank, and was reluctant to believe that I had pedaled all the way from Boston…but I managed to convince him in the end.

He also owned a Moulton Mark 3, which he described thus

24 speeds: 72/47 chainwheels, Sturmey-Archer AW rear hub, 4 sprockets. I had the 72 tooth chainring made specially for the Moulton Deluxe that I used to own.

The Mk III was the only Moulton model built by Raleigh. It is considerably sturdier than the other “F frame” Moultons, but always felt heavier and slower to me. Part of this was likely the rear suspension, which uses a rubber ball as the shock absorber, and it’s a bit too soft and too highly damped. I later learned a pretty good trick for improving this…wrap a worm-gear hose clamp around the ball, this provides an adjustment for the suspension.

This was the first brand new bike I ever owned, but I didn’t keep it stock very long. The original rear hub had a pitiful small-diameter drum brake. I replaced this, and installed a Mafac centerpull on the rear triangle. There was no appropriate bridge for to mount a caliper to, so I brazed the studs to the stays. This made a Big improvement to the braking.

Sheldon riding the Mk III in 1971

In 1974, he spent some time apprenticed to a frame builder in Chicago, which he found a valuable experience, but

learned that the working conditions are not the way I want to spend my working life

He did manage to build a criterium frame during those few weeks.

He spent much time travelling especially in Europe, as his photographs attest. He spent a year living in France in the 1980s.

The picture above was taken in Bath in 1975, which he described as

the most beautiful city I’ve ever seen, with the possible exception of Salzburg.

It seems appropriate that Sheldon met his wife Harriet on a bike ride, she a veteran of the 1975 Paris-Brest-Paris.

It was in the internet age that Sheldon became a household name, at least in cycling households. He was a prolific poster on usenet groups, and bicycle forums. He also built a massive library of articles on his website, such that one could rarely perform an internet search on a technical or historical aspect of cycling, that wouldn’t yield his website high in the results.

He was the technical guru at Harris Cyclery, and he was available to answer technical queries on the phone at Harris and by email. He received over 500 emails every day, and would always answer a question no matter how busy he was.

He rode his bikes regularly until 2006 when his illness no longer made it possible. He then acquired a Greenspeed recumbent tricycle, which he enjoyed riding despite his illness, although

getting on and off and getting clipped in to the pedals is a bit of a challenge

He kept a journal of his life for many years, and it shows what a prolific reader of books, watcher of movies and rider of bicycles he was. When his health problems became a major part of his life, he created a second journal dedicated to his health, so that the health issues didn’t dominate the main journal.

He had a remarkably positive attitude, as his page on the positive aspects of MS shows. He lists tricycles, the kindness of strangers and disabled parking among the reasons why in his opinion

if you must acquire a nasty, rare, incurable disease, MS is one of the best things going!

He was active up until the day he died, online, posting on his journal (he’d just decided to vote for Barack Obama), and on bikeforums.

Sheldon Brown will be sadly missed by all who encountered the man, in person or online. The world is a better place for Sheldon having lived in it.

I have always loved riding bicycles,
especially for the feeling of freedom and self-sufficiency that they give

All pictures and quotations are copyright Sheldon Brown

The book outlines in great detail, how the Moulton concept evolved from the original F-frame into the spaceframe, and contains lots of detail on the design process, and the various prototypes developed along the way. The numerous reproductions of sketches used by Alex Moulton as he refined the concept are fascinating.

Also covered are details of the launch of the AM in 1983, reaction in the media, and detailed specifications of the various models.

The Spaceframe Moultons covers the models produced in the period from 1983 to 1994, and covers the AM, ATB and APB/Pashley ranges, including the AM models produced in stainless steel. There are also chapters on the racing and touring achievements of AM bicycles.

Unfortunately, this book is now out of print, and it’s becoming quite difficult to obtain – at least at a reasonable price.

A copy can be bought through Amazon.co.uk, for example, at a cost of £125.92. Copies do appear from time to time through sources like Amazon.co.uk and AbeBooks.co.uk. I bought my copy from Don Swift Books, via AbeBooks for £20.

The best bet may be to order a copy through your local bookshop, who might be able to get a copy through Gardners or another wholesaler.

Happy Hunting!

Photo from Julian Kowalewski’s collection on Flickr

Ivan Illich wrote in Toward a History of Needs:

A century ago, the ball-bearing was invented. It reduced the coefficient of friction by a factor of a thousand. By applying a well-calibrated ball-bearing between two Neolithic millstones, a man could now grind in a day what took his ancestors a week. The ball-bearing also made possible the bicycle, allowing the wheel — probably the last of the great Neolithic inventions — finally to become useful for self-powered mobility.

But friction is also the primary force which makes cycling possible. Without it, acceleration would be impossible. If somehow, motion was achieved, braking would be impossible, turning the wheel would have no effect and leaning to turn would bring us crashing down. To visualise the role of friction in bicycling, imagine trying to cycle on a lake of polished ice.

Matt Seaton in yesterday’s Guardian talks about another type of friction – that between a cyclist and his significant other.

A common one is: “What was in that large box I had to sign for this morning?” Which is a mini-version of the dialogue that runs: “And why do you need a new bike?” This is actually a conversation that can be circumvented, but only at risk of the uncomfortable interrogation that begins: “So, how long have you had this new bike, and when were you proposing to tell me about it?” This naturally segues into a “And how are you paying for this?” inquisition.

My wife frequently declares “you can only cycle on one bike at a time”.

One Moultoneer helpfully suggested the best tactic for decieving one’s significant other is to purchase bikes that are the same colour as an existing bike. Then, when quizzed, you can declare “but that’s the same red bike I have had for ages”.

An eBay seller seems to have made some compromises in this department. The listing contains the following nugget:

It is only being sold now because my wife has stamped her little foot, and declared that 17 Moultons is 16 too many.

Though, perhaps the price being requested indicates that he’s not really trying to sell at all!

As he strode through the town in Norfolk Jacket, tall, long black beard blowing in the win, lost in thought and heeding no one, he carried with him the aroma of strong, sweet coffee. Mikael Pedersen was different. Born near Roskilde, in Denmark, in 1855 he quickly showed his powers of invention. One idea he patented was a milk separator which revolutionized dairy practice. It was taken up by the engineering firm of R. A. Lister and Co. in Dursley, Gloucestershire, into which town Mikael settled in1889. With him came his genius for inventing and for providing unique solutions to engineering problems. He is known now just for his bicycle of unusual design – the Dursley Pedersen – but in his time he was highly regarded in engineering circles and played significant roles in The First World War. At the end of that war he and his family vanished and the rest of his life was for long a mystery. What happened to him was first revealed in the writer’s “The Ingenious Mr Pedersen”, published in 1978. In this present book David Evans tells Mikael’s unusual story again with very much more information about this highly talented man.

The original Pedersen cycle was patented in 1893 and pioneered the use of small diameter tubing for bicycle construction, which was taken in a different direction 90 years later by Alex Moulton.

After a long period of absence, the Pedersen was then re-interpreted in 1978 by Jesper Sølling, and today there are over 6000 modern Pedersens around the world.

Picture from http://www.pedersen.info/

Curiously enough, around the same time – perhaps a year earlier, Alex Moulton was looking for a new frame structure that would be lighter than his Y-frame.

Alex Moulton wrote the foreward to the original book, and is rumoured to actually own a Pedersen himself, and probably studied it’s construction while he was developing the first X-frames in the late 1970s.

The new book is published on 1st October by Tempus Publishing Ltd. ISBN: 0752445057.

It is based on an interview by John Pinkerton in 1998 at The Hall in Bradford on Avon. Some people might remember the VHS video of the same name based on the same interview.

In it Alex Moulton talks about his life growing up in Bradford on Avon, the family business and how he developed a love for cycling and engineering. It contains fascinating insights into the development of the original Moulton bicycle, the involvement with Raleigh, the AM era, as well as his automotive career and life outside engineering.

The list price is €14.99, and the ISBN is 978-3-8258-0755-9. A big box was delivered to the Moulton Bicycle Club at the weekend, and many of these were sold for £5. If you contact Moulton Preservation you may be able to get a copy.
It’s published by LIT Verlag in Berlin, Germany, and distributed in the UK by Global Book Marketing, 99B Wallis Rd, London, E9 5LN. It’s not yet listed in their catalogue at http://www.centralbooks.co.uk/.

Distribution in the US is by Transaction Publishers, orders@transactionpub.com.

Firstly, the sheer scale of the place is massive. Secondly, how many 17th century mansions will one get to camp outside? Fewer still, where the owner will encourage the campers to move further into the garden!

Photo from BOA 2005, by David Sanders

The weather was fantastic – beautiful sunshine for most of Saturday. And it was great to meet lots of people, all of whom shared a passion for Moultons.

Saturday morning was the bring and buy sale. Lots of bargains to be had, and a few bikes changing hands.

The highlight of the weekend was the Saturday afternoon assembly. The organisers called owners of all the models from the very beginning to line up and show off their bikes. Each model was called individually, and most had 3 or 4 examples for show.

Photo from Flickr user Group51uk

The experts, including Alex Moulton himself scrutinised the bikes in great detail and awarded a certificate for the best example of each model. The parade was cut short due to lack of time, so they never got beyond the AM-GT.

New product announcements followed. Highlights include:
- the new Esprit, the new version of the AM.
- framesets available for the Esprit and the Bridgestone
- frameskins and HED wheels.
- Pashley were showing off a few custom colours and finishes
- The superb new large bag for the TSR.
- Two new Moulton books

There was also a few words from a Moultoneer who had just completed Paris Brest Paris on a Pashley Moulton TSR 30.

I will write in much more detail over the next day or two, and post a few pictures.

Until then, there are lots of pictures on the Moulton Bicycle Pool on Flickr