The Moulton Bicycle Company is presenting their new eleven speed sprocket set to the public for the first time at Cycle 2010.

Designed to be fitted to the iconic, small-wheeled, Moulton bicycle, this new sprocket set is notable for its lightweight construction and a smallest sprocket with 10 teeth.

Tipping the scales at under 110g, this new sprocket set is CNC machined in three parts:

• The two smallest sprockets are hardened steel
• The next five sprockets are titanium
• The final four (largest) sprockets are ceramic-coated aluminium.

This Campagnolo-compatible sprocket set is available in a 10-28 ratio, with single-tooth jumps between the smaller sprockets: 10-11-12-13-14-15-16-18-21-24-28. Whilst giving high gearing for small wheels, this avoids the inefficiency inherent with 9-tooth sprockets, and large gear jumps that have been an unlikeable feature of some previous sprocket sets.

The new Moulton sprocket set is available only from The Moulton Bicycle Company and its distributors and dealers worldwide.

Moulton bicycles are exhibiting their range of British-built, small-wheeled, full suspension bicycles on stand D26 at the London Cycle Show, Earl’s Court, on the 7th-10th October 2010 (7th – trade only).

Notes
Dr Alex Moulton patented the small-sprocket freewheel back in 1970 after devising new tooth profiles to ensure correct chain engagement (wrap), shifting and durability with sprockets as small as nine teeth. Many Moulton bicycles produced since then have featured sprockets with low tooth counts.

The original press release can be seen in this photo from Bike Hugger on Flickr

Shimano announces a 11 gear hub. The range will be 409% (Alfine 8 gear 307%). The hub runs in a oil bath like the Rohloff Speddhub. This should result a higher efficiency and longer lifetime. The price will be 300,- Euro release data is September 2010.

Details can be found here….

via 11 Speed Alfine hub from SHIMANO « Hubstripping.com.

Sturmey Archer had their own stand but the most interesting new hub they’ve produced wasn’t on it – it was nestling quietly on the Moulton stand, who were displaying the only working prototype. The S2C is a re-imagining of the Fichtel & Sachs Torpedo Duomatic hub that Moulton have been busy reviving since they found a bunch of old stock and used them to make a 50th anniversay four speed machine with the Duomatic at one end and a Schlumpf speed drive at the other: four gears and no shifters; no cables either meant that the bike separated easily into two.

The hub is a kickshift with two speeds, simply kick back to switch between ratios. Lean further back on the pedals and you’ll engage the coaster brake. It’s an elegant solution that requires no cabling to the rear of the bike, so it’ll fit in very well with the fixed aesthetic, and it gives you an extra ratio for accelerating and climbing the hills. Sturmey Archer are confident that they’ll shift a ton of the S2C hubs and we’d tend to agree, it’s going to be less than £100 and it’s almost the perfect hub for those stripped back urban machines. Especially if you live somewhere hilly, like we do. Fitchel and Sachs are now SRAM, and they’ve definitely missed a trend here by not digging out the blueprints and reviving the duomatic themselves.

via Cycle Show 2009 – Sturmey Archer’s new S3X and S2C hubs | road.cc | The website for pedal powered people: Road cycling, commuting, leisure cycling and racing.

The S2C is Sturmey’s modern version of the Fichtel & Sachs Torpedo Duomatic, a two-speed hub with kick-back gear change and coaster brake that dates from the 1960s. These hubs have something of a cult following and are hard, though not impossible, to come by. One of my bikes has one and it’s fantastic to ride. A little back-pedal changes the gear (from high to low, or low to high) and a big back-pedal engages the powerful brake. Unlike rim brakes, a hub brake works as well in the wet as in the dry.

Sturmey have built a new version and I believe it’s going to be a hit. Two speeds allows good acceleration from a standing start and a higher cruising gear than on a single speed bike. The kick-back gear change and coaster brake mean that there are no cable runs to the rear wheel. The result is a faster ride than a fixed wheel bike, with better braking performance, but all the simplicity of the fixed aesthetic. Sturmey will bring the hub into production early next year and the retail price is expected to be in the region of £60-£80. Ninon of Bicycle Workshop, who knows a thing or two about hub gears, thinks they’re great. Dan Farrell of Moulton & Pashley (who can claim some of the credit for getting Sturmey to develop the new hub) shares her excitement. Informed sources tell me Sturmey are anticipating huge sales of this hub: around a quarter of a million a year. And no wonder.

A TSR 2, with a new belt drive, Sturmey Archer S2C hub, which is a prototype 2 speed, kickback hub, with coaster brake.

Thanks to The Bike Show for the pics.

Moulton Bicycle Company can be contacted at office@moultonbicycles.co.uk or +44 1225 865895. Tell them Moulton Buzz sent you!

While at the Show we had an interesting meeting with Alex Moulton who was there promoting his recently introduced AM series of suspended small wheel bikes. It was an interesting meeting for Mike and I as we had been selling a lot of the AMs and had, up to that point, sold more than any other dealer in the World except one in Germany. We were very enthusiastic about the bikes but had one major criticism, that being that the range of gears available with its single chainring set-up wasn’t suitable for loaded touring, particularly in mountains. We had modified a number of them with brazed-on front derailleurs and double chainwheels and also painted a few in brighter, more appealing colours than the standard grey. In fact Ian Austen was riding a bright yellow AM modified with a wide range of gears. Dr Moulton thought we were ruining his bike design and we got into quite a heated argument. He contended that his standard seven gears were ample for any type of riding. I often wonder if he would have changed his mind if he had seen the terrain we were to ride over in the following few days.

via Bicycle Specialties: A memorable ride in the Alps Part one.

Lots of goodies including the S3X fixed gear, 3-speed, the new wide-ratio 8 speed hub and a variety of new shifter. You have, of course, seen all of these on Moultonbuzz previously!

Thank you everyone for your comments. The response to the new S3X has been overwhelming and we are really looking forward to finishing up and getting this hub into your hands.
The name will not be changing. I appreciate everyone’s thoughts on naming it after Sheldon, it just is not possible.
Some of the most asked questions should be answered with the below pictures. Hub will be 120mm OLD. Two shifters, top mount thumb and bar end. Cog interface is a standard Shimano spline.

The post shows details of a bar-mounted thumb shifter…

… and a bar-end shifter…

The gearing combines a Schlumpf Speed Drive and Fichtel & Sachs Duomatic. This means that gear-shifting and rear braking is done without cables, allowing the bike to be separated, without the need for cable splitters.

Gear changes for both Speed-drive and Duomatic are activated by the feet. Gear change in the Duomatic is effected by pedalling backwards about 1/4 turn. Changing gears on the speed-drive is done by tapping a button on the pedal crank with the heel.

The Fichtel & Sachs Duomatic contains a coaster brake, activated by back-pedalling.

The 4-speed TSR was visually stunning. The bright white paintjob contrasted beautifully with the new Moulton Bicycle Company headbadge, and a Union Jack on the seat tube. It was very similar to Team GB’s Olympic colours.

The new headbadge, which will adorn all Moultons in future, depicts a cyclist on a Moulton (probably a TSR) infront of The Hall. Colours are traditional AM Red, with the new blue, on a shiny silver background. A Union Jack silhouette appears underneath, along with the words “Made in England”.

The prototype also sported Moustache-style handlebars, and a reverse-action brake lever to operate the front brake.

The Sachs Duomatic has been out of production for many years, but a large number of “New Old Stock” seems to be available from various sources.