The group picoutside the Moulton Bicycle Company factory gates.
Saturday dawned a bright and sunny day and as a result the April meeting of the Moulton Bicycle Club was blessed with great weather. As usual the April meeting was a casual meeting, focussed on people meeting and catching up. We are grateful to the Moulton Bicycle Company who facilitated this by providing refreshments including Jubilee Tea, F Frame Coffee and XTB Soup. I am happy to report that there were no bicycle parts in any of those.
The Company also put on an interesting wheel building demonstration in the factory. Darren was kind enough to share with us his expertise and some of his top tips on building wheels. After lunch we headed off on rides in two different directions. A flattish rise along the canal and a slightly longer (23 mile) to Lacock. Before setting off we marked Alex Moulton’s 104th birthday earlier this month and remembered those who were not there this year by ringing our bicycle bells for 30 seconds.
Overall we had a wonderful day. The sun stayed out and a good time was had by all. Thanks must go to Mark Taylor on the committee for arranging the event and to the Moulton Bicycle Company for their great efforts to provide interest to the day.
Mark Brett
More pictures, (courtesy of Clive Tasker who owns their copyright), can be seen on Flickr:
Venue: The Moulton Bicycle Company, Holt Road, Bradford on Avon, BA15 1AH
Saturday 09:30 Gates open.
10:00 - 11:30 The Bring & Buy sale in The Stables courtyard (at the bottom of the hill, by the old factory). Everyone welcome to bring their Moulton bikes and parts to sell. It’s free to sell. It may prove useful to bring your own table.
The Moulton company’s table, run by Dan, will be very limited as we have purchased almost all of their old stock of parts.
Moulton Preservation will be there, run by Zoe, for all those special F-frame components for your refurbishment.
Teas, coffees & vegetable soup with a roll are being sold by the Moulton Bicycle Company in the new factory canteen.
11:00 - 12:00 Darren (Moulton’s bike assembly team leader), will deliver a wheel-building demonstration, in three groups of 20 minutes duration, so we can all get to see and ask questions.
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch break, whether you head into town, bring your own packed lunch or fill up on the factory's soup & a roll.
13:00 Rides to Lacock (21m) & Angelfish cafe (10m) set off from the top car park.
We can park our vehicles within the factory grounds while we head off on the afternoon rides.
Before 16:30, Please tidy up to leave the site as we found it - TIDY.
Things may change due to weather conditions & peoples availability
NO CAMPING OR OVERNIGHT STAYS IN THE HALL GROUNDS
There will be some of the heritage collection of bikes (that haven’t been on display recently) within the canteen area. More of the museum bikes/pieces are arriving at the factory but are not yet ready to be put on display, you may catch a glimpse of something but please hold your enthusiasm until our August event when it may be ready for viewing.
Kindly respect the cordoned off areas in the factory, this is out of bounds to us.
NO PHOTOGRAPY within the building.
On the plus side at the moment it’s not expected to rain or be particularly windy over the weekend. Looking forward to seeing you next weekend after a safe trip to Bradford on Avon.
Everyone over 16 years old, it’s £5.00 on the gate. Kindly bring the exact money to cover your entrance fee(s), to speed things up. You must be a current member or be part of their immediate family, those 16 & under come in free.
Non-members are welcome however they must join the club, £22.50 annual membership (cash or cheque at the gate).
Graham Attwell, who died recently, was a Club Member for over 30 years.
The following is a tribute from Tim Evans:
Many Moultoneers will have bought wheels built by Graham Attwell. Their high quality is legendary. He was a very clever man who loved solving problems. Graham shared his knowledge through masterclasses at several BOA weekends and his contributions to the Yahoo discussion group were always worth reading and keeping.
I bought my first wheels from Graham at BOA 2002, they were 16” alloy rims with a Dynohub in the front and in the rear, a 4-speed Sturmey Archer that he’d converted to 2-trigger 5-speed. It was for a 1963 deluxe I was doing up for my daughter.
The next wheels were for a Speedsix that its previous owner had relegated to 16” steel rims when its 17” Milremo alloy originals split between the spoke holes. On that occasion I had the privilege of being admitted to Graham’s garage. It was stuffed full of bicycles and bicycle-related things with a narrow passage just wide enough to walk through. Also for the Speedsix he had some pretty authentic looking alloy-look mudguards that I got.
Graham helped find the APB which is the basis of our Moulton tandem. Over the years I bought several sets of wheels from Graham, often 2-trigger 5-speeds, which I really like.
He didn’t charge for the time he put into building wheels and sold them simply for the cost of the components. If he found a new rim was a bit oversize he would separate it at the pins and file it down so that tyres fitted easily. That’s attention to detail.
Often we met at Ripley cycle jumbles where he was looking for suitable hubs. One of his sayings was “this spins well and will give good service though it might not carry you all the way round the world”.
He enjoyed building wheels and hub gears, so inevitably he had to sell them so he could build more but he saw no reason to profit from his enjoyment. Once somebody had the temerity to try to beat him down on price to which Graham’s response was simply to increase price to him!
Westminster City Council in London kept Graham after retirement as a consultant for siting bus stops, which is a very tricky multidimensional problem, as is wheel building and hub gear conversions. Bendy-buses were a particular problem (I found them scary when cycling) but for Graham getting them round the streets of Westminster, on to and off bus stops and not offending residents was an interesting challenge to exercise the “little grey cells”.
Graham was a good friend in whose company I enjoyed several dinners at BOA. I and many Moultoneers will miss his knowledge, wisdom and dry humour but his wheels will roll on, which reminds me that I have a couple of worn out 369 rims to replace.
The Hall/ Moulton Bicycle Company, Holt Road, Bradford on Avon, BA15 1AH
The Hall
The Courtyard where the Saturday afternoon Talk will be held
All adults through the gate need to pay either £10 for the Saturday meet or £25 for weekend camping. For those aged 17 and under it's all free (when accompanied by an adult Club member). Despite our increasing costs, we have held the event cost to you at the same level for the past two years!
As ever it’s members & immediate family only, if you are not a member then you can join the club for £22.50 (UK membership) on line beforehand or at the gate to maintain our status with HMRC. Toilets & showers are available to all.
Shower BlockMale and Female Toilet block
Provisional schedule for the weekend
Friday– from 4pm campers/motorhomes can arrive to set up their units. Ample parking on site but maybe not in your first choice of location. We then usually head down to the Swan Hotel in the centre of Bradford on Avon to meet up and have something to eat. As an alternative there is the The Dandy Lion across the road from the Swan and numerous other pubs and restaurants in Bradford on Avon for good food & drink.
The Bridge across the Avon in the Town Centre
Saturday
8am gates open, campers awake……..
9amto11am Table Top Sale of all things Moulton, everything from a rideable bike to a set of frame transfers, those special replacement parts for F frame refurbishments from Moulton Preservation, interesting components & spares from the Moulton factory. NO fees for selling your stuff whether thats a van full of Moultons or a few tyres, its all free.
Table Top Sale of all things Moulton
11am – 12 noon Open forum, for you to share your thoughts with the committee and the committee to ask for your help, guidance & ideas.
1pm – 3pm Courtyard talk, this year from F-frame to Space-frame as it’s the 40th anniversary of the launch of the Space-frame bicycle. Presented by Dan Farrell and Tony Hadland with numerous bicycle examples. The raffle draw.
Court Yard Talk
3pm – 5pm A short ride (1.2 miles each way) to the Kettlesmith Brewing Company to sample some of their fine ales.
7pm – 11pm The club meal at St Margarets Hall. Main’s (see booking form) served with mixed rice, new potatoes, mixed salad, coleslaw. Desserts (see booking form) served with pouring cream. Tea or coffee after the meal & a bar is available.
OR
The BBQ will be a bring your own food & drink, there will be separate “meat” and “vegetarian” BBQ grills. (Provided by the Moulton Bicycle Company)
OR
If you want to go into BoA for a meal I suggest you plan ahead.
Sunday– All rides set off from the upper car park by the entrance gate.
There will be 3 rides:
Long ride about 35 miles, Middle ride around 25 miles, Short 10mile family ride.
Usually the first ride leaves at about 9am and the last ride sets off at about 10am, but the actual departure times will be displayed during the event & on Facebook.
Every thing may change due to the weather or events outside our control.
Clear up all debris, your tents packed away etc. and we all leave before 5pm on Sunday.
As per previous years, we will have security on the gate fron Friday through to Sunday morning.
Please keep checking our web page and Facebook for the latest event news and updates.
I hope you can join us at BoA, it will be good to see you in September, catch up with old friends, make new friends AND ride in a group of Moultons.
