ONE OFF Moulton Special

Only one Moulton has even been produced in Titanium, and it is featured in a new book called Cyclepedia: A Tour of Iconic Bicycle Designs by Michael Embacher.

The story of this unique Moulton is told as follows:

A unique piece made of titanium

Mike Augspurger’s company ‘One Off’ in Florence, Massachusetts, specializes in producing unique, made to measure pieces. This includes not only bicycles, for example, but also wheelchairs. The common denominator in these products is the material; One Off favours titanium, thought to be the most promising for future high end bicycles. In 1991 Mike Augspurger made the acquaintance of cyclist Alex Moulton. Their friendship was deepened through cycling trips, and the next One Off idea developed.

Augspurger wanted to produce a Moulton AM from titanium with a frame that could not be separated, and his friend supported the project and supplied special Moulton parts. Only a couple of months later the new frame stood on the weighing scales. It proved to be 500 grams lighter than a Moulton AM Speed stainless steel frame but likewise could not be separated.

Then the project came to a halt. It was only the second owner of One Off who completed the frame and fork to make the bicycle rideable. The Zzipper fairing provides better aerodynamics and the cycle’s frame is just as torsionally rigid as its stainless steel cousins. They produced only one piece, and it is the bicycle featured here. Alex Moulton was rather cautious of allowing others to manufacture frames using his design. He subsequently agreed to no more experiments of this kind.

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

More photos are available on Michael Embacher's site

Moultoneer 91

The Moultoneer 91 Cover
The Winter 2011 edition of The Moultoneer has gone to the printers, and will be sent by post later this week. There's still time to join the club or renew your membership in time to get your copy. Some of the features in this issue include:

  • Moultons in Taiwan, KeReT Moulton project
  • Making Moultons at Kirkby in the sixties, an insiders view
  • Improving hub gears on Moultons
  • Moulton Automatic Restoration
  • Moulton rear suspension units - manufacture in the sixties
  • Touring in the US on an AM7
  • Japanese Hillside Terrace exhibition run down
  • New Japanese Moulton book
  • Observations by AM
  • Another Moulton weekend... April 2011
  • One mans meat.. Review of the new breed of bicycle in the early 60s
  • Colour sections and more pages than normal!

Sturmey Archer S2C Review

The Sturmey Archer 2 speed, coaster brake hub, as fitted to the Moulton TSR 2, is reviewed in the current issue of Velovision (Issue 40).

The reviewer tested the old F&S Duomatic hub alongside the new Sturmey S2C for a better comparison between the two hubs. Some of the main findings were:

  • The S2C is about 50% heavier than the Duomatic
  • gear ratios are identical
  • the S2C requires less of a back-pedaling action in order to change gears
  • the brake on the S2C is much stronger

The review is very positive, and the main benefits cited are that you get the simplicity of a fixed gear with a "bailout" gear for hills and headwinds, as well as the lack of cables going to the rear, which is particularly useful for separable Moultons.

Issue 40 also includes an article by Moultoneers Keith Hales, where he describes life with a Double Pylon, and includes his visit to the 2009 Moulton Summit in Japan.

The Moulton Formulae and Methods

The Moulton Formulae and Methods is now available for purchase online from Alex Moulton Books.


Practising engineers – especially those concerned with innovation – continuously need quantitative information, especially orders of magnitude, directions and sense of values. In this loose-leaf book of convenient size (which acts as a companion to a scientific calculator) the editors have produced an open-ended collection of directly usable ‘leaves’. Each leaf describes one topic, and includes definitions, units (both SI and Imperial), methods and formulae to determine values. Thus each leaf is an aide-mémoire and as such contains the minimum text on explanation and derivation; instead it relies on graphical and diagrammatic presentation. These are fundamentally sound and not ‘rule of thumb’ calculations. The equations presented are suitable for incorporation into spreadsheet calculation/computing. Their access may well be quicker than trying any search on the Internet.

The format of each leaf is essentially constant, with one topic as indicated by the Title at the top of the leaf, and all symbols used are tabulated in both SI and Imperial units. The key equations are boxed and coloured yellow. The MOULTON FORMULAE and METHODS presents essential information for calculation within topics of mechanical interest. The leaves are titled under the following headings:

  • Conversion charts
  • Statics
  • Structures
  • Mechanics
  • Dynamics
  • Vibrations
  • Thermodynamics
  • Fluid dynamics
  • Mathematics

via Alex Moulton | Buy Book | Engineering Formula | Formulae | Mini.