Dynavector is reporting that the iconic New Series Speed, more commonly known as the Single Pylon is being discontinued. It is still being shown on the Alex Moulton Bicycles website, though this is rarely kept up to date.
Tag: speed
Vic (on a Moulton) knocks 18 min. off
2007 is a year for anniversaries. The Y-frame, Tom Simpson's death and the Raleigh takeover of Moulton have been covered here previously.
In September 1967, Vic Nicholson broke the Cardiff-London record on a Moulton.
In 1962, John Woodburn had broken the record on a specially built Moulton Speed. After the opening of the Severn Bridge, Brian Catt took the record over the new shorter route.
However, Moulton would soon retake the record.
This post on the Phil Bikes blog contains a copy of the report in the September 1967 edition of Cycling.
Making good use of Sunday's strong wind Vic Nicholson regained for Moulton Bicycles the London to Cardiff record.
His time for the 151 miles was 6-14-54 seconds, beating Brian Catt's three-months-old record by nearly 18 minutes.
Both Nicholson and Catt used the newly-opened Severn Bridge which chopped 10 miles off the route used by previous record breakers including John Woodburn's December 1962 epic on a Moulton.
...
With 20 miles to go timekeeper Eric Wilkinson drove past Vic for the finish and traffic congestion was such that he got to Marble Arch with only two minutes to spare before Vic Nicholson weaved his way through to finish there.
Not so fortunate was organizer David Duffield, who lost sight of his man in a traffic-jam with one mile to go.
Visit the original post to read a full size scan of the report in Cycling, September 1967.
New Rohloff Speedhub in 2008
Via Hubstripping, The German magazine Aktiv Radfahren is reporting on the new Rohloff prototype.
The new version of the widely acclaimed 14 speed internally geared hub will have a number of changes over the current version:
- It still has 14 gears with even steps all the way, but the overall ratio increases from 526% to 580%
- The hub shell will be about 20% smaller. Useful for building into small wheels
- The weight will be about 1400g, compared with 1700g of the current version
- It will not be suitable for use in tandems or other "hard core" uses.
- A new shifter will be available, though it's not clear whether this will be an STI/Ergo style shifter for use with drop bars.
The first prototype will be shown at Eurobike 2008.
BoA 2007: Alex Moulton's greatest hits
Alex Moulton and the MBC experts called for examples of each model from the first Standard to the present day from which they judged the best example of each - usually the most original and well maintained. They scrutinised each model in such detail, that they ran out of time at the AM-GT.
Below are a few shots that took my fancy.
The need for speed...
Paul Grogan's Speedsix skips into view...
These gorgeous Speedsixes lost out because their mudguards weren't original...
This one had the original alloy guards...
A lovely blue Moulton S Safari...
And an S Stowaway...
But winner of the S-class was this immaculate chrome S Safari, owned by Ken Butterfield
Lovely rear end...
The crowed oohed and ahhed at the sight of shiny chrome...
Mike Woolf's completely original Moulton S Deluxe was not eligible, due to being a Moulton Preservation bike...
Alex Moulton told some of the history of the S-Works, and the work of Jack Lauterwasser...
Can't read the decals from here, but I think this was a Series 2 Deluxe...
Mike Woolf described the Raleigh era of this Mark 3 as a "mixed blessing...
On to the Alex Moulton era and the AM 7...
Alex Moulton described how the F-frame evolved into the Y-frame prototype, which eventually led to the X-frame - the basic shape of the spaceframe AM.
He recounted feeling distraught when some French club racers told him the Y-frame was wonderful, but too heavy. This led him to develop a frame structure that was entirely different to anything that went before.
Here is a lovely AM2...
Checking a serial number on an AM Speed...
Finally, the AM-GT... the first stainless steel model. Alex Moulton talked about how wonderful a material stainless steel was, and alluded to the skill of the silver brazers at Bradford on Avon. He told the owner of this AM-GT that stainless steel lasts forever, and he would pass the bike on to his great grandchildren.
BOA 2007: Esprit details and demo
The new Esprit was finally unveiled to the MBC, and there were no major surprises.
Photo: Flickr user Group51uk
Most of it was reported previously here on Moultonbuzz, so much of the following is a recap:
- It is lighter than previous AM models, due to the lighter Kasei tubing. It has the narrowest tubing of any non-stainless steel AM.
- It is stiffer than older AM models due to a slightly wider construction.
- Hairpin construction (as on the ATB and APB), where the narrow tubes wrap around the headtube and seattube.
- The Esprit will be available in a variety of headtube lengths and seat tube lengths, and a choice of either standard (27.2mm) seat post diameter, or the larger diameter Moulton 31.4mm seat post.
- Choice of headsets - threaded for quill stems, threadless / Ahead or the Moulton wishbone as per the New Series.
- The separable model looks quite familiar, but the fixed frame model has a straight bottom tube, similar to the TSR / FX8 / Pylon, etc. Shaun indicated to me that the separable model is more torsionally stiff (due to the angled bottom tube).
- The wishbone stem is now available in black.
- Frame skins are available, so you can dress your bike, and change it's dress if you don't like it! Alex Moulton's words, not mine!
- The HED wheels weigh only 2 ozs (which is about 50g) more than a standard wheel.
- The Esprit will be available as a frameset at around £1200.
- Three grades of front suspension are available: soft, medium and hard. The hard is equivalent to a New Series with the soft lockout engaged.
- A number of racks will be available - if I remember correctly a large platform rack, a day rack and a front rack. The existing AM racks will not fit due to the hairpin construction.
- The "standard" colour is a the commonly photographed grey, but a choice of colours will be available.
- Orders are being taken now, and they expect to deliver in around 2-3 months. New manufacturing capacity has been added to facilitate the Esprit, so that Esprit production won't impact on New Series production.
Alex Moulton said that he was pleased that the availability of HED wheels and frame skins would improve the aerodynamics of the bike.
Photo: Dynavector
Shaun mentioned that the reason for the revamped AM was a request from several overseas Moulton distributors. I can guess that these are Japan, Germany and possibly Switzerland. This seems to indicate that the AM is still very popular in these areas, perhaps more so than in Britain.
Three demo bikes were available for testing, and I had a go on all three around the new test track.One demo had the wishbone stem and Mosquito bars. Shifting was via a Shimano Dura-Ace 9 speed bar end-shifter down-tube shifer used as a thumb shifter on the flat of the mosquito bar. I really like this setup. The friction option of bar end shifters is an excellent feature to have when indexing becomes less than perfect on the road. Incidentally, the indexing on one of the New Series demo bikes was terrible!The drop bar models were both equipped with Shimano 105 Sti shifters, double chainrings and Capreo cassette hub.All three models seemed fast, comfortable and light. The suspension was extremely smooth, but plenty firm. Logic was telling me that I should like the New Series more, but the Esprit always felt better. The Double Pylon demo bike was using the softest of the available rubber compounds, so it felt spongier and bouncier than the Esprit, and perhaps with a harder compound I might feel differently.I rode a TSR 27 just afterwards and it felt heavy and sluggish by comparison to the Esprit, though I think it's perhaps an unfair comparison. The TSR was on Marathon Plus tyres, while the Esprit was on Stelvios, and tyres have a huge effect on how fast a bike feels.Also, the flat bars were wider on the TSR, and made it feel less stable. Alex Moulton believes that narrower bars are better on Moultons and I tend to agree.
One of the New Series demo bikes was set up with flat bars, but with a slight angle backwards and felt like a perfect setup for town. Though in what town could you lock up a New Series!
The test track is quite lovely - every garden should have one. There are a number of short sharp inclines and declines, and tight corners. Though a bike cannot be fully evaluated on a short test track, it does give plenty of opportunity to see how a bike feels climbing, descending and handling in tight spaces.