Author: Aynsley Brown

Dear Moulton Bicycle Club Members,

Greetings from the Moulton Bicycle Club!  As we gear up for our next quarterly magazine, we invite you to contribute your stories, photos, and insights to make it a vibrant reflection of our community.

Whether you're a seasoned Moulton rider or have just started your journey with these remarkable bicycles, we want to hear from you. Share your adventures and rides, restoration and maintenance tips, favourite routes, customization projects, or anything else that showcases the joy and versatility of Moulton bicycles.

We’re particularly interested in hearing from around the world, The Americas, Japan, Indonesia, HongKong and Singapore, Australia and of course our friends in mainland Europe.

Here's what we're looking for in your contributions:

1. Articles: Compose engaging stories about your Moulton experiences, including memorable rides, tours, or encounters with fellow cyclists. Share tips on maintenance, upgrades, or cycling techniques.
2. Photographs: Capture the beauty of your Moulton in action or at rest. Whether it's breathtaking landscapes, unique modifications, or group rides, your photos will bring our magazine to life.
3. Artwork: Express your creativity through illustrations, sketches, or digital artwork inspired by Moulton bicycles and the spirit of cycling.
4. Reviews: Provide honest reviews of Moulton products, accessories, or cycling gear that you've tested and loved (or not loved).
5. Poetry or Prose: Channel your passion for cycling into poetry, short stories, or essays that celebrate the Moulton experience.
6. Interviews: Conduct interviews with fellow Moulton riders, designers, or enthusiasts to uncover fascinating insights and perspectives.
7. Events: Share details and highlights of upcoming Moulton-related events, races, or gatherings.

Submission Guidelines:

• Word Count: Articles should be between 500-1000 words.
• Format: Please submit written contributions in a Word document or Google Doc. Images should be high-resolution (at least 300 dpi).
• Deadline: The deadline for submissions is May 14^th 2024 for issue 144.
• Contact: Send your contributions or inquiries to ‘ editor@moultoneers.info ’ cc’d to  ' info@blushdesign.com '

Let's come together to celebrate our shared passion for Moulton bicycles and inspire fellow riders around the world. Your voice is an essential part of our community, and we can't wait to showcase your stories in our upcoming magazine.

All best wishes and happy riding!

Simon Jones

Membership Secretary,

Moulton Bicycle Club

The group pic outside 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 104^th 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:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/anglepoise/albums/72177720316201620/

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.