Category: History

The Spaceframe Moultons

If "The Moulton Bicycle" by Tony Hadland is the bible for F-frame Moultons, then "The Spaceframe Moultons" by the same author is the bible for spaceframes.

The book outlines in great detail, how the Moulton concept evolved from the original F-frame into the spaceframe, and contains lots of detail on the design process, and the various prototypes developed along the way. The numerous reproductions of sketches used by Alex Moulton as he refined the concept are fascinating.

Also covered are details of the launch of the AM in 1983, reaction in the media, and detailed specifications of the various models.

The Spaceframe Moultons covers the models produced in the period from 1983 to 1994, and covers the AM, ATB and APB/Pashley ranges, including the AM models produced in stainless steel. There are also chapters on the racing and touring achievements of AM bicycles.

Unfortunately, this book is now out of print, and it's becoming quite difficult to obtain - at least at a reasonable price.

A copy can be bought through Amazon.co.uk, for example, at a cost of £125.92. Copies do appear from time to time through sources like Amazon.co.uk and AbeBooks.co.uk. I bought my copy from Don Swift Books, via AbeBooks for £20.

The best bet may be to order a copy through your local bookshop, who might be able to get a copy through Gardners or another wholesaler.

Happy Hunting!

Video of the Cyclists Touring Club (CTC) from 1955

Not much in the way of Moulton content here, but I thought this might be of interest to some readers.

It's a little portrait of cycling heaven. Of course cycling heaven will contain many Moultons, and this video does not. The reason being that the film dates from 1955, less than a year before Alex Moulton bought his Hetchins bicycle, which prompted him to begin his life long quest to improve on the classic bicycle.

It's a wonderful look back into what seems like a different planet. Rail carriages dedicated to carrying bikes, few cars on the roads, lugged steel frames, and a total absence of lycra.

Part One

Part Two

Original Post by Brian Arner

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.

Mr Pedersen: A Man of Genius

A new version of the David Evans book Ingenious Mr Pedersen, is to be published shortly with the new name Mr Pedersen: A Man of Genius.

As he strode through the town in Norfolk Jacket, tall, long black beard blowing in the win, lost in thought and heeding no one, he carried with him the aroma of strong, sweet coffee. Mikael Pedersen was different. Born near Roskilde, in Denmark, in 1855 he quickly showed his powers of invention. One idea he patented was a milk separator which revolutionized dairy practice. It was taken up by the engineering firm of R. A. Lister and Co. in Dursley, Gloucestershire, into which town Mikael settled in1889. With him came his genius for inventing and for providing unique solutions to engineering problems. He is known now just for his bicycle of unusual design - the Dursley Pedersen - but in his time he was highly regarded in engineering circles and played significant roles in The First World War. At the end of that war he and his family vanished and the rest of his life was for long a mystery. What happened to him was first revealed in the writer's "The Ingenious Mr Pedersen", published in 1978. In this present book David Evans tells Mikael's unusual story again with very much more information about this highly talented man.

The original Pedersen cycle was patented in 1893 and pioneered the use of small diameter tubing for bicycle construction, which was taken in a different direction 90 years later by Alex Moulton.

After a long period of absence, the Pedersen was then re-interpreted in 1978 by Jesper Sølling, and today there are over 6000 modern Pedersens around the world.


Picture from http://www.pedersen.info/

Curiously enough, around the same time - perhaps a year earlier, Alex Moulton was looking for a new frame structure that would be lighter than his Y-frame.

Alex Moulton wrote the foreward to the original book, and is rumoured to actually own a Pedersen himself, and probably studied it's construction while he was developing the first X-frames in the late 1970s.

The new book is published on 1st October by Tempus Publishing Ltd. ISBN: 0752445057.