[John Holiday]

Had an interesting visit to the Brooklands Museum at Weybridge,Surrey, where there is a huge collection of aircraft,cars,buses,motorcycles & cycles. Included were a large collection of Raleigh cycles including the RSW.Was suprised to see references to the development of the small wheel by Dr,Alex Moulton,but the thing that really suprised (& puzzled) was a reference to Moultons having an ‘expensive to maintain suspension system’ & this was why Raleigh chose their suspension- less fat tyres!
I felt I ought to correct this grave slur,but didn’t know who to approach!

[John Faulkner]

“I felt I ought to correct this grave slur, but didn’t know who to approach!”

How about starting with the Brooklands Museum? I’m sure their Bicycle Curator will not be happy with ‘knocking copy’ inaccurate descriptions of their exhibits…… Probably written by a Raleigh hack who believed (possibly?) his own company propaganda at the time.

You can bet he knew nothing much about Moultons, suspension, or anything else…

In my view, (with the huge benefit of hindsight) comparing the RSW with any F frame Moulton is simply silly. One preceded the other, that’s all. And we all know which was first: ) Raleigh was too big and cumbersome to take advantage of the ‘small wheel revolution’ . Despite the R20s etc.

Raleigh faded fast, and Moulton is now….???
High-tech and successful??

Chalk and cheese this one.

[John Holiday]

Have sent off an e-mail to the Museum General Manager,so will see what response it elicits.

[Keith Hales]

On a visit about a year ago, a friend and I remarked to the attendants that the lack of an example Moulton bicycle was a major omission.

[John Holiday]

Success!!
Just had an e-mail from the Curator to say that they had reviewed the exhibit & had altered the wording in line with my comments regarding the ‘expensive maintenance’ required for Moultons. Will revisit shortly & have another look.

[Alexander Johnston]

Will done, John – a result!
To be fair I suspect the average rider and average bike shop may have found the front suspension a bit difficult to maintain/fix if it went wrong, but the wording is clearly lacking balance.
Nothing more effective that a well-worded letter/email sent to the right person!
Alex

[John Faulkner]

Well done Sir!
In my experience some museums get donated machines, along with doubtful descriptions from the donators, and feel obligated to describe them so. Correct or not. It can be a delicate tightrope to walk for the museum curator in such circumstances.

Coventry Transport Museum, for example, do their utmost to describe their exhibits as accurately as possible, and I thoroughly recommend a visit there if you want to see historic machines accurately described.

As they all should be, but sometimes museum curators need a little ‘help’ in this respect. No disrespect to them, but it depends on the circumstances and their particular knowledge.

John.

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