Moulton, Dyson and the new Stowaway

What have vacuum cleaners and bicycles got in common? More than you might think, when it comes to the Moulton bicycle.

The word Stowaway will be a familiar one to Moultoneers - it was the name that Alex Moulton gave to the collapsible or separable version of his original Moulton bicycle. Not a folding mechanism, but one that allowed the bicycle to be split into two for transportation and storage. Moultons have never folded, but it could be claimed that the original stowaway was at least part of the inspiration for the folding revolution that followed.

While the Stowaway disappeared around the time of the Raleigh takeover of Moulton in the 1960s, the concept reappeared with the launch of the AM in 1983. Most Moulton models since then have had the option of a separable frame, although the "Stowaway" name has not been used.

Well, the Stowaway name has reappeared, not on a bicycle but on a Dyson DC20 Stowaway as shown below

James Dyson, inventor of the acclaimed Dyson vacuum cleaners is apparently a big fan of the Moulton Bicycles.

He is quoted as saying "Looking at his intriguing bicycles you can see that Alex Moulton questions every part of the design. His aim is clear: to make lighter, safer and more comfortable bikes whilst improving speed. Good design is about how something works, not just how it looks, which is why I like the Moulton bike so much."

Speaking of how things look, I think Alex Moulton Bicycles web designers could learn a lot from Dyson's

city cycling and Moultons

.citycycling is a monthly online magazine for cycling in the city. They're by line is "no matter what you ride as long as you do"

... as long as it's not a Moulton it seems! In issue 5 they published the 10 commandments of cycling, in which they declare... thou shalt not commit moultonery... this sacrilege aside, the other 9 commandments are hilarious, and the magazine is a great read.

The other Moulton Bicycle

If you use a search engine to find information on Moulton bicycles, you're unlikely to search too far before encounteringDave Moulton's blog

You might be disappointed at first, that Dave's bikes have rather large wheels, compared to the bicycles of Alex Moulton.

However, if you look a little deeper, Dave's bicycles are rather beautiful too.

Dave is a retired frame builder, who hand built steel frame bicycles from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. Bikes built by Dave might have his own name on the decals, or Paris Sport, Masi, Fuso or Recherche. Fusos in particular pop up on eBay from time to time, and are still quite affordable.

I don't currently own a big wheeler, but I'd love to get my hands on a Dave Moulton !

He's now a songwriter and author, and his blog is a great read especially for bike geeks.

Capreo versus Dog

Went for a nice 50k ride yesterday, and when I was 10k from home, I approached a house with a long driveway. As I approached, I saw a young boy calling after his dog who had started to sprint down the driveway. As I passed the driveway, the dog was in full sprint, barking and agressive. He caught me, came close and made me think he was going to bite me at the ankles. I took some evasive action, upped my speed a bit, while the dog circled and came at me again.

Three times, he outsprinted me, barked like hell and made aggressive movements towards my ankles. I kept thinking "when is this dog going to get tired". I don't know if he got tired, or just bored, but when I finally left him behind my Polar CS200 heart rate monitor was at 101% and I was in the Shimano Capreo's 9 smallest tooth sprocket.

The Capreo freehub with it's 9-10-11-13-15-17-20-23-26 cassette is a godsend for small wheel bikes. With my 53/38 front chainring, it gives me approx 28-118 gear range on 20 inch tyres. The 118 inch top gear allows me to keep pedalling well beyond 50km/h, which is a great boost going downhill. The only other ways to achieve such a high gear on a Moulton is either use monster size chainrings (which I really dislike), or a Schlumpf Speed Drive. This is an expensive, but very nicely engineered internal planetary gear system that replaces your bottom bracket, and takes standard chainrings. I have seen one Pashley Moulton APB modified with a speed drive and double chainring, giving an amazing range of gears.