Paul Villiers is a framebuilder, Moulton dealer and builder of custom Moultons. He gave up his job in the city to build bikes, and to customise Moultons.
Some time ago on the moultonbicycle yahoo group, he asked what would be your dream TSR? If you could have any customisations, accessories, finish or components, what would you choose?
At the time I couldn't decide, and soon gave up trying. But now I have finally achieved clarity of mind, and I know almost exactly what I want. Since this is my dream TSR, I'm going to assume a dream budget. Not that I'm going to pimp it with expensive gadgetry just because I have (in my dream) a big budget, but I'm not going to make compromises in the dream spec, that I might make in reality.
Frameset
The frameset that the TSR 30 and TSR 8 are based on. This offers slightly less tyre/mudguard clearance so no fatty tyres, but it allows for caliper brakes, which I prefer to V-brakes. I'm not sure whether to pick the separable model. It doesn't present any disadvantages, apart from costing £100 extra, so the dream spec might as well have it.
Headset, Stem and Handlebars
Threadless headsets and stems are a blight on the modern bicycle, and the stock TSR is no exception with it's big stack of faux carbon risers/spacers. I'm an traditionalist when it comes to stems. Nothing but a quill will do, and no black thank you very much.
This means old fashioned threaded stem, a Nitto or similar with enough height adjustment to allow the bars to go as high as the saddle, just in case.
Likewise, the "anatomic" black bars go in the skip, replaced by a more traditional non-anodised model. A Nitto Noodle will do nicely, probably 40cm wide. They seem to be a little wider that a normal 40cm bar (I have seen them described as 41cm), and the next size up is a 44cm, which looks just a bit big on my APB. The responsive handling of Moultons seems to like narrower bars, and I'm assuming the TSR is similar.
Nitto components are not that easy to get in Europe, try Will at Hubjub, who stocks lots of Nitto, and does custom orders.
The photo below shows how Koowho have customised a TSR with a slightly more attractive spacers, stem and bars, while still retaining the threadless headset.
Brakes
The stock sidepulls will do fine. Though the levers will be thrown out when we come to gearing.
Gearing
The stock TSR30 with 11-28 cassette and triple chainring has an excellent range of gears, though a little on the low side. The range, by my calculations is about 19" to 86" on Stelvios. The 19" low is lower than I am ever likely to need, and the 86" is too low also.
It's probably a good setup for loaded alpine touring, but I have never done an alpine tour, and I'm not going to set my dream bike up for a situation that I may never be in, at the expense of my regular usage.
I'm going to ditch the 10 speed too. I have lots of 9 speed components already, and I find it useful to be able to swap a wheel or component between bikes when required. It means I only need one spare chain, one (or perhaps two) spare blocks, master links, etc in the shed which can be used by any bike when required.
The benefits of the very slightly closer ratios of 10 speed over 8 or 9 speed are oversold. And I'm sure 9 speed components are cheaper than 10 speed, though I haven't checked. Oh dear, this is turning into TSR retrogrouch!
To get rid of the triple chainset, I might try a compact chainset, let's say 50/34, with a Shimano Capreo 9-26 rear hub. This will give a gear range of 23-101 which is more than enough for my needs.
Switching to Shimano, from the stock Campagnolo will also facilitate the swapping of spares and components between bikes.
This picture, again from Koowho, shows a more tasteful (and expensive) Dura Ace chainset that the stock TSR triple.
Levers and Shifters
Indexed shifting and integrated brake/gear levers are a great advance, but I'm not convinced that they are reliable enough for the serious leisure cyclist. I had one bad experience with indexed shifters, and it led me to try friction shifters again, and
The friction shifters below are the ones I use on my APB. I got them from St John St Cycles.
There is very little to go wrong on them, they never require adjustment, and it is easy to switch wheels or cassettes with minimal adjustment (just the rear mech limit screws). I can even change between 8 and 9 speed without difficulty. Mine are mounted on the stem.
Bar end shifters offer the best of both world. Use the indexed setting when everything is going well. If things go slightly out of adjustment, flick over to the friction setting. I think they detract from the overall elegance of the handlebars, and as this is aiming to be a pretty TSR as well as functional, they're not going to make it this time round.
However, Issue 39 of the Rivendell Reader featured a good article on how to set up bar end shifters on the flats of the bars, using Paul's thumbies (from Paul Component Engineering, not to be confused with the aforementioned Paul Villiers) shown below. The concept seems ideal, but I haven't tried this out so I'm not sure how well they work, or how well they look (they are black after all). This is an experiment for another day on another bike. The dream TSR is not for experiments, so I'll choose the friction shifters again.
Wheels
Using Capreo will require a rear wheel rebuild, so let's ditch the black anodised Alex DA16 rims both front and back, and replace them with something silver in colour. I have always found the Sun CR18 to be a good rim, but the Velocity Synergy O/C rim with off centre drilling is probably the best choice in a highly dished rear wheel. The off centre drilling means the spoke tensions in the drive side and non-drive side are more equal than with a symmetrically drilled rim.
The Capreo is available in 24, 32 and 36 holes. If 28 hole was available, I might be convinced to go for that. but 24 holes is perfectly adequate especially in a strong small wheel. Spoke crossings: 2 cross drive side, 2 cross or maybe radial non drive side, radial front.
Naturally the standard (symmetrically drilled) Velocity Synergy rim will do in front, paired with 24h Capreo or Ultegra front hub (both hubs seem to be identical).
The photo is from Dynavector and shows the Velocity Synergy O/C rim built into a small wheel (though in 17inch / 369mm size), which are available in a non-anodised finish.
Tyres
It's hard to see beyond Stelvios, especially given my slight problems in the past with Continental Gran Prixs. A narrow tough tyre like the Schwalbe City Jet would be a nice backup for more reliability. Sadly, it's not made in 406 size any more.
Racks and Bags
I like the sleeker sportier look of a Moulton without a rack, but also like to have a rack that I can use when I need it. The "in between" solution is of course a day rack, which allows the bike to look sporty while still having a limited luggage capacity.
Since I'm on a dream budget, I would like to purchase both a large rack and a day rack with suitable bags for each.
The Pashley large rack is elegant, but it looks like to make most use out of it, you need to use the Carradice made Pashley bag where part of the rack is semi-permenantly attached to the bag, and clips onto the main rack.
This setup looks nice - without the bag, the rack is narrow which is good for transportation and storage. And with the bag attached you get a large capactiy in a stiff frame. have yet to see pictures of the bag or the clip mechanism though.
It's also not clear what exactly the options are. I have seen pictures of black, white and alloy/silver coloured racks, but the Pashley catalogue doesn't mention the standard finishes available. I have seen racks in Japan which match the colour of the frame.
My enquiries to Pashley this week weren't fruitful. They didn't want an unofficial source of information potentially adding to the misinformation that in their view pervades the information superhighway. So until Pashley update their website and brochures, or for one of their dealers to do the work for them, what can I do?!!
Saddle
Nothing synthetic please, a leather Brooks Swift (pictured below) will do nicely. It's not to everyone's taste - some people's anatomy (sit bones?) requires a wider saddle, and some people don't want the extra weight. But I love my existing one and if I never had another saddle, I wouldn't complain.
The Swallow is even more beautiful and probably lighter, but it's very expensive, and I haven't tried it.
Seat post
The black anodised carbon fibre stock item goes in the bin, to be replaced by a shiny kalloy or similar.
Pedals
I do most of my miles on my APB which has SPDs, and when I'm on the bike, I never think about them, so that must be a good sign. However, I love the ability to just jump on a bike, and not have to put on special shoes. Or if I take my bike away for the weekend, it's a disaster if I forget my cleated shoes. I did the Wicklow 100 one year using non cleated shoes on SPD pedals, and it was a pain.
Reluctantly, in the spirit of not experimenting with my dream bike, I'm going to choose those pedals that have a platform on one side, and SPDs on the other. So I can jump on it any time I like, with whatever shoes I happen to be wearing, but I can also use the SPD setup when I wish. I suspect that this is the component that is most likely to change first.
Colour
The biggest decision of all. The stock colours are quite nice. I like the blue of the TSR 8 more than most. Perhaps a sign that Pashley's marketing has been a success, is that a TSR of any spec in that blue looks like a TSR 8. Likewise, a TSR of any spec in the maroon colour "looks like" a TSR 30.
Whenever I see a TSR30 in blue or a TSR 8 in maroon, I think that it just looks wrong. I realise that this is just a personal preference of mine and no disrespect to those TSR owners who have swapped colours.
However, I think that since my dream TSR is a unique specification, I would have to go for a custom colour.
I love red bikes, and I'm fond of the red of APB fx8 fame. But I don't want it to be mistaken for an FX8... I guess I'll just pick something from the colour chart.
Bottle cage
Nitto type-R of course, the type sold by the Moulton factory. But it's half the price from Rivendell or m-gineering. I know I'm on a dream budget, but I'm not going to be stupid!
Mudguards
As far as I'm aware, the Pashley supplied mudguards are good quality black chromoplastics made by SKS with stainless steel fittings. But again, where are the pictures?? Come on Pashley, help us out here.
Hopefully, this dream will become a reality before too long!!
