Tag: am

Moulton Double Pylon Racing Success

At the Suzuka Circuit Endurance Race held on 4th November, Moulton Double Pylon took 6th place in 4hours Solo class in which some 320 riders entered.
The top group was really fast, mostly pro or semi-pro riders. Time of 1st was 4h 02m 26s, while our Moulton timed 4h 02m 27s at average of 40.33km/h. Just 1 second behind.

This is quite a achievement. Usually, Moultons enter "Small Wheel Class" and have had reasonable result. This time however, Double Pylon joined most competitive class with real road racers.

Source : Alex Moulton Bicycles
For more info, see Moku 2+4 and Yamamoto Kazuhiro's Blog

Useful Rohloff Videos

A couple of useful Rohloff videos, from Thorn Cycles / St John Street Cycles.

The first video is an animation of the Rohloff Speedhub 14 speed internally geared hub being assembled while operating.

The second video contains instructions on how to perform an oil change. An oil change should be done on the Speedhub every 5000km, or once per year, which ever is sooner.

Too Many Moultons?

Friction pervades the life of a cyclist.


Photo from Julian Kowalewski's collection on Flickr

Ivan Illich wrote in Toward a History of Needs:

A century ago, the ball-bearing was invented. It reduced the coefficient of friction by a factor of a thousand. By applying a well-calibrated ball-bearing between two Neolithic millstones, a man could now grind in a day what took his ancestors a week. The ball-bearing also made possible the bicycle, allowing the wheel -- probably the last of the great Neolithic inventions -- finally to become useful for self-powered mobility.

But friction is also the primary force which makes cycling possible. Without it, acceleration would be impossible. If somehow, motion was achieved, braking would be impossible, turning the wheel would have no effect and leaning to turn would bring us crashing down. To visualise the role of friction in bicycling, imagine trying to cycle on a lake of polished ice.

Matt Seaton in yesterday's Guardian talks about another type of friction - that between a cyclist and his significant other.

A common one is: "What was in that large box I had to sign for this morning?" Which is a mini-version of the dialogue that runs: "And why do you need a new bike?" This is actually a conversation that can be circumvented, but only at risk of the uncomfortable interrogation that begins: "So, how long have you had this new bike, and when were you proposing to tell me about it?" This naturally segues into a "And how are you paying for this?" inquisition.

My wife frequently declares "you can only cycle on one bike at a time".

One Moultoneer helpfully suggested the best tactic for decieving one's significant other is to purchase bikes that are the same colour as an existing bike. Then, when quizzed, you can declare "but that's the same red bike I have had for ages".

An eBay seller seems to have made some compromises in this department. The listing contains the following nugget:

It is only being sold now because my wife has stamped her little foot, and declared that 17 Moultons is 16 too many.

Though, perhaps the price being requested indicates that he's not really trying to sell at all!

New SON Dynohub

The unrivalled SON dynamo hub (or Schmidt Original Nabendynamo, to give it it's full title) has a new model available this month.

The 20R is a lighter version of the SON 20, which is designed for bicycle wheels of 16" to 20" in diameter.

The SON 20R has the following specification:

  • Power: 6V/3W
  • Efficiency: 60% at 15km/h in a 20" wheel. 65% at 15km/h in a 28" wheel.
  • Power consumption (under load): 0.7 W at 15 km / h (in a 20" wheel)
  • Power consumption (under no lighting load): 0.4 W at 15 km / h in a 20" wheel)
  • 26 pole magnet.
  • Hub Sleeve: aluminum 6082 T6 polished or black anodized
  • Spoke holes: 36, 32, 28, 24, 20 (radial spoking allowed)
  • Two 4.8mm electrical contacts
  • Weight: 390g (compared to 580g for the existing models)
  • 5 year warranty

A model for disk brakes is under development and should be available in February 2008, and the 28" model should be available in October 2008.

There seem to be no plans to update the SON XS, which is a narrow version of the dynamo hub, designed to fit the narrow front forks of a Brompton and New Series Moulton.