Tag: eBay

Duomatic on my mark III

I used one of my Mark 3s as a fixed gear commuting bike for almost a year, and while I loved riding fixed, and I loved the simplicity and the low maintenance aspects, I found it did have it's limitations.

Firstly, while I love the simplicity, one gear was just not enough. I had no problem honking up the occasional hill, but my commute at the time was through Dublin's Phoenix Park, which has a lovely 4km stretch with a 1% decline and a prevailing tailwind, that always calls for a higher gear than an all purpose gear.

Secondly, I was worried about my knees. Most fixers will tell you it has no effect on the knees, but I rode while recovering from a knee injury (unrelated to cycling) and I can tell you that even the very subtle pedalling to slow down technique places a considerable strain on the knee.

And most importantly, while I made sure the chainline was perfect, and the chain tension was always ok, I was always worried that it would dump the chain, or catch a shoelace, trouser leg or finger with horrible consequences. Sure, the risk was low, but the consequences were potentially so bad for man and machine, that I found myself unwilling to take even that small risk anymore.

Still wanting a simple, low maintenance setup, I picked up a new old stock Sachs Torpedo Duomatic hub on eBay, built it into a 16inch wheel, and tried it out last night on the same Moulton Mark III.

It's a 2 speed hub, with coaster (back pedal) brake. The "low" gear is direct drive, and the high gear is a 36% overdrive. Gear change is effected by rotating the cranks backwards a few degrees, but not quite as far as required to engage the brake.

It's a really simple setup... there are no gear cables to worry about. And unlike most hub gears, there are no adjustments necessary. It just works. It's got the simplicity of a fixed gear / singlespeed, but with an extra gear for those slight downhills or tailwinds, especially in a mostly flat city like Dublin.
When I rode fixed, I used 56x13, giving around 70 inches on the Moulton. With the Duomatic I'm using 56x16 giving gears of 58 inches and 78 inches. I think that I'll play around with these ratios though.

I'm using a 3/32 inch chain, just because that's the size the chainring and sprockets are. The only problem is that the 56x16 requires the use of a half link. Half links in 3/32 size are hard to find, but I did manage to find some in St John St Cycles.

They're not a very good match for a Sram PC951 chain though. I think they're designed for a chain with taller links. They're also very slightly wider than the PC951 making use of a master link with the half link impossible. The easiest solution is probably to replace the 16t sprocket with a 17t.

Alternatively, I suppose I could just change to a 1/8 chain, with the existing chainring and sprockets... as far as I know the only downside is extra noise.

The test ride was quite nice. I intended doing a 10 minute ride, but it turned into a 30 minute ride.

It takes a little practice to change gears without engaging the brake. The brake is good for a rear brake... obviously useless in an emergency, but perfect for slow easy stops. I used it a lot more than I would normally use a rear brake (i.e. I used it). So it should prolong the life of my front rim, as well as the back rim.

Engaging the brake, also changes the gear, which is great when braking in high gear, as it is quite likely that the low gear will be required next. However, if you brake in low gear, the high gear gets engaged, most likely requiring another backpedal to engage the low gear again before pedalling away. It's only a minor inconvenience, especially when it's actually quite easy to audibly determine what gear is engaged.

How? When the hub is in overdrive, it ticks, whereas direct drive is more silent. The ticking is perceptible as soon as you begin to rotate the cranks and before any effort is engaged, so you know you're in overdrive, even before you try to drive the pedals.

If this hub was to come on the market now, I'm sure the reviews would ridicule it as primitive. But that's it's beauty, it's simple, it works, it's not black. And it requires a little bit of skill and finesse to use it most effectively.

When the fixed gear craze goes out of fashion, as it inevitably will, and cyclists search for something that is simple AND functional... these will be in high demand. Apparently Sturmey Archer are considering remaking the ASC hub, the 3 speed fixed gear hub. Any chance that SRAM would remake the Duomatic??

Information on the Duomatic can be found here

New Edition of the Moultoneer

It's been a bumper couple of weeks... firstly Velovision Magazine arrived on the door, and as always it was an excellent read for bike lovers.

A few days later it was A to B Magazine.

And finally today, the issue 81 of the Moultoneer arrived. The Moultoneer is the quarterly magazine produced by the Moulton Bicycle Club. Membership of the club for 2007-2008 costs £15 for UK members, £17 if you live in Europe, and £20 for the rest of the world.

This latest issue is full of the usual Moulton goodies...

  • customised Pashley Moulton TSR30
  • the latest in a series of articles by Alex Moulton
  • an article on metal fatigue and stresses by Mike Woolf of Moulton Preservation
  • an article on the "S" range from the 1960s which is very rare and collectible these days.

The Moultoneer also has bikes for sale (at a fraction of eBay prices), product reviews, directory of products and services for old and new Moultons, events list, etc.

If you own one or more Moulton bicycles, or would like to get into Moultons, it's well worth the subscription and I'd highly recommend it. For more info see the following links:

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.

eBay – the good, the bad and the ugly.

First, the good... check out eBay item 330132790082. I can't verify that it's genuine (though the frame number is clearly visible on the seat tube). If it is, it is quite rare indeed. The production of most Moulton frames was outsourced, but Alex Moulton employed the legendary Jack Lauterwasser to run the "S Works" which produced high spec, limited edition versions of several Moulton Models, such as the S Safari, the S Deluxe, and the very very rare S Speed.

The gorgeous and mysterious Moulton AM Speed S that was for sale on eBay and then disappeared, apparently appeared again last week, only to disappear again. I have heard it alleged that this is an attempt at a scam. The original listing several months ago was probably genuine and the bicycle probably has a very happy owner, However, a common scam on eBay is to clone a previous listing for an expensive item in the hope of swindling an unsuspecting buyer out of their hard earned cash.

There has also been a red Mark 3 (f-frame) on ebay several times over the last year or more. The seller has more than likely seen Mark 3 models going for high prices and is keen to cash in. The trouble is that he has been putting very high "Buy It Now" price tags on the bike. He started at about £500 and it has slowly dropped after several listings to about £250. But there have been no takers! Part of the problem is that he will not ship the bike abroad, so the buyer must pick it up.

Anyhow, a couple weeks ago it seemed that the buyer had learned something when he listed the bike for auction, with a 99p starting price and no reserve. Bidding started off slowly but with 4 days to go, the bidding went over £100. I thought that this bode well for the seller, as Moulton prices usually rise exponentially over that last few hours of the auction, so I thought he must be rubbing his hands. Not exactly... he posted an addition to the item, telling the bidders that they should stop wasting his time, and if the bidding didn't reach £200 he was going to withdraw it, which he duly did a few hours later.

Now, I have seen several Mark 3 models going for over £200, but in my view, the secret to getting high prices for Moultons on eBay is firstly to have a low starting price, to get lots of people interested. Then as the bidding heats up, they bid more than they sensibly should.

Secondly, if you want to sell rarer models for big money, you must be willing to ship abroad, and in particular to Japan. Buyers in Great Britain are a thrifty bunch, they know the values of each Moulton model and they know where they can get bargains. Additionally, there are lot and lots of Moultons that have been sitting in sheds for 30 years and they pop up at jumbles and in small advertisements all the time. The foreign buyer, however, has to try much harder to get his hands on a Moulton, and is usually more willing to bid more on eBay. And of course, patience is required. The most bidding occurs in the last few hours, so pulling it out with 3 days to go is very very silly indeed.

I was really keen to see how this bike was going to sell... looks like the saga is going to run on a little longer!