Tag: Gears

Weird and not at all wonderful

BikeRadar is at the Eurobike exhibition, and reports this morning on a new bicycle from Cannondale

...the Hooligan, a small-wheeled, hub geared urban machine that looks like the bastard offspring of a BMX and a Moulton.

It sounds weird but it might just work. Those small wheels will give you excellent acceleration (ideal for urban riding) and a long wheel base should make for stable and predictable handling, the hub gears mean low maintenance, and the burly frame certainly looks tough enough to cope with city streets - we shall see, we've already ordered one in for test.

Of course we all know that Moultons are pure breeds, and while it's vaguely possible that a frustrated early APB might fantasize about a dirty weekend with something classy like a Rivendell, it would certainly never mix it's genes with a BMX.

When you look at those fat tyres, only one thing comes to mind... the Raleigh RSW.

Fed up with newcomer Moulton selling so many bikes, Raleigh needed to hit back.
They badly needed to compete with the Moulton bicycle, but couldn't get around Moulton's suspension patents.

So they developed the RSW. At first glance it was vaguely similar to a Moulton. They used balloon tyres to get around the discomfort factor of unsuspended small wheels.

Raleigh RSW

The RSW was inferior in every way to the Moulton. It was 6lbs heavier and felt like cycling through treacle. But it was cheaper to manufacture, so Raleigh could sell it more cheaply.

The unsuspecting customer, walking into a bike shop to buy a Moulton could easily be convinced to buy this thing that looked a lot like a Moulton, but was over 10% cheaper, and had Raleigh's name on it.

Neo-liberal mass market corporation's greedy marketing tactics win out over sound engineering shocker.

So is history about to repeat itself. I don't think so. Firstly, Alex Moulton is unlikely to sell his company to Cannondale, as he did to Raleigh in the 1960's.

But more importantly, the original Moulton was sold to the mass market, and so was vulnerable to mass market competition, and big bicycle manufacturers.

Today's Moultons are a very much specialised product for a niche market. People who buy Moultons are a very different segment of the market to the majority of the market: mountain bikes that never see a mountain, junk hybrids, supermarket bike shaped objects and tour de france clones.

Dream TSR

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 Noodle Bars from Hubjub.co.uk

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.

Pahley Moulton TSR with Dura Ace chainset

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.

Friction shifting levers from SJSCycles.com

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.

Velocity Synergy O/C Rim in a Moulton Wheel

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?!!

Pashley Moulton TSR Day Rack

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.

Brooks Swift Saddle from Amba Marketing

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!

Nitto Bottle Cage from www.m-gineering.nl

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!!

Mondo NuVinci: CVT for bikes

It's being hailed as the first Continuously Variable Transmission that's light enough, and reliable enough for use on bicycles. If you call 4.2 kg light!

They're calling it a CVP or Continuously Variable Planetary Transmission.

The NuVinci transmission

The 350% range beats most 8 speed internally geared hubs, but is still a long way behind the range provided by a Rolhoff. It's equivalent to an 11-38 cassette.

The manufacturer expects the price to "be competitive with internally geared hubs currently on the market". I expect that means closer to Rohloff than Nexus.

For small wheels, the large flanges (150mm) present a challenge, with short spokes and big angles. I'm not a wheel builder, but I it looks like it's feasible.

The review on Bikehugger

The manufacturers site

Continuously Variable Transmission on Wikipedia

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

The original Moulton Bicycle

Twenty years before the first spaceframe Moulton bicycle, the original F-frame Moulton bicycle was launched. Alex Moulton, an engineer with experience in the automotive industry, and a recreational cyclist, decided to go back to first principles and question every aspect of the design of bicycles.

Questions such as :
Why had the design of the bicycle not changed in any fundamental sense since the "safety bicycle" was developed, replacing the Penny Farthing in the 1880s.
Why, when the wheel sizes of most road going vehicles had reduced with the improvement in road surfaces, had the bicycle wheel remained so large?

After 5 years of development, the original Moulton Bicycle was launched and it was a revolutionary design. The concept consisted of a number of key principles :

  • Small wheels were found to be stronger and lighter than large wheels. They produced less wind resistance, could be more easily accelarated.
  • Small wheels provided no more rolling resistance than large wheels, provided that high pressure tyres (which in 1962 meant 60 psi) were used. The optimum wheel size was found to be 16-17 inches.
  • Small wheels provided a more bumpy ride on paved roads, so the use of suspension was essential.

Additionally, the following features are common to the Moulton bicycle range:

  • The low stepover height compared to the standard bicycle was safer for men, and more convenient for women. It was also safer in the event of a crash insofar as the rider was not "trapped" with one leg either side of the top tube.
  • The ability to carry luggage low down on the centre line of the bicycle, providing more stability.
  • The separable frame, which does not compromise stiffness or stability compared with the non-separable frame, and featured in the f-frame Stowaway model (and in most of the spaceframe models) allows for easy transportation and storage.

    The new bicycle was a revolutionary design, and for a while Moulton was the largest bicycle manufacturer in Britain. The following video dates from the time of the launch of the Moulton bicycle.

    These principles are the core of the Moulton concept, and have remained so through to the very latest spaceframe models.

    The Moulton Range

    The Basic Range

    Continental – the cheapest Moulton with a single speed hub and back pedal brake.
    Automatic – replaced the Continental, had a two speed hub and back pedal brake.
    Standard – the basic model, 4 speed hub.


    Deluxe – a higher spec model, 4 speed hub
    Speed – similar to a standard but with a sportier riding position, 4 speed hub
    Stowaway – the first separable moulton, 2 speed hub with back pedal brake.
    Safari – a fully equipped model for touring. 4 speed hub with optional 2 speed derailleur.
    Speedsix – a racing model with 6 speed derailleur gears.

    The Standard and Deluxe are the most common models by far, and are quite inexpensive to buy. The other models vary in terms of rarity, desirability, and price.

    The S Range

    The S range is very rare, and very collectable. Each model is a higher spec version of the original Deluxe, Safari and Stowaway with slightly larger 17inch wheels, lighter components, and optional chrome finish.

    The picture below is a Moulton S Safari in chrome finish, from Ken Butterfield's photos on Flickr

    Only around 10 S Speeds were produced and the location of most of them is known. However, it looks like there may be a few still unaccounted for. Most F-frame collectors dream of finding an S Speed in a skip or a garage somewhere!

    After the Raleigh takeover the following models were produced:
    Moulton Major – an updated Standard
    Moulton Major Deluxe – an updated Deluxe

    The Mark 3 / Mark III / Mk 3
    This was a new departure in design, with the most recognisable feature being the rear triangle and squashball suspension. This model has a shorter wheelbase than the older Series 1 and 2 models and was fitted with a 3 speed hub with drum brake.

    • There were also a number of other models produced - smaller wheel versions for children/teenagers, export models, and models made abroad under licence. These will be the subject of a post on another day!