Tag: hadland

BoA 2009 Concours

After the Saturday morning Bring & Buy sale, during which the club marquee overflowed with both buyers and sellers, Saturday afternoon was spent in typical fashion - sunshine, sitting in the courtyard, listening to Alex Moulton and others talk about the past, present and future of the Moulton bicycle, as well as looking at some superb F-Frames.
Some highlights included:
- an ex Reg Randall racing machine
- a newly built Moulton Mark 4
- Moulton Speedsix
- Moulton Automatic with Duomatic hub.
- Andy Forey's Milliken inspired, fully faired, racing deluxe.
- a Vic Nicholson inspired Mark 3 replica

As usual, some new models were shown
- TSR Tour SR, which is a high spec version of the TSR 30 with Brooks saddle and bar tape
- A high spec TSR 27, with Brooks bar grips, chromed front and rear forks, threaded headset and Nitto stem and flat handlebar.

It was also announced that German publisher Lit Verlag has re-published "The Spaceframe Moultons" by Tony Hadland in hardback, paperback and miniature paperback.

Bike Show Moulton Special

The Bike Show will feature a Moulton special, tonight (Monday, 22nd September at 18:30 BST).

UPDATE: The show was originally scheduled for tonight, but it has been rescheduled for next Monday, 29th September 2008.

The show will feature interviews with Alex Moulton, Tony Hadland, Mike Woolf, and others.

The Bike Show is a weekly half-hour show about cycling, presented by Jack Thurston. It focuses on

the art, science, politics and transcendental pleasure of cycling, in London and beyond. From Le Tour de France to roller-racing, from Bromptons to penny farthings, from Kraftwerk to hip-hop, from urban design to cycle touring, literature, history, travel, art, music and sport come together in a weekly half-hour show.

I have been a regular listener for a number of years and I thoroughly recommend it.

You can listen to tonight's show in the following ways:

  • on the radio at 104.4 FM in London.
  • Listen to the live stream on Resonancefm.com. The link is near the top, left.
  • After the show goes out live, the Bike Show website will have links to download or stream the recording.
  • The show is available as a podcast on iTunes or RSS.

The Spaceframe Moultons

If "The Moulton Bicycle" by Tony Hadland is the bible for F-frame Moultons, then "The Spaceframe Moultons" by the same author is the bible for spaceframes.

The book outlines in great detail, how the Moulton concept evolved from the original F-frame into the spaceframe, and contains lots of detail on the design process, and the various prototypes developed along the way. The numerous reproductions of sketches used by Alex Moulton as he refined the concept are fascinating.

Also covered are details of the launch of the AM in 1983, reaction in the media, and detailed specifications of the various models.

The Spaceframe Moultons covers the models produced in the period from 1983 to 1994, and covers the AM, ATB and APB/Pashley ranges, including the AM models produced in stainless steel. There are also chapters on the racing and touring achievements of AM bicycles.

Unfortunately, this book is now out of print, and it's becoming quite difficult to obtain - at least at a reasonable price.

A copy can be bought through Amazon.co.uk, for example, at a cost of £125.92. Copies do appear from time to time through sources like Amazon.co.uk and AbeBooks.co.uk. I bought my copy from Don Swift Books, via AbeBooks for £20.

The best bet may be to order a copy through your local bookshop, who might be able to get a copy through Gardners or another wholesaler.

Happy Hunting!

Unique Moulton Speedsix

The story of Peter Lea is quite an amazing one. During his cycling career, he averaged over 17,000 miles per year and over 187,000 miles in total.

Peter ordered a Moulton S Safari in 1965, with a massive 68t chainring, close ratio block and completed a hugely impressive mileage on it.

The photo above shows Peter on the record breaking S Safari.

Peter completed over 75,000 miles on the S Safari, including a record breaking 30,108 in one year, all while holding down a full time job. When Alex Moulton heard of the record, he put the S Safari in his museum, and gave Peter a custom Moulton Speedsix as a replacement.

Ken Butterfield has since acquired the tangerine Speedsix for his collection.

Ken says...

I knew that in exchange for their new high mileage exhibit, Moulton bicycles had built Peter Lea a replacement and that this was a tangerine orange speedsix which was assembled at Bradford on Avon in 1970. This is remarkably late for a series two, as the Mk3 was in full production over in Nottingham and development work at the Hall was taken up with this latest frameset. Other speedsix specials are known to have been built in this period though, including ones built by Jack Lauterwasser himself. Peter Lea’s experience must have been considered valuable, as Alex Moulton wrote to him asking if he had any advice for a young rider who was going to ride to Australia on a cycle that he was making for him. This was of course the Marathon, and the young man was Colin Martin!

The pictures show Alex Moulton studying the unique Speedsix, at the Moulton Bicycle Club weekend at Bradforn on Avon in September 2006.

You can read more about Peter's unique history in issues 48 and 78 of the Moultoneer, which is the magazine of the Moulton Bicycle Club, and in Tony Hadland's excellent book, The Moulton Bicycle.

This is a stunning and unique bike, as the pictures show. Thanks to Ken for sharing.

Aerodynamic research using the Moulton small-wheeled bicycle

The IMechE Journal of Energy and Power, Volume 20 No 3, 2006 featured an article on Aerodynamic research using the Moulton small-wheeled bicycle.

The abstract reads as follows: "This short article describes aerodynamic research carried out using the Moulton small-wheeled bicycle. Alex Moulton's initial research, applying streamlined cowlings to his early small-wheeled bicycles, is briefly described. His later collaboration with Douglas Milliken is covered in greater detail. Milliken's many experiments with fairings included wind tunnel tests in crosswinds, an aspect of bicycle science rarely investigated hitherto. An important finding was the ability for a streamlined bicycle under certain conditions to sail. The Moulton–Milliken collaboration led to the development of fully streamlined bicycles, using the conventional riding position, which twice broke a speed record."

The record mentioned is of course the world unpaced cycling record over 200m (conventional riding position) in 1985. The speed attained was 50.21mph (80.79kph), the bicycle was an Alex Moulton AM.

Jim Glover, broke the record again in 1986, on a new improved Moulton Liner. The new record, 51.29mph (82.53kph), still stands.

Moulton record breaking Liner

More details on the bike and the record can be found on Doug Millken's site, and pictures can be seen in Tony Hadland's pictures from the Moulton Museum.