Tag: Touring

Riding my Moulton in rural Meath

It's been a really wet summer, and so when I woke up to sunshine on Sunday morning, I wasted no time in jumping into my lycra, grabbing my GPS and phone, hopping onto my Pashley Moulton APB, and heading for the hills.

The area where I live is rural, 5km from Navan (population > 25,000). There are a number of national routes nearby.

My cycling playground is an area between the N2 to the east, the N3 to the west, the aforementioned N51 to the south. If I cross the relatively quiet N52 to the north, I have a free run all the way to the border.

With a little bit of planning, I can quite easily find routes of 100km or more without having to travel on a single national route or a busy road of any description. On my rides I encounter very few cars, perhaps as few as 10 per hour.

I usually plan my routes using a combination of Google Maps and the Ordnance Survey Discovery Series maps (usually 35, 36, 42 and 43). Google Maps is great for showing the roads I like to travel on. I avoid all roads that are blue (motorways), green (national routes) and yellow (busier regional roads) and I focus on the white roads (they look grey until you zoom in further).

Backroads in north Meath

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

The map above shows the route I took last Sunday. The profile looks like this
Route Profile
I consult the OS maps to find some hills or I use HeyWhatsThat Path Profiler. There are very few big hills near where I live. There are plenty of 100-150m climbs, and just a few in the 150-210m range. It's not too difficult to find a 10% incline, but they are mostly less than a kilometre long.

The "white roads" are usually very low traffic, and quite scenic. On occasion the road can be quite narrow with grass growing down the centre of the road!

These routes are perfect for a Moulton bicycle, with the suspension taking the edge off any imperfections in the surface, and making all descents exhilarating.

I usually travel without a map or GPS, unless I'm travelling a new route and I'm afraid I'll get lost, or find my self on a busy national route. Signposts cannot be relied upon in Ireland! Local youths seem to take sport in rotating the signpost to send you the wrong way. In recent years however, there seem to be lots more fixed (two pole) sign posts appearing, making them more reliable.

GPS and Mapping

I’ve recently been playing with GPS and mapping with a view to using it on my bikes.

I really like Google Maps, especially since the level of detail for my home and surrounding areas has improved recently. The satellite imagery is impressive where it is available in high resolution, but unfortunately, this doesn’t include my home and main cycling routes. They’ve also got versions for mobile devices, as described below.

What’s really impressive, though, is the proliferation of enhanced 3rd party applications built upon Google Maps.

One of my favourites is http://www.marengo-ltd.com/map/development.html. This allows you to create a route using Google Maps and then export it to GPX format for use on your GPS device. So you can plan your routes in advance, download to your GPS and follow the route. Alternatively, if you upload a track from a GPX device, you can view it on the map.

A really impressive application is HeyWhatsThat. This merges the map data with elevation data, so you can view basic contour lines overlayed on the Google Maps. You can also view a profile for a route, so you can see where the big hills are, and plan your bike rides to hit them (or miss them, if your into that sort of thing). It would be the perfect application if it featured the ability to upload and download routes.

Bikely is a route sharing site. You can search for routes in your area, and download the GPX file for use on your GPS. It has a route profile feature, which I really like. You can of course share your own routes, by uploading a GPX or you can draw it manually. If your route does not contain elevation data, Bikely will automatically populate it from the USGS GISDATA servers, but it can take 24 hours to happen.

GPSBabel is useful for converting between file formats.

Mobile Applications

When you’re out on the road, there are a few applications for mobile devices.

Google have a mobile version of Google Maps which works quite well. It requires a data connection which is fine for urban cycling, but there are lots of places that I ride where there is little or no mobile coverage. And unless you’re on an unlimited / un-metered data plan, it can get expensive if used heavily. A caching feature or an offline mode would be really useful. There’s also no way to get it to talk to your GPS device.

MGMaps is a free 3rd party mobile application which uses Google Maps, as well as some other mapping providers, like Yahoo! and Ask.com. You can define the size of the cache, making you less reliant on the mobile data network. However, I haven’t been able to get it to use my 2 Gb data card as a cache.

AFTrack is quite a nice mobile application for Symbian OS / S60 (Nokia Smartphone among others). You have to pay for it after the free trial (it's about €30 as far as I can remember). It has lots of very useful GPS features like routing and tracking, and you can overlay your own maps.

Maps can be calibrated in the application or can use an external calibration file, and the application can be configured to automatically load the appropriate map for your location. It has a few quirks, and there’s no way to download maps if you’re in a new area, but it really is a superb application, and in my view it’s a keeper.

The Low Down

I’m using a Nokia E61 and a GlobalSat BT338 Bluetooth GPS receiver. I chose the E61 for work reasons (Blackberry email, QWERTY keyboard, etc), so it’s perhaps not the most appropriate choice for leisure activities, especially as it lacks a camera, but it has a nice large screen, and features wifi.

My most used application is AFTrack, and I have created maps for an approx 80 mile radius around my house. So it covers everywhere I’m likely to ride on a regular basis.

As a backup, for example if I find my self in the city, I use MGMaps as it can download maps for areas I don’t have already, or at a new detail level.

But to be honest, I find that using GPS on the road takes from the experience of cycling. It’s a bit too clinical. Most days I leave the GPS receiver at home and just ride where my mood takes me. This can yield some surprising results. One early morning recently, I took a series of random turns, just to see where it took me. I happened to find a really nice deserted road, some of it with grass growing on the centre of the road so it was really a 2 foot wide paved track. After a mile or two the gradient reached 10% (as I verified later by drawing part of the route on http://www.heywhatsthat.com/profiler.html). Soon afterwards the climb eased and the road turned into an exhilarating 60kph descent. When I arrived home I still had a huge grin on my face.

For touring, I think my solution would be the E61, BT338 with AFTrack, backed up by MGMaps for extra downloads. The BT338 can be charged by a Nokia Charger, and has decent battery life, meaning one less item to carry.

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!

    Koowho TSR Rack

    I first discovered Koowho from Japan, when I saw a fellow Moultoneer with a beautiful day rack on his APB.

    Now they have done it again, with this gorgeous rear rack for the TSR.

    It's made from aluminium, and you have a choice of polished or painted. It's pretty pricey, even before you add in shipping from Japan and customs. But if you gotta have it, you gotta have it 🙂

    There's also a front rack.

    Summer Bike

    It is said that one can never have only one Moulton. My first Moulton (a 1964 Deluxe) was my only Moulton for a while, but it soon found itself sharing the bike shed with other Moulton siblings. I now have 2 Mark 3's from the 1970s, of which one is a town bike, and the other is still being restored.

    So I really only have one touring and day ride bike, and that is an APB Fx8. And last night, I finally decided that summer had arrived, and it was time to put it into summer mode.

    Firstly I removed the rack and mudguards. If it's wet I tend to take my Mk3 which has mudguards, and these SKS mudguards are pretty much shot at this stage, so off they go. The rack is very easy to remove and reinstall, so I'll put it back on next time I need it. In the meantime, I'll leave it off to save some weight.

    In winter I use a SON dynohub with a B+M Lumotec front light. This lights up the road superbly and I've been known to go for a joyride through the backroads of north Meath in total darkness. This has been replaced with an Ultegra front hub, with Rigida Xplorer 24 hole rim.

    At the back I'm now running a Shimano Capreo 24 hole and another Rigida Xplorer rim. The Capreo is a 9-26 cassette which gives a great range, and a nice top gear, which is important on a small wheel bike.

    On my winter wheels, I'm using Schwalbe City Jet tyres (sadly no longer available in 406 size). These are relatively narrow at 32mm, but are good and sturdy, and have protected me from the puncture fairy for quite a while. For the summer, I am using Continental Grand Prix tyres, which are nice and light weight. I'm tempted to try Schwalbe Stelvios on the APB, but the Contis have plenty of miles left in them, and I also have a few spares, that I really should use first.

    Of course, it has been raining all day today, but the forecast is good, so hopefully I'll go for a nice 50km ride later this evening or tomorrow morning... tomorrow is a bank holiday here.