Tag: tsr

Moulton spotted at a fashion show

I'm no fan of fashion shows but Velorution, the trendy London bike shop and Moulton dealer, recently hosted a cycling fashion show called Pret à Rouler.

In the video of the event, shown below, there are several clips of a Pashley Moulton TSR 9. It's nice to the Moulton featured in such a stylish way.

If the show highlights anything, it's how there's hitherto been a serious lack of variety when it comes to cycle clothing, especially for those of us who are not pretending to be racers. Partly inspired by the Grant Petersen interview, I'm beginning to see what a silly practice the wearing of racing clothing is.When a motorist (boy racer for example) puts a spoiler or a body kit on his car, or installs bucket seats, most normal people think he's a twat, and rightly so! Imagine how they'd be viewed if the boy racers started wearing fireproof jump suits and helmets!But we cyclists are expected to wear clothing designed for top class professional cyclists... men who weigh 60kgs, with 5% body fat. Let's face it... lycra does nothing for 95% of cyclists... and it does nothing to encourage non-cyclists onto two wheels.

Part of me thinks that the proposed ban on lycra cycling shorts in Salt Lake City, Utah is not such a bad idea!

I welcome this new focus by clothing designers on cycle clothing. Needless to say, Pret a Rouler was a fashion show, and one rarely sees practical items of clothing at a fashion show of any description. I'm not sure I could ever turn up at work or even at BoA wearing a Dashing Tweeds outfit, however ingenious the weaving of reflective material into the tweed might be.

Cycling Suit by Dashing Tweeds

So let's hope that Pret a Rouler marks the start of a new generation in cycle clothing. Where one does not have to dress up to go for a ride. Where we cyclists can dismount and immediately look like normal people.

While we're waiting for the revolution, the internet must suffice.

For functional cycle clothing that would almost pass for normal clothing, try Swrve, Chrome, Rivendell, Bicycle Fixation or Portland.

Bicycle Fixation Knickers

Or even try the local charity shop, and get stuff altered to suit.

And if you must wear race style clothing, and to be honest it's difficult to avoid it for rides of 50km or over, try it in natural fabrics from the likes of Rapha, Woolistic or Ibex.

Rapha Fixed Shorts

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:

Moulton AM Esprit Separable frame

One small detail of the new Alex Moulton AM Esprit has thus far escaped my attention.

The trend in Moulton frame design in recent years has seemed to be move to a straight bottom tube, instead of the older style "knuckle shaped" bottom tube, as seen on the old AM and many other models. In recent years, the non-separable versions of the APB (fx8), New Series (pylon, speed) and the new Pashley Moulton TSR have had this straight bottom tube. More recently, separable Moultons (including the New Series Double Pylon and the Pashley Moulton TSR) have also had a straight bottom tube.

I expected that the new Moulton AM Esprit would also have this feature in the separable version, but as the photo below (from Dynavector) shows, the separable version looks very like the old AM.

Contrast this with the more elegant design of the non-separable frame shown below (again from Dynavector)

More details on the new Moulton AM Esprit

More details on the new bicycle from Alex Moulton, which has not yet been announced at home. It is being called the AM Esprit in Japan

Tapered front forks, kasei tubing and the narrow tubes wrapping around the head tube and seat tube in the style of the APB/TSR, instead of brazed into them as with the old AM.

More information (translated from Japanese) see here

Esprit: Is this the new AM??

Just hours after the rumours of a new Moulton model seemed to be too frequent to ignore, it seems that this model has been publicised in Japan earlier this month. It's called the Moulton AM Esprit.

Very similar to an AM except:
- lighter
- straight bottom tube
- solid rubber rear suspension, no fluid damped hydrolastic. Presumably, no flexitor rear pivot either.
- wider, more rigid frame.
- larger diameter tubes in the chainstay
- 31.6mm diameter seat post

It also looks like there's no Unified Rear Triangle unlike the TSR. It will be cheaper than the current AM, but more expensive than the TSR.

It's not clear whether this is seen as a new model, or simply an updating of the existing AM range. Questions about whether existing racks and luggage will fit remain to be answered. In any case, it seems the strategy is to bring the AM slightly down market to make clear space between it and the New Series, and bringing it into competition with the Pashley built TSR 30.

Watch this space!!