1965 Moulton Mk1

[Polarsilver]

I found my 4speed shifting was "Iffy" so took apart the Wheel Gear Hub & gave the internals a good clean out & re- lubricated given Moulton had 57 year old oil in there.. it was worth the doing ..
My Moke & the Moulton will be at Bicester Mini Day this Sunday..

[UHR850]

Random pictures

[Pandora]

If only I owned a mini van.

Oh, wait.

Al

[Old English White]

I wonder how they have a 54 reg one?

[Peter Laidler]

Just seems to me that Moulton bikes went the same way as hydrolastic suspension. How long did his bike production last? Anyone know?

I had one, found it in the garage of a house I bought. It was the 'snooker cue' design apparently. Advertised it on Ebay and a bloke arranged it's collection and delivery to Italy.

[Pandora]

The original F frames were made well into the 70s, then the spaceframes. They were bought by Raleigh in the early 70's I think. The suspension design stayed throughout. I'm not 100% sure if you can still buy one new, but you could until quite recently. Even more expensive than a Brompton, which of course builds on the design (especially the stowaway)

Mine us now finished and on my brief outings is quite comfy.

If I was still a child I'd ride it more, but everyone knows you shouldn't ride a bike over the age of 12

Al

[mab01uk]

Just seems to me that Moulton bikes went the same way as hydrolastic suspension. How long did his bike production last? Anyone know?

I had one, found it in the garage of a house I bought. It was the 'snooker cue' design apparently. Advertised it on Ebay and a bloke arranged it's collection and delivery to Italy.

"In the autumn of 1965 Raleigh's new RSW (Raleigh Small Wheel) shopping bicycle was beginning to make a serious dent on Moulton's profits. That's understating the situation; the sales of Moultons were evaporating fast, and something had to be done. Around the middle of September 1965 a number of design modifications were brought in to try to save money on making the range of Moulton bicycles. In 1966 the range was rationalised so that even the Standard was deleted. More exotic models such as the Safari were only built to special order. Only the Deluxe and the Speedsix continued into 1967. We can see this as the beginning of the adult Moulton concept as a more aspirational product. This trend has continued to accelerate as the years have passed."
http://www.bicyclehub.co.uk/moulton-mini

Raleigh eventually bought out Moulton and took over production of the original F-frame Moulton Bicycles. I had a 7/8ths size 'Moulton Mini' as a 10 year old in 1967 but when Raleigh took over they deleted the front suspension on the later 'Mini' models to save costs.....after that the front of the frames on Moulton Minis started to crack due to the extra loadings from no Moulton front suspension!

Moulton Design Influences:-
http://www.bicyclehub.co.uk/moulton-design-influences

The Raleigh Small Wheel (RSW) Bicycle.
"The Raleigh RSW was an interesting creature. It was made from 1965 to 1974, as a response to the roller-coaster success of the Moulton Bicycle. In fact, the pre-production bike was shown to Alex Moulton as early as 1964.
Most Moulton fans despise the RSW and believe that it was responsible for the eventual demise of the classic Moulton bicycle.
It is certainly true that the RSW muscled in on the Moulton's success and pinched it's customers, as any rival product can. If you create a whole new market then your competitors are always going to have their beady eyes on it. Sales figures show that Moulton bicycles were selling well throughout the first half of 1965, then sales fell off a cliff as soon as the RSW appeared. The latter bike was cheaper- evil thing. Moulton countered with the 7/8ths scale version of their bike, the Mini, in 1966 and this was also successful for many years. The rival bikes had a relatively short product life-cycle, unfortunately, probably due to other new designs being launched. Shopper bicycles with 20" wheels, sometimes folding like the Dawes Kingpin, appeared in the late 1960's. Raleigh's own shopper took over from both the Moulton and the RSW and was also bought in large numbers into the 1980's. Clearly, there were more bikes than the market could cope with, and bikes tend to last a long time.
It seems a shame that the revolution started by Moulton did not permanently alter the common perception that bicycles must have large wheels. Nevertheless, we have also seen that the small-wheeled bicycle concept has survived quite nicely in niche products to the present day. Let us forgive and forget the sales war of the past."
http://www.bicyclehub.co.uk/raleigh-rsw

[Peter Laidler]

Many thanks for those replies and info chaps

Oh, Pandora....., me and my son are road and cross country bikers. We're both just over the age 12 cut-off!. Our trusty Cannondales had an outing this morning before anyone else was up and he'd ridden over from Didcot to wake me up.

As a bit of an aside, the mechanical engineering product world is littered with ideas and add-ons to the original ideas and especially fuzzy logic, that barely make it past the first hurdles. I've come across plenty of them in my short engineering life

[Pandora]

Made it to a lovely wee show (organised by Nigel / Carbon of this parish) at Lennoxlove House the other weekend. The right crowd and no crowding and all that.

Just working on a final tweak to the project and it should be all finished any day now.

Al

moulton at lennoxlove.jpg

[Polarsilver]

Sporty look with Drops + No Mudguards + Racing Seat + Saddle Bag for your Sunglasses.

Moulton Minivan was reg no AAM 470B .. so says internet.