Brandon,
You are absolutely correct! I was just trying to point out how very successful small wheels have become around the world. Moulton was magically successful in the early 1960's with his small wheel Mini bike that went along with the Morris Mini Cooper, and the fashion of Mini Skirts ( From England I even obtained some Lutz wool Mini leg padded bike shorts in my early days, had to shave pretty high :)) which was an advertising tie in as I understand.
Raleigh came on board with their small wheel unsuspended line of shopping bikes (RSW16 and Raleigh 20) to respond to the market demand. Cycle sales in Britain were really sagging in the early 60's as a post war economy geared up toward motor vehicle ownership in record numbers abandoning the bicycle as a regular transport vehicle. Some authorities on the subject credit the early Moulton for reviving a terminal decline in cycle sales of the whole British cycling industry, a fact I was not aware of having been raised in the bike boom in America.
These small wheel Raleigh's and their Dawes or similar counterparts now enjoy some enthusiast interest (ref: Sheldon Brown's site).
It is the conclusion of Mr. Hadland that without the previous success of the 1960's Moulton bicycle that Raleigh, Dawes or even Bike Friday would not have been inspired to develop a small wheel road bicycle for adult or enthusiast use. It's the inspiration of what came first and worked that inspires the large bike corporation or the smaller entrepreneur to take an unfamiliar road leading to an uncertain result.
Alex Moulton was certainly inspired by previous successful utilization of small wheels; but it was not bicycles, the small wheel Mini Cooper's award winning suspension was his development.
The Bike Friday and The Moulton are certainly very different products but they do share one major common element in the small wheels, which was my only reference.
High regards,
Gilbert Anderson Raleigh, NC USA In a message dated 7/13/02 8:45:31 PM, monkeylad@mac.com writes:
<< At 8:12 PM -0400 7/13/02, CYCLESTORE@aol.com wrote:
>(very imitated since then in Europe
>and now on America a'la'bike Friday, etc.)
More later on Moultons, but quickly Bike Friday is a very different bike than a Moulton. Yes they both have small wheels, but that's about it. I could go into the details but basically Moultons don't fold, they collapse or are take-aparts. The goals that Dr. Moulton and Hanz were designing for are also quite different. For more info look at Tony Hadland's book "It's in the Bag." I'm a big Moulton fan but I was also Bike Friday's assembly manager and back-up painter for 2 years. enjoy, Brandon"monkeyman"Ives Loves small wheels in Santa Barbara >>
Gilbert Anderson
The North Road Bicycle Company
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