Back in the '60s when Moultons were most popular, we sold quite a few to the
sport and touring riders.
Sir Alex was out here in California and they brought several "racing" models
along to try out on the Encino Velodrome as part of the promotional tour.
Track is 250 meters with 29 degrees in turn.
They tried at first with the shock open and the riders almost went over the
top, The shocks were slowly tightened down until they were blocked out,
rubber ball removed. But even so at high speed they couldn't give them
enough control to keep them on pole and handle comfortably.That was the end
of anybody fooling around to race them on the track.
The Moultons would probably have been OK for pursuits and time trials, but
they had a negative vibe and no one wanted to try them for the expense
incurred. Sir Alex wasn't about to donate any to the cause, either.
A few guys tried them in criteriums, and when the racing got harder and
closer the guys would drop back a few positions each lap until they finally
either hung on or dropped out.
The consensus was that they rode well, positions easy to set up, but at hard
cornering and leaning they were too hard to manage and the rider was forced
to give way.
I suspect the small wheels had something to do with that.
There were some that tried in the longer road races but also were not
successful for similar reasons.
Customizing and changing them around was of course right up our alley as
some guys wanted to upgrade and have something no one else had.
One of the nicer ones we did was to put SF Campy hubs Campy BB and Crankset
as well as the Derailleurs.
We fashioned an adapter part for the front shift clamp mount and reworked
the rear Campy bolt on hanger so our shift angle and spacing to cog was good
and then widened frame to handle the 5 sp. Regina cluster.
Voila! 10 sp road!
The machine rode like a normal bike as we had recomputed all the gearing and
put on the proper front chainrings to bring the gearing up to full size
racing ratios.
I don't remember of we changed the calipers or not, I know we put Campy
brake levers on as well as finger tip controls, Cinelli bars, all the neat
stuff.
Through the years I 've been fortunate to have been able to ride many
various bike sizes / configurations and I wonder if the added revolutionary
speed of the small wheels, made the bike somewhat "lighter " in road
friction suggesting a sort off planing effect that made the bike less
positive and stable for hard cornering at speed.
I remember once while testing what the little SOB would / could do I made it
do a 180 while going only about 30 mph on a downhill and stayed upright!
40 years ago I was too dumb to know any better, what the hell, go for it!
Maybe the old timers had that already figured out with all the experimenting
they did through the years which is why they / we ended up with 700 / 28 "
wheels rather than 20,24 26, or 30 on our bikes as being most optimal for
cruising, control, speed, etc, overall performance.
Ted Ernst
Palos Verdes Estates
CA USA
> Joe wrote "Tom Simpson rode several pursuits
> on the track on a Moulton."
>
> Really? I have never heard of this before, was this
> done as a joke or a publicity stunt, surely this was
> not a serious race? I remember Lloyd Binch riding a
> penny farthing at Herne Hill but he never even reached
> the 220 yards to go line!!!!
>
> Brian (never rode a Moulton)Booth
> Toronto, Canada
>
>
>
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