Moulton Standard MK3

[MilliwMoo]

Can any one help with Dating My Moulton Standard Mk3 Bicycle just required for restoring
numbers not clear -0-661 can only make out this i was told by the seller late 60s early 70s

[PT1029]

Clean the 3 speed hub barrel. There should be a date mark stamped on it (MM YY). A pretty good guide assuming it is the original wheel.

[rjb]

Lots of good info in these threads for dating it.
https://moultoneer.wordpress.com/2021/1 ... a-moulton/
https://www.bicyclehub.co.uk/moulton

couple of photos would pique some interest. Whereabouts are you?

[rogerzilla]

They weren't made for very long (1970-74) so that narrows it down a lot. Not the easiest things to restore, not that series 1 or 2 Moultons are easy either, due to the use of proprietary parts that haven't been made for decades.

[Brucey]

IIRC the mk3 has the 'improved' rear suspension, a raleigh-type built-in stand, and a weird (3s + brake) hub at the rear which is shared only with the Raleigh RSW16. If you haven't done so already, I suggest you join the moulton owner's club. The hub was often supplied without a cover over the ball-ring bearings, in contrast to every other 3s hub. You can add one if it is missing, but you might need a special spacer next to the sprocket to do it. I found it nearly impossible to correctly adjust this hub without a custom-made cone spanner. It is also nearly impossible to prevent lubricant from escaping the confines of the 3s bit (where you need it) into the brake (where it is nothing but a nuisance). Despite this hub's undoubted quirks, it is advised that you keep it, not least because fitting a caliper brake at the rear is not terribly straightforward,

Mk3 moultons are meant to have a fork where the suspension follows the layout of earlier models but with a different number of splines. I say 'meant to' because I managed to find a mk3 moulton with a mk2 fork. I suspect that it had always been like this, too...

btw the front hub will probably be a raleigh one which looks almost symmetrical but is in fact intended to go only one way round, with the cone flats on the left.