My Moulton TSR - a love story?

[rogerzilla]

There's one way to solve the excess weight of a TSR, eliminate the fiddly cable connectors and generally make it a much more responsive machine.

20190915_095811(0) by rogerzilla, on Flickr

20190731_185006 by rogerzilla, on Flickr

Gears schmears.

[Cyril Haearn]

+1
But whatabout chain tension? And how does the sprocket wear?

[rogerzilla]

TSRs have horizontal dropouts and a unified rear triangle, so are perfect for fixing. 56 x 15 so the sprocket wears evenly.

[AM7]

+1
But whatabout chain tension? And how does the sprocket wear?

The TSR has a unified rear triangle so chain tension isn’t an issue, but all of my roadworthy Moulton’s (a TSR, an AM, an APB and a Mk3) are all being run fixed and I’ve not any chain tension dramas. I’ve also not noticed any out of the ordinary sprocket wear problems.

[Mick F]

There's one way to solve the excess weight of a TSR, eliminate the fiddly cable connectors and generally make it a much more responsive machine.

20190915_095811(0) by rogerzilla, on Flickr

20190731_185006 by rogerzilla, on Flickr

Gears schmears.

So ...................

Where do you live that you can cope with a single gear, let alone a fixed gear?

There's no way on God's Earth that anyone could ride a bike as a single speed round here.

PS:
Why no mudguards?

[rogerzilla]

Wiltshire. It'll go up a 1 in 6 ok, although the bobbing action gets annoying even with the "race spring" and a fair bit of friction in the pivots. The mudguards didn't suit it as a fixie, and I have other bikes for wet weather. In fact, I generally reserve one bike for that and it gets cleaned rather infrequently.

[Mick F]

Ah, Wiltshire.
Flatlandia.
That makes sense.

Been through Wiltshire there and back on Moulton and on Mercian.
Can't remember if I ever changed gear or not.

As for no mudguards, how do you keep the bike clean?
I couldn't imagine a Moulton TSR without mudguards. Seems daft IMHO.

[rogerzilla]

Ever heard of the Marlborough Downs? This one's a bit of a torque challenge on a fixie:

https://cyclinguphill.com/100-climbs/dragon-hill-road/

I never need to clean any of the bikes that aren't ridden in the wet. Wipe the dust off, clean the chain, that's it.

[reohn2]

Ah, Wiltshire.
Flatlandia.......

Err

[speedsixdave]

Ever heard of the Marlborough Downs? This one's a bit of a torque challenge on a fixie:

https://cyclinguphill.com/100-climbs/dragon-hill-road/

Sorry for the pendantry, but isn't that Oxfordshire?

[Mick F]

Wiltshire was flat when I've ridden through it.
Marlborough Downs, I know a bit, but many many years since I was there. Could have sworn it was north of Wiltshire though.

Why do people mix stuff up?
0.6 of a mile and 91mtrs of climbing?
Let's say 0.6m and 298ft of climbing = 497ft per mile?

That's quite nice!

[speedsixdave]

As an aside - and speaking as a long-term Moulton user, I miss their Yahoo group. Y'day I was trauling through old posts to & from that group and recalling fondly what a busy & well-informed place it was. Back about a decade, it was the Go-To source for all that was Moulton, with regular contributions from the likes of Doug Milliken and Dan Farrell - guys who litereally designed & built several of the Moulton & Pashley / Moulton models. Alas alot of them are no longer active for reasons of age. I'm trying to figure out how to search that archive - there's a Moulton knowledge treasure-trove in there.
Now, don't any of you lovely cyclinguk posters take offence... where would I be without you?!

There is a Facebook page which looks quite busy. I personally can't get on with the Facebook interface, YMMV. I am an Moulton Bicycle Club (http://www.moultonbuzz.com) member too, but their site it very difficult to navigate and not very active, so I end up avoiding it mostly. I guess that's why I spend so much time here !

Agree with all of this. The facebook is terrible for anything other than LOOK WHAT I'M DOING RIGHT NOW!!! I love that the CTC Forum is a massive archive of useful information and one can drag up a post from several years ago full of salient knowledge. The old Yahoo Moulton forums were like that too, and sorely missed.

Last time I asked for helpful Moulton technical advice on the facebook the answers were a mixture of the supercilious and the not particularly helpful, so I came here instead and received a thread full of excellent and helpful advice as usual. This forum is great!

And that's before we start on the privacy issues of the facebook. My non-bikie friends and family don't need to know what rubbish I'm posting about.

[Mick F]

Latest chapter.

Fitted a 12-30 Ultegra cassette to the SA3sp this afternoon. Been with a 11-28 for some years, but the 11t wears terribly and have got through three of them even though the rest of the cassette was ok.

History and a re-cap:

The bike came with 58/48/34 and a 10sp 11-25 cassette.
Gave bottom gear of 25" and a top gear of 97".

Increasing to 61/48/34 and a 11/28 helped ok to get the bottom to 22.5" which is much better generally, but not low enough for such a heavy bike and the local hills. Top was better - though not great - at 102"

Fitted a SA3p and that made the top gear a stupidly high 135" and a very nice indeed 16.7" ............. but 1st on a SA gives rather a lot of inefficiency. You can feel the drag. I got used to it, but it always got my goat.

So, by having a 12-30 I get rid of the 135" and now it's at a better 124", and the bottom is now at 20.7" when in direct drive 2nd gear SA.
I doubt I will ever need to go into 1st SA in 34/30 = 15.6" as it's too low as well as having the drag issue to cope with.

Only fitted the 12-30 this afternoon, so at my earliest chance - weather permitting - I'll be out on a test ride.

[Mick F]

- weather permitting - I'll be out on a test ride.

This past few days, I had stripped Moulton down and given everything a damned good cleaning. Also fitted a new chain, and hopefully the cassette will be happy. If not, I'll have to buy a new one but meanwhile replace the old chain.

This morning, I'm going to get it on the workstand and adjust the gearing. Front mech may need pivoting side to side and getting to the correct height.

I noticed the other day, that I've done 9,989miles on it. My test ride should therefore be 11miles!


............ Weather permitting.

[Cowsham]

I noticed the other day, that I've done 9,989miles on it. My test ride should therefore be 11miles!


............ Weather permitting.

Wow -- I'll bet most of those 11 miles will be up hill from your house too. Will to be stopping at the Rising Sun to celebrate ?