The front fork was in steel and featured an aircraft landing gear type toggle linkage, similar to that proposed by Moulton on his early prototypes but rejected then due to perceived customer resistance, largely the fear of the unknown. The problems of strength and fatigue resistance were overcome by careful design of tube sections and by heat-treating the completed frame – something that was “ completely unthinkable” in the 1960s. The main frame and rear fork were fabricated in aluminium in a manner that Alex had tried himself in the early days, several times, before returning to the safer waters of steel construction. The rear fork in particular was evocative of these early models, with the simple curved twin-tube cantilever construction and close-coupled pivot and spring arrangement (although nowhere near as close as the original F-frames).
#Qucs moulton speed series#
The new bicycle itself lacked little – it was well made and designed with clear inspiration having been drawn from the Series One Moultons from the early 1960s. Despite Japan being Moulton’s main market for bicycles, the reality never quite matched the expectation and sales of the ‘Bridgestone Moulton’ got off to a slow start. The joint venture with the Japanese company Bridgestone was an extraordinary coup on Moulton’s part and, as a significant deal with a mass-market manufacturer, the potential existed for a revival of the Moulton bicycle on a scale not seen since the 1960s. We have seen that, as the new century dawned, Alex Moulton was very active in new developments regarding the Moulton bicycle.
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