A Big Loss.
As anyone who reads this space will know I’m not a professional writer and far from a biographer but I wanted to take a moment to pay homage and note the passing of Sir Alex Moulton.
Alex Moulton and his design work has long been an inspiration to me. I rode my first Moulton back in the 80’s while I was working at Dick Sonnes Ski, Hike, and Bike. It had come in for servicing and I was the lucky guy who got to do the work and of course when it was done I needed to test ride the bike. It had the classic 17″ wheels, a space frame, and front and rear suspension. I had never seen anything like this and it was the furthest thing from a ‘normal’ road bike one could imagine…………and it flat out rocked. It was fast and precise and stable and I could have made that test ride last all day.
When I became older and interested in cars I was shocked to learn that the same guy who designed those cool bikes was the guy who designed the suspension on the original Mini. It used rubber cones as the springing element and the design was very compact and space efficient – needed of course in a car that was barely 10 feet long yet would hold 4 adults. Moulton’s car work of course predated his bike work and one can see the same type of rubber cones used for the bike suspension as was used on the Mini. It all made sense to me once I’d seen it all in context.
The Moulton bikes were my first exposure to bikes designed to keep the wheels stuck to the floor with a suspension element and started my thinking about this and how it might best be done. I went on many years later to do a lot of work in this area but it all started on that test ride back at Sonnes.
I never had a chance to meet Sir Alex but would have welcomed the chance and his bikes are on the very short list of bikes that I would part with my money for. One day I will own a full on space-frame Moulton with front and rear suspension and its 17″ wheels. I look forward to that day.
Rest in piece Sir Alex Moulton – thanks for doing all you did.
You can read more about Moulton here – http://www.moultonbicycles.co.uk/
Dave
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Cool beans Dave thanks for the link. That bike looks like it should be hanging in the Met.