Fear&Trembling

That's a very nice bit of kit EvilV. Is there much front fork bob when using the stiffer settings?

I'd go for the Conti Contact Sport tyres (406/28) next- better puncture protection than Marathons and they roll better...

Diode100

Moulton AM's are much in demand, Japan will take almost anything. I've been watching the prices for a couple of years, and i cant say I've ever seen anything as low as 350, if i had, i'd have gone for it, pronto ! I wouldnt expect to pay much less than 900 pounds for the 7 or 14 speed models; the 2 speed is even rarer. Mk3 Moutons, the bridge between the AM and the F-Frame, routinely go for well over 200 pounds these days, another boat i missed along the way !

Sammyboy

I'd love one of those, but unless one comes up for a super-bargain price, it's not going to happen. What I do have, is two first-series Moulton's, Minis I believe. Once my R20 is done, I might just upgrade one of these. One (a 3 speed) is rideable but very tatty, and the rack has broken off. The other still has the rack, but the single speed freewheel is borked. I might just rebuild that one with alloy rims, and whatever multispeed hub I can get cheap (I have a bunch of AW's around, but something a bit more exciting could be fun), give it a respray, and away I go. Anyway, I should complete some of my current projects before I start a new one....

Sammyboy

Actually, those might be alloy rims already, looking at them. Maybe a respray, swap the wheels, and make the gold one a fixed gear, with the other a useable 3 or 4 or maybe more speed.

EvilV

Hey thanks for the tyre tip. I'm grateful.

The forks don't bob on the stiffer setting unless I get up and pound a bit. It will bob then, but not like it does on the soft setting. The overall effect of the suspension is that rough road surface becomes really quite smooth and you can speed over roughish roads at 20 mph with total confidence. I'm talking stuff that would rattle your teeth on the Merc.

EvilV

The one I saw go for £350 was a model called 'Landrover' which Tony Hadland told me was an AM variant. It looked pretty good. The guy had just lost interest and stopped riding. I was still watching that one when mine came up on ebay and I went right for it.

tcs

Hmmm, something lost in translation. As Mr. Hadland knows, the Landrover was an APB model, built by Pashley in Stratford with a hairpin carbon steel frame and 20" (ISO406) wheels. The AM series - still in production - has been built since 1983 at the AM works in Bradford, has a 531 space frame and 17" (ISO369) wheels.

Completely different bikes; both wonderful but the AM is far more expensive.

HTH,
TCS

PS - BTW, neither the Landrover nor the AM are folding bikes!

EvilV

OOOOPssss.

You are right. I am most terribly sorry to mis-speak about Mr Hadland. I just checked the email and he said it was an APB.

Thanks for the correction.

Mr. Smith

Fortunately the exchange rate averaged 1.33:1 dollars to pounds sterling that year. At nearly 2:1 presently...

EvilV

Post Script.


Well.... I think I' going to sell my lovely TSR30. I have not had the time to ride it once this year due to other hobbies and commitments so it is standing lonely and unloved in the corner of my bedroom where it has been since last October. Sad to say, I have not ridden it since I wrote this review on about the fifth oct last year.

Now I have to work out how to find it a new home and master /mistress.

what bike?

Nice buy although i think £1000 is way too steep but it is a great bike, but the fold isnt exactly small

what bike?

oh soon as i post your selling lol , ill buy it for £200 lol

SesameCrunch

Wow! Sorry to see you split with such a beautiful bike.

I wish I was in the UK. I'd buy it from you!

mulleady

Lovely bike EvilV, especially in maroon. So you have abandoned your Merc like man who sheds an older wife for a younger and higher spec model lol?

I saw the Landrover on ebay but it isn't in the class of your bike and yellow doesn't suit it but colour subjective I know! What do people think of the older Dahon Speed Pro's from around 3-4 years ago?

StuAff

Lovely machine indeed- saw one in The Cut branch of Evans Cycles a couple of months ago. Really nice colour. Wouldn't mind it if I had the ££££ and room- I'm not replacing my XP, though it needs some new parts- that's the problem with actually using it (!) but old hybrid is knackered so that does need to be.

EvilV

You missed my last post Francis. I'm selling it rather sadly. I haven't abandoned the Merc, I just haven't got the time to ride the TSR30 and I'm not that rich that I can afford to keep a £1450 bike in my bedroom un-ridden for a year. I don't like to use it as a trashing about bike like I do the little Merc. It's a thoroughbred and needs some respect and speedy pleasure riding. It's crying out for someone to fly it around the country lanes. I am 57 years old and never a racing rider, I'm npt big enough, but I almost managed to cover 40 miles in two hours last September. I actually did it in 2 hrs five minutes. It is a revelation in speed and ease of riding. The suspension is fantastic.

I paid £1000 and I aim to get that back.


PS - this is not an advert. It will sell easily on Ebay where I bought it. It was only up for two hours when I spotted and bought it and the seller already had a spate of emails about by that time. I'm just sharing the tale, that's all. When I can bring myself to do the deed I'll put her up and see what happens.

what bike?

good luck selling it m8 you might even make a profit on the bike

EvilV

I probably could but I'm not looking for that. I just want my money back and it was such a steal when I got it, someone else can have the delight I had and no one is worse off except the original owner. His story was bizzare, but I am sure I believe him. His mother told me the same tale and with great head shaking said she didn't know what to do with him.

He was a twenty year old production engineering student working at Pashleys as a practical placement where these bikes are virtually hand built. He bought one himself in a powder blue colour and then (big big mistake) he sought to reawaken the failing passions of his grilfriend by buying her a wonder bike just like his and supervised its every transformation from steel tubes and components to finished bike..... I think he didn't understand women or relationships, because after giving it to her and taking her on a single ride, she handed it back and dumped him. He sold it to me a week later with clean tyres that still smelled of the factory. I drove down to Cheltenham where he lived in a big house with doting parents and waited for him to arrive back from Pashleys and his mother a lady of similar age to myself shook her head over his act of unwisdom and lack of grasp of the nature of women and love. How the lad thought buying a bike for a girl would make her love him I do not know. Might work with snafu... I don't know. She is a unique lady though I'd say.

StuAff

Sad story. The girl was a bit sad too if you ask me- he read her wrong and he got her the wrong gift, but clearly he meant well, and was passionate enough about her to do that....
But I'm a bloke. What would I want with Manolo Blahniks?

EvilV

LOL - I had to look up that reference to Manolo Blahniks. Wot r they thinks me, which makes your point rather well, except that maybe bikes are also the province of girls in a way that Manolo Blahniks are not the province of men.

He was a decent sort of a lad and no mistake, but he did say they'd been going through a rough patch and I think he surprised her with this gift. I won't say anything bad about either of them, but if they weren't suited, they weren't; irrespective of his magnificent gift to her, and that wasn't ever going to change.

PDR

Nice looking bike!
Can anyone tell me what the overall length of these bikes is? I have searched various sites but can’t find this data. The reason I ask is that I’d like one of these TSR bikes but I would need to know if it would fit into the lift of my workplace.
(just need the measurement from the outside edge of the rear tyre to the edge of the front tyre taking a centre line through the wheels),
Thanks

Raxel

EvilV- Too sad to see you sell that magnificant bike. But I cannot afford to have another one for myself either :]
My GF's TSR is waiting for a major upgrade soon. I'll post the pic when it's done.

PDR - All moultons have VERY long wheelbases. From my measurement TSR's wheelbase is 1060mm. Overall length of TSR is not particularly smaller than typical 26" or 27" bikes.

Sammyboy

I think it's safe to say that a bloke would need to do rather more than buy a bike to win Snafu's heart!

EvilV

I think Snafu is one of the funniest people around here. I bet she's even funnier in person. I rarely get to the end of one of her posts without a laugh.

The bike is sold by the way and will be winging its way across the planet in September. Had the new owner been in Europe, I might have offered to ride it to their door.


PDR - with marathon tyres on (which are not the original spec and are 'taller' than the stelvios it came with) the distance through the wheel centres from outside rim to outside rim is 155cm. That is the overall length.



EDIT:
jeez I rode it again today for the last time (20 miles). She springs along like a gazelle. Even wheeling the thing about the garden to wipe it over and check things out, you can feel the spring in the whole bike. Had it whinnied and reared up I'd not have been surprised. It's one frisky ride and I'm really quite sad not to be keeping it.


Today after my last ride ->

https://picasaweb.google.com/Volpoon/...94165367031794

Sammyboy

Absolutely! That certainly wasn't meant as a criticism, and I'm sure anyone who reads Snafu's posts closely will understand it.