Well, the Boss took a trip to Europe with our son, so I find myself with a
whole month of bachelorhood! Of course, the first order of business was to transform our family room into a bicycle workshop
, so I moved my repair stand an a bunch of tools and parts bins from the garage into the house
. That gave me a chance to get caught up on the Moulton as well as some other miscellaneous bike projects.
I had been meaning to upgrade the rear hub to a Sturmey Archer 8 and finally got around to it. It presented a dilemma as I had a 36 hole hub and a 28 hole rim. But, after considerable head-scratching, and trying to remember my high school math classes, I decided to take the easy way out and just lace it radially. I figure with 28 spokes, and mighty short ones at that (123mm), I wouldn't have much of a problem. Besides, the front wheel was already radial, and I actually quite like the looks. So the result is this:
I was also tremendously lucky recently when I found a discarded old Schwinn road bike in a dumpster. Recognizing some parts that I might cannibalize, I took the bike home and commenced salvage operations. I was rewarded with drop bars with 1" quill stem AND 1" bars, complete with brakes levers. Some of you may appreciate how difficult this combination is to find nowadays. Everything fit nicely onto the Moulton, and in the process resolved my cockpit crampness. I was thrilled!
In a fit of whimsy, I put the SA8 shifter on the quill stem. This gave it much cleaner lines around the handlebars. What the heck, it's my bike, I'll install the shifter wherever I like
. So it ended up like this:
Now it rides really nicely. I love the SA8. It gives such good gear range. The bike is probably close to 30 lbs now, but who cares, it's built for Pootling in style anyway. I'm very pleased!
Oh, it still needs the rear brake. I have some long reach brake calipers (90mm
) on order from Harris Cyclery. The only remaining longer term mod is to get the old Raleigh standard (26 tpi) bottom bracket drilled out and fit some modern cranks onto the bike. The current cottered cranks are cranky and too short (160mm) for my tastes. Then, the bike will be declared done!
I suspect I'll give the Mini a well deserved rest once this Moulton is done. I like the Moulton's cushy ride for Pootling around town. I'll have to do a proper Pootle and post it some day soon.