Moulton Standard Mark one

I recently picked up this 1965 four speed Moulton Standard Mark one off my good friend @alexis and I'm planning on tinkering with it over the coming months to resolve the years gone by where its lost its lustre somewhat. It was built at the Kirkby plant after demand for these took off (I think) and they needed to up production. For anyone after a short 2 minute Moulton education this video is amusing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb5e46nDg5Y

Condition wise it's got some surface rust but no dings or dents. The rear forks were cracked, which was common in these models, but they've been re-welded to strengthen and fix the crack. Overall for a bike which is 52 I don't think it looks too bad.

The wheels are straight and both hubs smooth and on the road, it's great fun. It's surprisingly lively and fast, and great on London's roads, soaking up the bumps through the suspension. It doesn't absorb it all, but does distinctly soften the blows of pot holes and speed humps which is welcome for my rear.

Light however it is not, easily weighing more than my steel road bikes (probably 12kgs plus), which is one area I want to look at in the refurb. It has the feel of a tank which is in part comforting but equally concerning when braking while bombing down the road.

Plans for this are not entirely clear as yet, but will likely involve a powder coat at Armourtex and the swap out of some parts for lighter parts, in particular the rims to improve stopping power. I'm debating adding some drops and the saddle type, as while a Brooks will look nice there's no obvious way to secure it to the bike to prevent the inevitable theft by some scrotum. Most of my time will likely be spent scratching my head after I've stripped it and I try to work out how to put it back together again.

Welcome thoughts and contributions, particularly from anyone with experience of one of these.

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Subbed.
Love these threads :)

Here's one I did a year a two a go (now sold).

This I always liked:

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@cino nice! Presume you changed the wheels - what rims did you use?

I restored one last year, and ended up riding the Dunwich Dynamo on it. They're not the lightest but can be made surprisingly quick.

My build / restoration thread is here:

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/281162/

Brompton rims are best, the original brakes work fine as long as you use decent pads (i put a pair of swissstop on them) and armourtex powder coating is worth doing. The suspension mech is a bit fiddly, particularly the front, and you need to be careful not to lose anything. I wholeheartedly recommend the Moulton Bicycle Club for advice (http://www.moultonbuzz.com) and there's a chap named Michael Woolf there who will be able to help with parts, etc. (being firmly based in the 1960's he's only contactable by post!)

One word of warning tho - my frame was also a kirby built effort and quality control was poor. I had several cracks appear which needed repairing so the project ended up becoming quite expensive. However it was still considerably less than the cost of a new Brompton and a thousand times more fun.

Best of luck

There's not a massive choice , but I went for standard Brompton single wall rims, mainly because they looked right .

Thanks @jonnydelmundo - very useful tips indeed. I've read that about Kirkby frames as well - lets hope this one holds together but will do a thorough inspection when I strip it. Do you think the issues on yours were noticeable at the outset or did they just develop over time?

they developed over time. but i'm guessing my 15st bulk didn't help matters...

Perusing the internet had led me across this amusing tale from Sheldon Brown, who it turns out was pretty keen on the Moulton

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/org/moulton-deluxe.html