Moulton
Alex Moulton’s small-wheeled bicycle with suspension – the first new bicycle form in seventy years.
The engineer Alex Moulton had designed the rubber suspension of the Mini car. During the Suez crisis, when petrol was rationed, he began thinking about the bicycle and concluded that small wheels with high pressure and suspension could roll as easily as large ones.
The Moulton bicycle was shown in 1962 and became a fashion item in swinging London. It has since appeared in several versions with a frame of thin tubes in a lattice, built by hand on a small scale.
Materials: Steel tube, rubber suspension front and rear, 16-inch wheels
Manufacture: Made in Bradford-on-Avon from 1962; later in new versions with a space frame.
The small wheels with narrow, high-pressure tyres.
The F-shaped frame with a single sturdy main tube to step over.
The suspension front and rear, which makes up for the small wheels’ jolts.