BBC REPAIR SHOP - MOULTON BICYCLES

A classic Moulton Stowaway bicycle featured in the popular BBC television series The Repair Shop this week. Bicycle restorer Tim Gunn took on the project on behalf of two sisters who grew up with the bicycle as their family moved around the world as work dictated. Absolutely correctly, Tim described the Moulton as “quite an important design statement in the bicycle industry” and this bike, a two-speed Moulton Stowaway, is certainly that. Tim did a great job in restoring the rare machine whilst preserving much of the original patina. Although, next time, put the dynamo bottle on the rear fork Tim!

Whilst many people think that the Moulton is a folding bike, this was never the case. The vast majority of early Moultons, these ‘F-frame’ models from the 1960s, were fixed-frame types and very few were the separable Stowaway models like this. Alex Moulton’s association with the British Motor Corporation - he was the creator of the rubber suspension for the Mini and the Hydrolastic suspension system for the 1100 and 1800 - led to requests for a separable bicycle that would fit in a car boot and could be sold through car dealerships, very much ground-breaking at the time.

You can view this episode on BBC iplayer here.

As we have found so often, Alex Moulton’s world was full of coincidences. And even now, they crop up. The two sisters in this programme had strong memories of their Moulton bicycle when they lived in Kuching, Borneo. Nothing remarkable there, except that Kuching was the city where Alex Moulton’s parents met, and where they were married in 1914. Jack Moulton, Alex’s father, had been recruited by Rajah Charles Brooke to establish a new museum in Kuching. Beryl Latimer Greene, Alex’s mother, had travelled half the way around the world to visit her brother, Reginald Greene, who was a doctor in Kuching.

And for those who prefer two coincidences to one, this same episode of The Repair Shop features the restoration of a classic jukebox. One may rightly ask “where is the coincidence here?” and it lies with the Bristol company Frenchay Products. This company, run by Alex’s friend - and a significant one at that - David Fry of Fry’s Chocolate fame, made parts for aeroplanes. Like many other companies, at times they had to look around for business to supplement their bread-and-butter work. Alex Moulton persuaded David Fry to make the original, the very first Moulton bicycle, the monocoque. At the same time, David Fry entered into an arrangement with the French company Chantal to make … Jukeboxes.

The Moulton Stowaway, designed to fit into the boot of a car (you needed to remove your Labrador first).

The Original Moulton Monocoque, built by Frenchay Products.