Gravel Grinding with Small Wheels?
In this vid, I take the Moulton off pavement! Probably not the design intent of Alex Moulton, but my curiosity gets the better of me as how I test out how well the in-frame suspension works with a gravel road. Does the bike survive? Find out!
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Moulton briefly made the full Reynolds 531 full suspension ATB in 1988 and 1989. I bought one and loved it. A 20 x2.1 mountain bike knobby fit and worked well in all conditions except rock gardens due to wheels/tire size limits. The Moulton 531 front and rear racks provided stable and substantial platforms for carrying touring equipment.
Subsequently Moulton licensed Pashley Cycles to build the APB model, a less expensive vession of the ATB. It is now called the TRS model.
All of my early 1960’s F Frame Moultons fit 16x37mm tires on their 349 wheel size. I wondered if you could find a 20×37 or 38 to fit yours. It makes a considerable difference in handling and performance on gravel surfaces. Maybe Pashley would be the source.
I have a Moulton tsr 9 converted to a double 50/34 tsr 18. This has V brakes paired to Tektro levers on a Syntace drop bar with bar ends. At the moment it has the excellent Schwalbe Supremes on it, which are 42 mm wide, but are unfortunately no longer available. It is intended as a long distance fast tourer, but goe very well off-road. So equiped, the bike is very fast and very stable on much rockier gravel than in the video. Obviously, larger wheels will roll over some larger potholes more easily without dipping in, but the Moulton will still be much more comfortable and more stable at speed down hill. The suspension really does help stability when hitting obstacles at speed (within limits).