Moulton Standard M1 1965 (finished)

rmwesley

rmwesley

Retro Guru
This has been a slow burner, but I've made a bit of progress recently so I thought I'd put a few pics up. It was bought as a "project" at the Moulton club meet at The Hall in Bradford-on-Avon about a year ago. The serial numbers K65 and 160064 indicate it was built in the Kirkby factory in 1965, being the 64th bike in the 16th week. The Kirkby heritage was reinforced by the fact there didn't seem to be a single trace of grease anywhere it was supposed to be.

It was originally polychromatic blue, but hidden under a fetching inch-thick coat of green enamel. I think it is one of the "New Look" models having a Sturmey Archer FW 4-speed rear hub and 13 tooth sprocket, rather than the AW 3-speed and 14 tooth sprocket which came with the standard M1 Standard 🤔

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Rear suspension was a massive PITA to remove requiring a blowtorch, hammers of increasing size, a variety of swear words and finally a hacksaw and multipack of carbide drill bits...

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The front hub (Sturmey Archer GH6 Dynohub) was rusted to bits internally, plus both the front and rear rims were also too far gone. The rear Sturmey FW 4-sp hub has gone in the parts bin to fight another day.

New mini-wheels were built up with Sun CR18 rims, a 36h Sturmey X-RF4 4-sp rear and a 32h Shimano 105 front hub. Pleased with how they turned out, but it did involve a bit of guesswork since the spokes are too short for a tensiometer. I did three cross and the spoke angle into the nipple is a bit more than I'd like. I guess time will tell if any break. Hopefully shouldn't since they will only be carrying a mini-person.

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The rear hub is 120mm OLD, but the rear forks were only 116mm and more than a bit wonky. Therefore they got sent of to a chap called Gary who provides a fantastic service to rebraze Moulton rear forks to the OLD of your choice, unwonkying them in the process. This is where I realise my pictures are slightly out of kilter since I got this done after stripping the frame and before getting it powdercoated.

Re-fitting Moulton rear forks has potential for a fair bit of colourful language, but essentially involves riveting the suspension block back onto the fork, offering up to the frame, then using a 2000kg ratchet strap to compress it into roughly the right position, at which point you should then be able to get the rear axle into the frame (hopefully).

Frame with new guide bushes installed...

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