Riding Ridgeville, SC area

A local bike store employee recently suggested I check out the area around a little town called Ridgeville, he told me there was some nice bike rides on the surrounding country roads.

Ridgeville is about 11 miles Northwest of Summerville, South Carolina, just off Highway 78; I’ve ridden out there several weekends now.

When I pulled Ridgeville up on Google maps, I could see the whole area was just a maze of little country roads. You could easily ride a hundred miles if you wished, and still be reasonably close to home.

The only problem is that many of the roads marked on the map are dirt roads, and there is no way of telling which ones are paved until you get out and ride them. However, that is part of the adventure.

The roads that are paved are wide and of generally good surface and the great thing is, traffic is light; I estimate on average seeing one car per mile traveled. Many of the roads are shaded by old growth trees.

I found a couple of photo opportunities; the picture at the top of an old building, where a faded sign told me it was once a grocery store. Below is a tiny roadside cabin, beneath an ancient live oak tree, with the spanish moss hanging from its branches. So typical of the South.

Where to stick the blinking thing

It gets increasingly dark in the early morning when I set out on a ride, so I recently bought myself a set of “Blinkie” lights, and where to put the rear light was a dilemma.

Because I ride tubulars and I always have a spare tire tightly wrapped in a piece of plastic and held beneath my saddle with a single toe strap. Also in the bundle is a co2 pump and a couple of spare cartridges.

The suggested mounting by a seat post clamp that came with the rear lamp, wouldn’t work because the spare tire would obscure the lamp.

I solved the problem by including a small screwdriver in my bundle and clamping the lamp to the handle.

Actually, a screwdriver is a pretty useful tool to have. When I glue my tires on, I always leave the space between two spokes that is directly opposite the valve, without glue.

The reason, it gives me an easy place to start when I need to remove the tire, and a flat screwdriver slipped between the tire and rim at that spot makes it even easier to lever the tire off the rim and break the glue bond.

The reason I thought of this was because back in the 1950s rear lamps always came with a seatstay clamp.

It was an easy matter to tighten the clamp (Off the bike.) and thread the strap holding the spare tire through the clamp, so the lamp was neatly mounted on the outside edge of the tire package.

It made it easy to remove the lamp when racing. And why do I choose the spot opposite the valve to leave without glue? Just so I know where it is. It is usually the spot where the makers label is on the rim.

                        

New Owner's Registry

My new owner's frame number registry is now up and running at davemoultonregistry.com. There is also a permanent link in the navigation bar at the top of this blog.

This is a project that I have had at the back of my mind for a few years now, and finally it has all come together in the last few weeks. I have just a few frames and their owners listed so far, more will be added in the days, weeks and months to follow.

Already I have been making a withdrawal from deep within my memory bank, especially when looking through my frame number record book, and looking at photos of these very same frames it lists, built back in the early 1980s.

Some frames I remember clearly along with the people that ordered them, others are nothing more than a few scant details, hand written in a little 5 x 8 inch notebook. What I do remember is my feelings of the situation I found myself in back then.

Renting space in the Masi shop which consisted of two rooms, each about 40 x 40 feet, one room was for framebuilding, the other housed the paint booth. I was sharing this with three other framebuilders, and two painters.

All four of us were sharing the same frame jig, sand blasting and paint booth.

Two painters had the use of the paint booth three days each, that left one day which happened to be Sunday, for me to paint my frames.

Add to this the fact that I was building custom frames; each one different, individually built for different customers. Not contusive to any sort of production on a large scale.

In spite of this I built 69 frames in 1982; that was almost six frames a month. A good year, but I had to do better if I was ever going to open my own frameshop.

In 1983 I hit the ground running; I built 10 frames in January, 9 in February, (Not bad for a short month.) 11 frames built in March of ’83.

I built a total of 96 custom frames that year, plus I managed to move out of the Masi shop and into my own facility, and started production on the John Howard frame.

This 1984 1st Generation Fuso #216 is currently owned by Bill Silverman. The white decal panels were inspired by the custom paintwork like the frame pictured at the top and built a year earlier

Of the nine frames built in February 1983, I found it interesting that I was listing three of them in my new registry. The first, one of two custom frames owned by Lorin Youde is #2831; a 57cm. frame that was originally built as a display model for “Bud’s” Bike Store, in Claremont, CA. (Two top pictures.) More pictures on Flickr.

#2832 was also a 57cm. custom built for Chuck Schmidt, a frame that sports a great deal of chrome plating. (Picture left.)

The previous frame just mentioned was probably built on the same jig setting as Chuck's, as it was a stock frame not built with any particular customer in mind.

Then #2836 is my own “Tribute Bike” generously presented to me early last year. More pictures of that bike here.

If you own a custom ‘dave moulton,’ a John Howard, Fuso, or Recherché, please email me with the frame number, size and model if it’s a Fuso. Also, please mention how long you have owned it and whether the paint is original or repaint.

I will add your name to the list, pictures too if you care to send them, or if you have pictures on a site like Flickr, or PhotoBucket, I can link to them.

Email for this purpose use dave[AT]prodigalchild[DOT]net

                        

The menace of old guys on bicycles

Ah the sounds of summer, the sound of baseball bat on carbon fiber. It seems the more “Bike friendly” states like Colorado become, the more unfriendly the natives are. First we have the Black Hawk bicycle ban, now this.

A cyclist celebrating his 65th birthday by going on a 65 mile bike ride with a few of his friends, when 24 year old Bryce Barker driving his car, cuts them off, honks at them, then gets out of his vehicle and proceeds to beat the crap out of one of the bikes with an aluminum baseball bat.

The assailant said he was “Tired of old guys on bicycles hogging the road.”  At 24 years of age this youngster must have at least eight years behind the wheel. That much experience is bound to give one a strong sense of entitlement, and a deep-seated feeling of ownership of the public highway.

The cyclist held his bike out in front of him like a shield; not a good idea because that is like inviting the guy to hit it. The Trek carbon fiber bike valued at $4,800 was destroyed. (Not that a steel frame would have fared any better.)

My advice in such circumstances would be this, if your bike has any value, lay it down in a safe spot in the grass, and guard it with your life. You may think the current situation to be bad, but wait ’til you have to explain to your wife that your bike cost $4,800.

Now Barker is claiming self defense, because he felt threatened by the cyclists. I would have thought the best defense would have been to drive away.

The assailant faces felony menacing, harassment and criminal mischief charges. He has an attorney who is trying to work out a plea bargain. I’m sure the attorney told the guy he has no defense and a plea deal would be the only way to go.

I hope such a deal would at least include reimbursing the cyclist for his bike that was destroyed. By the time he has paid that, his attorney’s fees, and any fines that may be levied, this could be one expensive outburst.

Once again I would ask one question: Was it worth it?

You can read more on the story here, and here

Footnote: Forgive me for being flippant, but no one was injured in this one, so I felt I had to poke fun at the absurdness of this incident

                        

Success and Fate

Looking back on the United States part of my framebuilding career, although some of my success I created, fate also played a large role.

For example in 1980 I went for a job interview with Trek, in Wisconsin; I didn’t get the position, but later that same year I landed a job with Masi in Southern California.

When I eventually started my own business I was definitely in the right place. California, and in particular the southern part of that state, has a climate where one can ride a bike year round. Had I opened my own framebuilding shop in Wisconsin, business would have definitely been seasonal.

Also when Masi laid me off at the end of 1981 it was due to an overstock of unsold frames coinciding with a recession. It was not because of anything I had done, and it was not necessarily Masi’s doing either.

They were only too pleased to rent me space in their shop to build my own frames, as they also had a drop in income. This got me started back in my own business again, and I was able to resume building custom frames; something I had not done since leaving England in 1979.

Then when John Howard, ex-Olympic rider and winner of the first Ironman Triathlon approached me in 1983 to build frames under his own name, it gave me a contract to build five frames a week.

This brought in a steady income to supplement what I was already making from my custom frames. It enabled me to open my own framebuilding facility, along with my own paint shop.

The John Howard frame was a short lived project that only lasted a year; again due to circumstances largely outside of my control, and of which I have outlined in a previous article.

This left me scrambling to find a replacement to fill the void in my production capabilities. Once again fate had played a hand and out of that the Fuso was conceived.

The John Howard frame was always underpriced and profit margins were small. It was competing head on with the Masi and Italian import frames, but was not an established brand at that time, so we had to produce and sell it for less.

With lessons learned from the John Howard frame, the Fuso came into being in 1984. The extreme luxuries like chrome plating were dispensed with, and the Fuso was a well designed, well built product with nice paint and graphics.

No longer having to split profits with a middle man; I now had a frame that was a reasonable price and would compete favorably with the import frames.

The Fuso had a good run for almost ten years, when once again fate took a hand in the form of the Mountain Bike; people stopped buying road bikes. However, this time I did not rise to the challenge and re-invent myself or my business.

Maybe I had been knocked down one too many times; I was thoroughly burned out with the bike business, and no longer wanted to be a part of it.

If someone had offered me a job in the bike business, I would have considered it. But to run my own business again, subject to all the whims of the market and the consumer. No, thank you very much

Looking back I have no regrets, but can't help but wonder what if I had landed that job with Trek back in 1980. Would they have treated me well enough that I stayed?

I might be retired by now with a large pension from some executive position. On the other hand I doubt if it would have been as satisfying as what I did do.

And is money the only consideration when a person looks back on what they have achieved? At some point we die and money has little bearing on anything