Large Printable Posters

The above picture was one I used for a magazine ad in 1986, The picture was composed and taken by photographer Mike Graves. He used an old sheet of plywood that was on the floor of his father’s garage for many years, to catch oil drips from an antique car.

On this somewhat dirty rustic backdrop, he laid out a brand new pristine Fuso frame, surrounded by various tools. Some were tools he borrowed from me, others were from his father’s antique tool collection. The result, a very interesting black and white art photo.

The magazie ad can be seen left. When Mike Graves sent me the original file a few years back, he described the picture as being, “Sharp as a tack.”

It is, the detail is pretty amazing. I set this picture up in PDF format as a printable 24 in. x 18 in. poster, and downloaded the file to my Bike Registry website.

Here is the Link: https://davemoultonregistry.com/pdffiles.html

If this link fails to open you can go to the Navigation Bar at the top of this blog page. Click on "Owner's Registry," then click on the button that says "PDF Files"

Just find a business that has a large format digital printer, and get a copy printed for yourself. It will fit in a standard 24 x 18 poster frame.

There is no need to copy the file, if you know of someone who has a large format digital printer, you can simply email them the above link, and they can download the file and print you a copy direct from the web page. I had two test copies printed on semi-gloss paper and the results were good. Try not to handle the prints too much before they are dry.

Another 24 x 18 poster (Above.) is a copy of one I had printed for the 1990 Interbike Show. It is a color picture of a Fuso frame built in Columbus Max tubing. It has all the specs printed at the bottom. This too can be download and printed from the same page on my Registry website.

Make sure the printer is set on “Print full size.” Feel free to print copies for your own use without further permission from me. Both these posters will fit in a standard 24 x 18 inch poster frame. These are quite inexpensive to buy from places like Target and Wal-Mart.

This is a plus as the original posters were 25 x 19 inches and require an expensive custom made frame. I re-formated the file to the standard 24 x 18. Original copies of this poster are appearing on eBay for $250 or more. You can print your own copy for a fraction of that price.

There are also other PDF files of articles I wrote for “Cycling” and “Velo-News” back in the 1970s, and other interesting stuff, like spec sheets for the Fuso and Recherche, and prices from the late 1980s. These are in standard 11 x 8.5 format that you can print on you own home printer.

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The Joneses

Do you remember the old expression, “Keeping up with the Joneses,” where if your neighbor got a new car, then you had to buy a new car? It would seem kind of douchey in current times to admit to this kind of petty jealousy, and yet I believe it is as rampant today as it ever was.

Today there are millions of Joneses and they are all on social media and the Internet, and everyone is trying to keep up and fit in. Anxiety, depression, suicide is on the increase, along with drug and alcohol use.

Looking back at the changes during my lifetime, as I see it, it all changed after WWII. Before then if you were born working class, you stayed working class, you knew your station in life, and you were for the most part content with your lot.

Men returned after the war, with the attitude, “Hey, I laid my life on the line, I want a piece of the pie.” In Britain a socialist government was voted in with a huge majority. This also happened in other European countries. Much of the world went Communist.

Communism would appear to be fair in theory, sharing the wealth amongst everyone, but it eventually failed because without the incentive to “Get Ahead,” no one wants to work. Those ambitious enough to get ahead in the Government, held that position by force and corruption.

America resisted communism to extremes in the 1950s with McCarthyism, when there was never any danger of communism taking over, because the US had something unique called “The American Dream.” Someone working class could work hard and become wealthy.

In my lifetime it seems we had two glorious decades through the 1950s and 1960s, then went into a drug induced haze through the 1970s and 1980s, to head slowly downhill after that through the 1990s. Accelerating out of control in the last twenty years which coincided with development of the Internet and social media.

Now capitalism has developed into corporate greed, where the working man is paid less and less, and kept even poorer by high rent and constantly being encouraged to buy more and more stuff.

There is no longer the American Dream there once was, and many young people are losing their desire to work. Which only makes a bad situation worse. Hence, sadness, depression, etc., etc.

Something must change; the current system cannot sustain itself. Capitalism requires a working class to not only produce stuff, but to buy it. In the meantime, I am reminded of this:

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
and Wisdom to know the difference.

It is no use waiting for the world to change, it will probably not happen in my lifetime. Learn to adapt, be content with less, live simply, and spend less. Develop a habit of working hard, make yourself irreplaceable and you will always have a job, and you will probably get paid a little more.

Save money, invest wisely.... Oh and screw the Joneses.

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Unzip a Banana

Unzip a Banana was a catch phrase for a British TV ad campaign in the 1960s. To this day I cannot peel a banana without thinking, “Unzip a Banana.”

For cyclists a banana has to be one of the most convenient foods you can carry on a ride. It is the perfect size and shape to fit in your jersey back pocket, and comes with its own bio-degradable wrapper. (Its skin.)

An important source of Potassium, the banana is one of the healthiest fruits. Vitamins and minerals are abundant, offering vitamin A, a full range of B vitamins are present with Thiamine, Riboflavin, Niacin, vitamin B6, and of Folic Acid.

There is even vitamin C, with minerals Calcium, Magnesium, with trace amounts of iron and zinc.

About a 100 calories for a small banana to 140 for a large nine inch one, with 36 grams of carbs, it is a good source of energy to take on a ride.

Whenever I went on a long ride, I knew I would need to carry enough fuel for the trip, my choice was often a double-decker sandwich. Three slices of whole grain bread, one layer of butter and cheese, the top layer a sliced banana.

A whapping 600 calories, enough to get me through a long ride. I used cheese or whatever was available at the time. I would sometimes substitute jam or peanut butter.

I cut the sandwich in half, and tightly wrapped the two pieces separately in cling-film so they wouldn’t crumble and fall apart in my pocket. Then I placed both halves in a zip-lock bag.

The sweetness and moistness of the banana made the whole thing very easy to eat. It was cheaper than Energy Bars, and packed a lot more fuel. (Calories.) I find some energy bars are either dry and tough to get down, or tend to melt and get sticky. Plus energy bars may contain certain processed foods and other undesirable ingredients.

I always try to keep bananas on hand, but try not to buy too many at once as they tend to ripen and quickly go soft. If they a over ripe they just end up a mushy mess in your pocket when carried individually, and if this is the case then the best way to carry them is in a sandwich as I have just described.

Another little tip, when you peel a banana, start fom the stem end. You will find you get less of those stringy bits that hang from the side of the fruit.

What is your favorite food to carry on a long ride?

Have you tried "Dave's Bread Pudding?" 

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One of a kind, Masi Aero Bike

I arrived in San Marcos, California in October 1980, and began work building Masi frames. One of the first projects I worked on was building an aero bike for the 1981 New York Bicycle Trade Show. Masi had been presented a New Shimano AX group of components, and a set of Tangi aero tubing.

The aero shaped tubing presented several problems, one of the being the seat post, which were normally round, however, this new Shimano group had a fully aero shaped seat post, that matched the inside profile of the aero seat tube.

I seem to remember making a steel insert that I filed to match the shape of the trailing edge on the aero seat post. A single screw pressing on this insert facilitated height adjustment and clamping of the seat post. A rubber gasket sealed the top of the seat tube to prevent moisture entering.

The aero tube set, and the fully aero seat post never made it past the experimental stage, or into full production. I am sure sample sets would have been sent to various bike manufactures worldwide, and it would be interesting to know how many ( Or indeed how few.) actually produced a show bike from it.

One also has to remember this was some years before aero handlebars came into use, and carbon fiber allowing for aero designs, so really the whole concept was ahead of its time.

Frames could not be assembled in a standard frame jig designed to accept round tubes. For the same reason the tubes could not be machine mitered but had to be painstakingly hand shaped with a hacksaw and file. There were no lugs to fit the tubes, so the whole frame had to be fillet brazed.

The bottom bracket shell is stamped SMC 56 on one side for San Marcos California, 56 being the frame size. The other side where the serial would normally go, it was stamped DM1. There never was a DM2 or any others built by me.

You will notice there are no cable guides under the bottom bracket. This is because the rear brake and gear cables are run through steel tubes inside the frame. (See pictures.) The paint was done by Masi’s painter Jim Allen.

Ted Kirkbride who owned the Masi shop and was contracted to build the Masi frames, kept this bike until about 2010, when he sold it to a German collector. The bike resides in this collector’s private museum in Germany.

I never considered the Masi Gran Criterium frames I produced as mine, because they were built strictly to Faliero Masi’s design. But this particular frame I seem to remember I was given a freehand in the design and construction. Therefore, I appreciate the fact that it was stamped DM1, in recognition of my work.

Normally the Masi frames were stamped A,B,C,D for each quarter of the year. “A” was for Jan, Feb, March, and so on. Followed by two digits that was the year. The last two digits was the number frame that quarter. I started with Masi on October 1980, so the ones I built were D80**, A81**, B81**, C81**, and D81**. Coupled with the stamp SMC for San Marcos, California, as there were other Masi frames built at another location.

Here is an article on how my involvement in aero tube bikes started.

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How do you measure success?

I have spent many hours pondering the question, what is success, and by what yardstick does one measure success? I have come to the conclusion that success has a different meaning for different people.

Some measure success by money, but unless success brings one joy and satisfaction, is it really success? One can be successful in terms of money, but an absolute failure in terms of everything else. A relationship with a spouse or children, for example.

Friends who recently returned from Africa, after several years in the Peace Corps, told me, there are people who live in mud huts, existing on a handful of rice a day, and yet are basically happy and content with their lives.

People do not know they are poor unless they have contact with wealth and can see others who have more than they do. It would be hard to live in a mud hut in America and have the degree of contentment of someone living in remote parts of Africa, for example.

Success is meeting your expectations. If your expectations are a handful of rice a day, and that is what you get. You are successful, and you are content. If you have a little chicken to go with your rice, you have exceeded expectations and you are even happier.

Success can be fleeting, but that is alright, there are always other successes that follow. I think I can honestly say I was a successful framebuilder. I became a good framebuilder because I built a lot of frames, and repetition is the key to success with any skill.

There was a time when I made a lot of money as a framebuilder, but the success was fleeting. Market trends and consumer tastes changed. I could have changed too, but I didn’t and so moved on and set other goals. That doesn’t make me any less successful as a framebuilder now, than the day I left the business.

This is why I believe one cannot quantify success in terms of money only. To me success is measured in satisfaction. Knowing that people are still riding bikes I built back in the 1980s, and enjoy doing so, brings me immense satisfaction.

After I left the bike business, I wrote a successful novel. My intentions were to write a best-selling novel, but I settled for satisfaction once more.

Seldom without exception, people who read my novel Prodigal Child rave about it. That is highly satisfying. The book was never a bestseller, because relatively few people know of it. It was never reviewed in the New York Times or blessed by Oprah Winfrey.

This blog too is no small success. Started in 2005, coming up 17 years, draws readers from all over the world. It gets recognition from other quarters too. (See these awards in the top right column of this page.)

Success is recognizing the small or partial successes, because collectively they too bring joy, and satisfaction. The key is to have a few more successes than failures in life, and you are always ahead of the game. Occasionally there will be a little chicken to go with your rice.

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