Russ Mantle, the Million Mile cyclist

This past week Russ Mantle an 82-year-old English cyclist completed a million miles on his bike. Russ started cycling in 1952, that is 67 years, averaging 14,925 miles a year, 287 miles per week.

His achievement reminded me when I started cycling about the same time. The British “Cycling” weekly magazine, at the beginning of each year would print a mileage chart that you could save and create a graph of your weekly mileage throughout the year.

At the end of each year Cycling Magazine would publish some of the reader’s charts, along with any stories about specific rides that year. How did one measure mileage back then, you might ask? In the 1930s, Joseph Lucas, a company that made bicycle lights and automobile electronics, made a little mechanical mileage counter, called a “Cyclometer.” (See magazine ad below from 1936.)

A simple inexpensive little device, costing 3 shillings and 6 pence, in 1936. About 17.5 UK Pence in today’s money. 22 cents US. It attached to the front wheel spindle on the right side, and it was easy to glance down and read your mileage as you rode. It had a little pin that attached to a spoke, so it struck a five-point star-wheel each wheel revolution. Thus, five-wheel revolutions turned the star wheel one complete turn.

It was calibrated to measure miles and tenths of a mile with a standard 27-inch wheel. If one wanted to be super accurate, you could ride a measured mile, take a reading to calculate the mileage for any size tire.

Its only drawback was, it made an annoying tick, tick sound. I used one when I started cycling but gave it up as I got into riding seriously. The Cylometer disappeared from general use sometime in the 1960s as I remember, and there was not another simple device until the electronic ones appeared some years later.

One can also calculate mileage on a map. British Ordinance Survey maps are extremely accurate, especially the larger scale one inch to the mile, which mark detail like field gates and old growth trees. I was never into keeping accurate records of my mileage, and there were long periods when I was too busy running a business to even ride a bike.

Russ Mantle however, kept meticulous records of not only his mileage but towns he went through and cafes he stopped at. On occasions, he even recorded the temperature and wind direction. He rode time trials with success and toured extensively in the UK and in Europe, USA and Canada.

It must be nice to read through his old notes and remember some of those rides in detail that would otherwise be long forgotten. What a tremendous sense of achievement to travel a million miles under your own power. All done for the simple joy of riding a bike. Only another true cyclist could understand and appreciate the enormity of such a feat.

I read a few online comments made by sceptics like “If it didn’t happen on Strada, it didn’t happen.” Back in 1952 when you sent your yearly mileage chart off to Cycling magazine, there was no glory, No one even read your name, let alone remember it. No one gave it a thumbs up, or “Liked” it.

You did it for your own personal satisfaction, and where is the personal satisfaction if you lie or cheat? It is a sad world when we have become so desensitized by corruption, and lying, we can’t allow an 82-year-old man to share his moment of glory in attaining a lifetime achievement, without saying “Prove It.”

Hats of to you Russ, I look at your picture at the top of the page and I see a man who looks like he rode a million miles, and that is good enough for me.

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Chaos

I remember some years ago in the UK, I believe it was during the 1970s, the British Government decided to do a study to find out why pedestrians did not bump into each other, or cause a huge gridlock in the middle of the street when crossing the road at a light.

In big cities like London during rush hour, large numbers of people would wait to cross on opposing sides of the street. When the light turned green, they would all cross at the same time, in what must have appeared to traffic engineers, complete chaos.

Someone in their wisdom decided to do a study, because that’s what engineers do when they don’t have answers. After spending several tens of thousands British Pounds, of the tax payer’s money, they came up with this astounding discovery:

“People just go around each other.” 

Walking, the original means to get from A to B, just putting one foot in front of the other. Look down on any busy street in any large city and it appears to be chaos, with people going every which way. However, beneath the chaos there is order, each individual has a destination and is just taking the route necessary to get there.

Now watch the video (Below.) of Market Street in San Francisco in 1905. Into the mix of people walking, has been added horse drawn vehicles, automobiles, and bicycles.

The same chaos prevails, but people simply go around each other.  

The reason it works is because there are less people and everyone is going very slow. I wonder how long it took in 1905 to get from one end of Market Street to the other, and I wonder how that time compares to today?

The strange thing I find is that there is more sanity in the chaotic street scene above than I see in a typical rush hour street scene of today. Back then there were no trafic lights, and everyone was moving, albeit at a much slower speed.

It is the huge variation in speed between people walking, bicycles and autos that cause most of the problems in our large cities, both accidents and traffic hold ups.

If pedestrians pretty much kept to the sidewalks, if cars slowed down to closer the speed of a bicycle, I believe everyone would get to their destination just as fast, not to mention a lot less stressed.

Try making that argument to the guy who has spent thousands on the latest car that does zero to sixty in seconds, it will never happen. But please, allow me my flight of the imagination.

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The Unicycle Incident

A year after I left the bike business in Southern California, I moved to Eugene, Oregon. I lived there from 1994 until 2001. When I got to Oregon, I remembered why I left England. It rains a lot.

People in Oregon are different, not all people of course, but some of them march to the beat of a different drummer, if you get my gist. If you live in Oregon or have ever lived there you will know what I mean.

Those in step with this different beat, along with their drummers, (and there are a lot of those too.) are colorful, let’s say different. As for example, the man I recall seeing one time walking down the street in Eugene, wearing a lady’s flower print dress.

This was no female impersonator, the guy had a full beard, hairy legs, and big muscles. He was also wearing heavy hiking, or work boots.

He was walking with another man and woman (Dressed conventionally) and carrying on a normal conversation like nothing was out of the ordinary. And I suppose in a way it was not, it was a warm summer day and this was a summer dress.

While I was living in Eugene, I hosted an open mic for songwriters at a place called “The Rainy Day Café.”

One evening in the middle of the show, a guy comes riding by on a unicycle. He was wearing a one-piece silver skin suit complete with a hood, and a red cape.

Once again, you don’t necessarily have to be different to ride a unicycle, but you do have to be different to do so wearing a silver skin suit and a red cape.

He stopped on the sidewalk outside, rocking back and forth to keep his balance, watching what was going on inside. Someone opened the door and he rode in. He rode the length of the long narrow room that had a bar on one side and tables and chairs on the other.

He did a U-turn at the back of the room and rode back. Someone held the door again and he rode out while the restaurant patrons gave him a standing ovation. He continued on his way down the sidewalk.

Not a word was spoken by the unicyclist, and he never faltered or put his foot to the ground. The whole incident was over in seconds. Just one of those crazy, spontaneous, magical moments in life, that unfortunately happens all too rarely.

No one was hurt, no one was offended, and everyone was amused.

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The Internet, Social Media and Me

Does anyone remember how the Internet and Social Media started out with such promise? It would unite people from all over the world. It could give the ordinary person a voice. It would bring democracy to the world and invite free speech.

In just a few short years it has had the exact opposite effect. People are divided more than ever, split into tribal groups. The ordinary person has a voice, but what is the value of that voice if they remain anonymous? Are they even serious about their views, or simply getting some morbid satisfaction or entertainment by pushing someone’s buttons, just to get a reaction?

I heard of one person who was being attacked online by someone who happened to live in the same town. He sent the person a private message suggesting they meet to discuss their differing views in a civilized manner. The response he got was that the person was only 13 years old and his parents forbade him from meeting people he met online. This taught me a valuable lesson, that much of the online abuse comes from juveniles and teens.

Never-the-less it does make me wary of what I post online. This blog for example. There comes a point where I have covered just about every technical aspect of the bicycle, and in order to keep the articles interesting, I must include opinion.

In the past I have tried to act as a “Devil’s Advocate,” criticizing certain behavior, to get a discussion going. But I get labeled as a curmudgeon, or grumpy old man. Then a few years ago I got a comment saying I should die of the worst possible cancer, Even knowing it probably came from a juvenile, I can delete the comment and block that person, it still makes me wary of posting anything the slightest bit controversial.

In this respect, the Internet and social media is killing free speech, rather than encourage it, and the stuff I post here gets a little less interesting.

What happened to the old sentiment, “I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

The new sentiment is, “I not only disagree with your opinion, I wish you were dead for having that opinion.”

Local politicians in small towns across the US are quitting, tired of the abuse they get from social media. Many of these are good people and don’t always make a lot of money, they are simply trying to serve their own community.

One can build a following online, or on social media as I have done, but I am very much aware that I could say the wrong thing and destroy that reputation overnight.  Something taken out of context, fueled by “Shares” and “Re-Tweets can go viral. As many politicians and celebrities have found.

My “Friends” on my personal Facebook page are people I know, or someone that I actually know has vouched for them.  I spend a small amount of time on Facebook, all I do is post a short humorous quip each day. People seem to enjoy it, and it keeps me in touch with my real friends.

If I accept all “Friend” requests and post humor to be read and shared by just anyone, sooner or later I will offend someone, it is a given. People who actually know me, are aware it is fiction, just a silly joke. Not to be taken as my actual opinion.

I do interact with anyone who cares to on a Facebook Dave Moulton Bikes Group for owners or would be owners of bikes I built. The link is on this page, and so is my email. I am available to anyone interested, just not on my personal Facebook page.

One can never please everyone, and if I try, I end up pleasing no one, least of all myself. I proceed cautiously, try to avoid the abuse, and try to ignore it when it does happen. Call me "Too sensative" if you will, but to be honest I am just plain "Getting too old for this shit."

I will keep writing here as long as I am physically and mentally able, and as long as there are readers. That is my plan for survival, if you have other ideas or advice, let me know.

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Is the beauty of a bicycle in the way it rides, or the way it looks?

When I built my first frames in England in the late 1950s, early 1960s, I was trying to build myself a better frame. A typical frame of that era had a very shallow, 71-degree seat angle and a long top tube. This did not suit my small stature of 5’ 6”. (167.64 cm.)

When making a maximum effort, I found myself sliding forward and consequently sitting on the narrow nose of the saddle. The result was it was extremely uncomfortable and had the effect of the saddle being too low.

The answer seemed obvious to me, if this was the natural position my body wanted to adopt, put the saddle where it needed to be to accommodate it. I also looked at the way the bike handled at speed, there was a tendency to wobble on fast descents. Also, the bike tended to feel sluggish when getting out of the saddle sprint, or to climb.

Over the next 10 or 15 years I built several different frames with varying angles, and each frame had extra front forks of various rakes, (Offset.) Some of these experiments improved the bike’s performance, and others made things worse. It was a long, slow learning process.

By the early 1970s I had pretty much got my own frame geometry figured out. But now I was being asked to build frames for other local cyclists. By now the trend in Italy and in England was the build road frames with 75 or even 76-degree head angles. I went against this trend as I had experimented with these angles years before and found it did not work too well. The handling was skittish or squirrely.

73-degree head had been established as the ideal head angle as far back as the 1930s, and it still worked. However, the old idea was to have a very long fork off-set, and zero trail. This is what lead to the speed wobbles of those old bikes. I had found that I ¼ inches (32 mm.) fork rake worked better and finally settled at 1 3/8 inches. (35 mm.)

With feedback from other riders, I found that a 73-seat angle worked fine for the taller riders, but I would gradually steepen the seat angle as the frame got smaller. The top tube was lengthened as the frame got taller, but at a lesser amount that the seat tube. This was offset by a longer handlebar stem on the larger frames. The idea was to always have the front part of the handlebars directly over the front hub. This meant the handling was consistent throughout the range of sizes.

Having spent many years designing and building a better bike, it became my main selling point.

Here was a frame that would fit better and handle better. (See the advert (Left.) from the British Cycling Magazine from 1975.)

Strangely, I have seen few framebuilders or manufacturers advertising their product on the premise that it rides and handles better than their competitors.

I feel proof that my frame design is valid, is the fact that I still have a following 26 years after I built my last frame. Many owners are original owners and will not part with their bike. I regularly receive emails from owners saying their FUSO or other bike I built is their favorite ride.

I was recently asked, “What do I think of the current American builders?” I don’t really know enough to answer that. I only know what I see at NAHBS each year. I see beautiful pieces of art, outstanding paint and metal work, but how do they ride? Or does anyone even care? No one will ever go out and race on such a machine anyway. Race bikes are no longer made of steel.

As far as I can see, the corporations who today build the carbon fiber bikes that are raced, are doing little that is innovative as far as geometry. They still build the basic 73-degree parallel frame that dates to the days when it was easier for a builder to build a lugged steel frame that way.

It is difficult to find a CF fork with a 35 mm. rake anymore. Today frames come out of a mold, angles and geometry could be unlimited. Within UCI rules of course, but even within those rules there is room for change. The UCI will also follow what the manufactures want. Disc brakes was an example of that.

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