1981 Custom

Here is a very early California built custom ‘dave moulton.’ Built in January 1981 while I was working for Masi, having just moved there three months earlier.

My thanks to owner Ken Meyers for these pictures. Ken is the original owner, and this 56 cm. frame still has the original paint.




Built in Reynolds 531 tubing, this one definitely shows my English heritage. The contrasting color on the head tube and panels on the seat and down tubes was typical of English frames from the 1970s.


The World Championship rainbow bands that edge the panels were from a small supply I had brought with me when I moved to the US just two years earlier. The “Union Jack” British flag decals were cut from the Masi Gran Criterium decals that had flags of several nations.

The concave seat stay caps, made by brazing in place an off-cut of head tube would become typical of my custom frames. Also used on many frames that followed was the slim-line fork crown. Investment cast in Italy by Microfusioni, (The company that cast Cinelli crowns and BB shells.) and imported by the British company, Saba.

There is no engraving on the fork crown and bottom bracket of these 1981 custom frames, that started the following year in 1982 when I started building my own frames full time.

This frame was built with “Henry James” lugs, hand cut at the head tube to the shape you see here.

The Recherche

The Recherche was a private label frame that I built for two brothers, Kent and Kyle Radford. They owned a specialist bicycle store in Rancho Bernardo, which is in San Diego County, California.

They sold the frame out of their own store and also marketed the frame to other dealers, primarily in Southern California. The frame was first built in 1985 up to late 1987 or 1988. There were a little over two hundred of them built.


I have been in touch with Kent Radford in the last year, he still owns the number one Recherche. The name and the decal design was the Radford brother’s creation. They always pronounced it Reh-shur-shay. I believe it means “to search” in French, (Please correct me if I am wrong on that.) and that is probably not the correct French pronunciation.

It was a “no frills” frame, painted in a single color with the white Mylar panel decals; at first available only in red; later it was offered in blue and black also. Although I describe the frame as “no frills” it was of course built by me to the same high standard as any frame from my shop.


The frame was the exact same geometry as the Fuso; in fact the production of the Recherche was grouped together with the Fuso on the same jig setting, and both brand names brazed in small batches at the same time.

The frame was built in the same Columbus tubing, with Campagnolo or Columbus front and rear dropouts. With a Cinelli investment cast bottom bracket shell. The Recherche lugs were also investment cast but a different style than the Fuso; the seat stay caps were also different.




Most Recherche’s had a distinct cast fork crown with two decorative grooves cast into the top. (See left.) Towards the end of production this crown became unavailable and a plain sloping crown was substituted.






(Right)

The way the tubes were finished at the front and rear drop outs was distinctive. The tube ends were scalloped with a round file and the brass allowed to sink inside as the brazing cooled. I was imitating a style that is common to many French frame builders.

These small but unique features made the Recherche different in appearance, but because the design and workmanship was equal to other frames from my shop, the finished bike rides and handles the same as any other I built.

The red paint finish that the majority of Recherche frames had was achieved by painting a candy red over a bright orange base coat. Most red paint jobs appear orange, especially after they start to fade in bright sunlight. The candy red method I used was labor intense because of the extra steps in painting, but the end result was a truer longer lasting deep red.

My thanks to Lorin Youde, who lives in Southern California not far from my original San Marcos shop, for sending me these pictures. He picked up this 62 cm. Recherche last year, with original red paint and very few miles on it. It is number 201 so one of the last few built.

With so few of these built compared with close to 3,000 Fuso frames produced and with the small but unique differences I have described here; the Recherche could be a desirable frame to own should anyone be lucky enough to come across one.

Because so few were built the chances of finding one in any given size is slim, especially in the less popular very large or small sizes. If Recherche does indeed mean “to search” then maybe the name will become prophetic.

Against the Wind

"You know it’s windy outside when you look out of your window and birds are walking."

The weather was a stormy here in Charleston, SC last night, with the wind waking me up several times.

I was reminded of such a night in England back in the mid 1970s; I commuted on my bike, 29 miles each way to my frameshop just outside of Worcester. It was nine-thirty at night, raining heavily and with gale force winds blowing. The bad news was that the wind would be directly in my face on the ride home.

I was extremely tired after a very long day and while changing into my cycling clothes, I contemplated the ride ahead of me. Seated on a chair, I bent over to tie my shoes, and fell asleep. I woke suddenly when I almost fell over. I got my bike, staggered outside and locked up the shop. Succumbing to the realization that I had no choice but to ride home; I would make the best of it.

A mile into the ride I was not only wide-awake, but was riding into the wind as if it wasn’t there. I had somehow found super-human strength and was on one of those epic rides that happen just a few times in a life. Finding occasional respite in some sheltered areas, but mostly on roads across open farm land, I battled against the wind.

Meeting every strengthening gust with matching effort, uttering curses at the wind as if it were some demonic monster; never submitting or allowing it to beat me. Finally arriving home, wanting more, and only slightly slower than my normal time.

Years later, living in Southern California, it was a mid afternoon and I had to go on a long business trip by car. I was very tired and knew that I would be asleep at the wheel in a very few miles.

I remembered my epic ride home that stormy night back in the 1970s and how exercise woke me up. I got my bike out and rode about three or four miles as hard as I could. I turned around and didn’t ease up until I arrived back home again.

I showered, changed and took off on my trip. Once again, the physical effort had done the trick. Got my adrenaline going and woke me up.

Do you have a story of an epic ride against the wind?

The US Team Aero Bike Fiasco

Myself and Mike Melton (Right) building the aero frames.

Looking through an old scrapbook last evening I came across a story that Velo-News did in February 1980.

They did a pretty good piece of unbiased investigative reporting into some Aerodynamic frames I built for the US Team Time Trial riders for the 1979 World Championships. The whole episode turned into a huge fiasco, and after many people putting a great deal of effort and expense into the project the bikes were never used.

I came to work for Paris Sport in New Jersey in January 1979. At the time, Mike Fraysee co-owner of Paris Sport, was also President of the US Cycling Federation, the governing body of competitive cycling in the US.

The big new thing in bicycles at that time was aerodynamic frames, and it was suggested I build such frames for the US Team Time Trial squad. I had built a few aero frames in England the previous year by modifying round tubing to make it aero shape. No one was manufacturing proper tubes at the time.

I approached the English Reynolds Tube Company at the New York Bicycle Show in February 1979 and they agreed to produce the aero tubes. I had enjoyed a close working relationship with Reynolds, having been in from the start of their development of 753 tubing in the mid 1970s and built some early 753 test frames for them.

In March 1979 I flew back to England to meet with engineers at Reynolds and together we came up with design for an aero tube that was tear-drop shape in cross section. The tooling alone to draw these special tubes was made at a cost around $30,000. Remember this was 1979, thirty grand was a lot of money then.

The tubing took a few months to produce and when it arrived in New Jersey, time was running close to when the bikes would be needed. Because of this Mike Melton a top US framebuilder was brought in to help me build them. Mike and I burned the mid-night oil for a week without pay, I should add, to produce five frames. Four for the team and one spare.

The bikes were tried out by the team but were never used in competition and never even made it to the World Championship. One of the reasons the riders gave for their non use; the bikes handled badly.

You have to remember at the time I was a relatively unknown framebuilder in the US and you could say stuff like that. Obviously, the bikes were tested before they went out and they handled fine. Also at the same time Reynolds sent aero tubing to me, they sent some to French bicycle manufacturer, Gitane. They built a frame for Bernard Hinault who won a time trial stage in the Tour de France on it. He also went on to win the Tour that year.

The whole episode was a politically driven fiasco that I deeply regretted getting into, and it made me look bad with Reynolds; after all theirs was the biggest financial loss. The final kicker came later when the bikes were stripped and the Campagnolo parts were stolen. Riders and/or USCF officials were suspected.

A small consolation came later when a track bike version of the same aero tubing was ridden by an 18 year old Greg Lemond when he took the gold in the Junior World Pursuit Championship in 1979.

I scanned the article and you can read it as a PDF file. It goes into more detail than I have here. (You may want to print it, it is a little long to read on screen.) It is in three parts; there is my side of the story. The riders’ side, with comments by Mike Fraysee, and the story about the theft of parts. After reading the story again, I wondered what ever happened to the frames?

Either they ended up in a dumpster somewhere or if someone reading this has one in their garage, please send it to me. I would put it on eBay and recoup a little of my losses from all those years ago.

Will the real Dave Moulton please stand up

Have you ever done a Google search for Dave Moulton and noticed how many different people with that name come up?

There is a Dave Moulton, Sound Engineer who is a Grammy-nominated recording engineer, educator, musician and acoustician.

And Dave Moulton, Wine Maker who runs a winery out of an old schoolhouse south of San Francisco; between San Jose/Los Gatos and Santa Cruz.

Yet another Dave Moulton who is a radio sportscaster in Florida, and can be found lurking on this website. (Click on the “Line-up” tab.)

Dave Moulton is the name of a Jeep enthusiast who is responsible for innovative off-road modifications.

I’m not quite sure what this Dave Moulton does, but he is pictured here with Bill Clinton.

And this Dave Moulton it appears does nothing but has a webpage just in case he may do something in the future.

It is not surprising there are so many Dave Moultons; it is a pretty common English name. English names date way back in history and often describe what a person did for a living; Smith, Baker, and Miller are fairly obvious. Names like Fletcher, (He was the guy who stuck feathers on arrows.) and Cooper. (A person who makes wooden barrels.) are less obvious.

Other English names derive from the place where a person came from. There are at least five towns and villages in England named Moulton so it is no wonder the name is so common. Translated from the old English language it means simply: “A place where mules are kept.”

There are also towns in the US named Moulton, in Alabama, Iowa, and Texas.

In addition to Moultons with the first name Dave, there are many other variations. One that immediately springs to my mind, as he and I are always being confused with each other. He is Sir Alex Moulton, inventor of the small wheel bicycle. Some people do not know that he also invented the rubber suspension system for the original Mini Cooper cars. The suspension on the bicycle was a spin off from this. His contribution to British industry won him a Knighthood from the Queen.

There is Sarah Moulton, celebrity chef.

American Record Producer, Tom Moulton.

And a knife maker named Dusty Moulton.

I’m sure there are many more I have failed to list, but just one more I should mention: Dave Moulton, ex-bicycle framebuilder. If you are searching for this particular Dave Moulton, add the word "bicycle" to the name and you will weed me out from all the others.