How does one give thanks when all around is negative and hateful. Be nice our mothers told us, or say nothing. Here are two thoughts where I say nothing or I say a lot, it depends on what the reader finds and comes away with.   Thought 1.) In a quiet moment, slip into the empty space between your thoughts, it is there the magic happens, for there within lies the wisdom of uncertainty and freedom from the prison of previous conditioning. Unlock the door, step into the field of all possibilities dance with wild abandon to the music of your creative soul.   Thought 2.) We mail a letter ..read more

It has been nine months since I posted here, so I feel I should at least post and update. It’s not that I have been idle since February, far from it. Some of you may know that as my bike business declined, I directed my creative thoughts to music, and in particular songwriting. I bought my first guitar in 1988 when I was 52 years old. It took me a year or so to master a few basic chords and I started writing songs. As had happened before in my life, I was in the right place at the right time. I was located southeast of Los Angeles and Hollywood, and within driving distance. I was realistic of ..read more

I missed posting last week because of computer problems and had to order a new PC. This was an unexpected cost that I could hardly afford, and I appealed for help from the cycling community on the Dave Moulton Bikes Facebook Group. Members of this group came though and made donations that covered the cost, for which I am most grateful. The forced down-time also caused me to do some serious thinking about the future of the Blog and the Bike Registry. It is not so much financial help I need going forward, but practical help. This month I turn 87, and I am in good health for the most part, except ..read more

  Major Taylor and Leon Hourlier, Buffalo Velodrome, 1909Did you ever wonder why bicycle frames of the early 1900s had such “Laid Back” or “Slack” seat angles? (See the above picture.) The forerunner of the chain driven bicycle was the “Ordinary” or High Wheeler. It was the first enthusiasts’ bike, and it was initially faster than the chain driven bike. When that big wheel gathered momentum, it was possible for a fit athlete to maintain 20 mph. It wasn’t until pneumatic tires were invented that the chain driven bicycle became faster and was widely accepted. The early chain driven bikes, w ..read more

My last post about removal and fitting of a bicycle head bearing, drew the following comment: “Headset removal should be performed with a bike repair stand clamped to the bike’s seat post and definitely not to a frame tube, since you’ll be hitting the removal tool quite hard with a hammer.” A valid point, one should never clamp a frame tube in a work-stand, and personally I would never do any kind of hammering on a frame even if it was held in the work-stand by the seat post. I would simply place the removal tool in the headtube, hold the frame in one hand, while tapping out the bearing cup ..read more

The great thing about vintage steel bikes is that you can work on them yourself with a few simple tools. Here is a job I will walk you through, namely the removal and replacement of the headset cups and bearings. I will explain how you can do this with a few simple items picked up at your local hardware store. To remove the bearing cups from the frame I purchased a piece of copper tube. I found a ¾ inch repair coupling that was ¾ inch diameter inside and slightly under and inch outside. These come in various lengths; 12 inch long worked fine for my needs and the ends were already machined nic ..read more

I have struggled for days to find suitable words to express a New Years' message. Then at this late hour I remembered the words to a song I wrote a few years ago:   I always try to help my fellow man Hurt no one by thought word or deed. Do to others as I would have them do to me Is my philosophy and creed, But there’s someone I find hard to forgive Though Heaven knows he should be my friend If I could only show some understanding Forgive forget and try to make amends.   I resolve to show this man compassion Lift him from his self-made Hell, Help him if he should fall or stumble I re ..read more

Often this time of year I revisit childhood memories of Christmas. For me it is the years 1941 to 1944, when I was between the ages 5 and 8 years old. Possibly the age that Christmas means the most to any child. Christmases spent during the tough economic times of WWII. I always think how much harder it must have been for others my age in countries like France, Belgium, and Holland where the actual fighting went on. Times were tough economically in England, but at least the country was not invaded so although I never understood what war meant, I never knew what the financial hardship was becau ..read more

When I was building frames in Southern California back in the 1980s, my business was humming along nicely, I was building thirty FUSO frames a month. The last thing I thought about was that I would be corresponding with people about these very same frames 35 years later. I certainly did not foresee the Internet and my writing on this blog, a weekly journal. Had I known, I might have kept a few more records for a start. When I started building the FUSO in 1984, I stamped each frame with a simple in sequence serial number, starting with 001, 002, 003, and so on. At the time the number was a sim ..read more

Parents of an adopted child will often tell them. “We chose you, and that makes you special.” I came to these United States in January 1979, in a few weeks’ time I will have lived here 44 years. That is longer than I lived in England, the country of my birth. I adopted this country, which makes it special. I do not take this country or it’s people for granted as I might have done had I been born here. A country and its people are one of the same, The USA being so large often feels like several different countries. To understand this, a person has to travel and live many places, as I have done ..read more