Lars’ Moulton TSR Build

The bike that started it all. A used frame, bought off eBay marketplace, repainted, and outfitted with new parts. One major rebuild since, to make it more adaptable to rougher road conditions.

My fascination with Moulton bicycles started when I brought a Brompton bike I’ve been using while traveling to a bike shop in Hamburg for some urgent derailleur maintenance and I saw a Moulton mounted to the wall. The space frame construction mesmerized me and planted the spark that would unfold over the following years.

In summer 2018 I decided on a whim to buy an old Moulton TSR frame from eBay Kleinanzeigen (our local Craigslist equivalent). My original plan was to pay a local bike builder to rebuild the bike from scratch, but as this did not pan out, I went online, ordered a box of bike tools and decided to do it myself. I got the frame powder coated and had Reinhard at Komponentix build a set of new wheels for the bike.

The first iteration took about three months to get right, about nine follow-up orders of parts or tools I forgot or that didn’t fit and it turned my home office into a part-time bike workshop. Until this date, the Moulton is my favorite bike and the one I’d keep if I could have only one bike.

My most memorable trip with the bike happened in Winter 2019/2020 when my son and I crossed the Negev desert in Israel and rode from Elat to Tel Aviv. The bike turned heads. At the very start of the trip, an old man with a thick Russian accent inquired “why such small bike, for such big man?” and I learned a lot of things that would inform the pandemic-rebuild that I completed in March 2021, in particular my desire to get rid of the front derailleur, and fit wider tyres to better deal with potholes and debris found on the side of the road.

Apart from how it rides, one of the things I like most about the bike is how well it travels. The frame can be separated without tools, and with some fiddling, the whole bike fits into two suitcases and can be brought on longer trips. Apparently, it should even be possible to fit the whole bike into a single, oversized Samsonite suitcase, but that model of suitcase predates IATA guidelines of maximum luggage dimensions and was out of stock in Germany, so that I never tried.

When going on longer trips, the multitude of mounting options for luggage comes in handy, the fully-loaded configuration includes two leather triangular frame bags, a day bag for the rear, a handlebar bag and two panniers that clip on the front carrier.

The color scheme in inspired by the Golden Gate Bridge, with International Orange for the filligane space frame, and navy blue for saddle, seatpost, stem, and bar tape representing the dark waves of the San Francisco Bay.