Meet the member


designer can do to increase the input power, and the ergonomics are largely defined by the rider. Hence efficiency must be optimised for the desired use – racing, mountain biking, city commuting. The highly cyclic loading pattern is challenging in engineering terms to ensure durability and safety. The structure must be smooth and free from sharp edges and protrusions. The fit requirements of cycle components are substantially standardised and this further constrains the designer, yet perhaps it is the sum of all these constraints that forces good design – economy and efficiency in design, manufacture and usage. In most products these qualities are desirable on environmental and financial grounds, but with bicycles they are essential. We have all seen how the car manufacturers have, through research and development, increased power and efficiency – allowing them to improve safety standards, durability, and specification levels. With bicycles, we are very restricted. Power is fixed and efficiency is already in the nineties percentage. Yet at Moulton bicycles, through creative engineering design, we are able to produce, in England, a fully-suspended stainless-steel bicycle that weighs only 9kg.


Dr Alex Moulton designed his iconic small- wheel, full-suspension, ‘space-frame’ bicycle in the early 1980s (as a successor to his original 1960s ‘F-frame’ design). I was intrigued by this device, but it took me some time to get used to riding it. It also took me longer to fully grasp the engineering principles behind its conception. One has to admire the unswerving conviction of its creator in developing such unconventional answers to technical questions. I could be accused of letting idiosyncrasy favour the quirky, but in this case the admiration is there because the product works so well, rather than because it is unconventional per se. Some of my early work at Pashley involved turning the ‘Moulton APB’ into a more practical manufacturing proposition, whilst increasing its attractiveness to prospective owners. Latterly, I have worked with Dr Moulton to introduce the Moulton TSR range, and the light-weight, all stainless-steel Moulton SPEED. I was honoured when, earlier this year, he proposed me as a Fellow of the Institution – my election being confirmed in August.


At Moulton we are fortunate to benefit from a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP – the successor to TCS) programme in conjunction with the University of Bath. We have two associates, whose focus it is to develop manufacturing management methods


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appropriate to small-scale production and the establishment of a new, state-of-the-art testing and validation laboratory. The original Moulton ‘Hydrolastic’ and ‘Hydragas’ automotive suspension units were developed and tested in the Moulton workshops in Bradford on Avon, and today we have computer-controlled pneumatic rigs that can test every part of a bicycle to ensure compliance to the latest standards. These rigs are linked to CAD/ finite element analysis tools to allowing to integration of prediction and validation into the design process at an early stage.


Whilst both Pashley and Moulton are bicycle


manufacturers, each has a very different design ethos. The core Pashley ‘consumer’ products (the ‘Princess’ and ‘Roadster’ bicycles) are deeply rooted in 1920s design – from the lugged and brazed frames in traditional geometry, through to the copper staples holding the pages of the manual together. Conversely, the Pashley ‘Workbike’ range is built around the provision of practical, cost-effective transport and delivery solutions to industry – historically, the largest customer was the Royal Mail, and Pashley Workbikes are to be found all over the world for local transportation, and in factories and oil-refineries. Design for manufacture is essential to maintain


In my mind, whilst the form of an object does not have to reflect its function, the form should be viewed as part of the function – to a greater or lesser extent, depending on the item


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