So this is how the worlds scruffiest Moulton Mini has looked for the last few months, has it been used loads? no, but when it has been called into action from the depths of the garage its transported me around my locality without complaint and never failed to put a smile on my face. Time never stands still in DecliningCyclist land however, and the urge to make changes was niggling away at me.

The gearing set up has always annoyed me, mostly because its almost entirely pointless and never used. It also looks terrible and the nasty bolt on gear hanger made removing the rear wheel a total pain. Clearly changes had to be made, but as ever the budget was pretty much zero. So this is what I started with:

Mmmmmm crusty…… now although the Moulton has rear facing dropouts they don’t really have the length to effectively tension the chain without some sort of external chain tensioner. So after a bit of a think and the obligatory trawl through the depths of eBay this little gem arrived.

Cost? well under £5 including postage and it only needed a bit of subtle modification with a Dremel multitool before it looked like this :

Then after a bit more filing action and a couple of holes drilling in the dropout we had this:

From the depths of my spares box I exhumed an unused chain tensioner that had been bought but never used for some long forgotten singlespeed project that had never turned a wheel, and this is how the set up looks now:

I did think about changing the grotty 5 speed block for a single cog, but then I fully released my inner tightwad and left it on. So how does it ride? well pretty much exactly the same as it did before but I think it looks a whole lot better and getting the rear wheel off and on is now possible without tools, so considering the minimal cost I reckon it was worth it.

Now this apex of Moulton Mini development has been reached I am having to consider the bikes future in the fleet. Now the original reason for its purchase has evaporated (I no longer have a narrowboat to keep it on) its more than a bit surplus to requirements. I did make a tentative attempt to move it on via Facebook Marketplace last month at what I considered a very decent price, but every enquiry I had was either ridiculously low or just from a total timewaster, so the Moulton is still residing at the back of the garage while I ponder what to do with it. There are a couple of options, the first is stripping the bike down for a total rebuild and repaint, that’s definitely a solid option if I decide to keep it. The second possible fate for the little green terror would involve gifting it to my youngest son when he goes off to University next year, this would actually be possibly the best course of action as the Moulton would make a great bike for zooming around a University Campus on without attracting the wrong sort of attention and getting nicked before the end of Freshers week.

So its not the end of the Moulton Mini saga, but don’t hold your breath for the next update !