Dave Moulton former bicycle framebuilder

The Short Lived Fuso Mountain Bike 1985; there were only fifty of these built.

Twenty years ago MTBs were much different; they had 69 degree head angles, and the rear brake was mounted under the chainstays behind the bottom bracket. The Fuso MTB was maybe ahead of its time with a 72.5 head angle. This was a lightweight, built for speed and agile handling. It was not a bullet proof  stunt bike and was never meant to be. MTB riders in general would not accept this concept and as a result few were built and I suspect even fewer have survived to this day.

  

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The one time in vogue practice of mounting the rear brake under the chainstays made it a dirt trap. On the Fuso MTB I left out the chainstay bridge so dirt and mud could drop right through. Because leaving out the bridge can lead to bottom bracket shell failure due to sideways flexing; a diagonal tube brace was added from the right chainstay to the seat tube. This brace also had the effect of stiffening up the whole bottom bracket area. 
     
Note the front derailleur cable stop incorporated into the brace tube.  
 
 

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  The bike featured a special one piece handlebar and stem that I fabricated from chrome-molly tubing.

Note the rear derailleur cable routed along the top tube beside the brake cable. An old cyclo-cross trick to keep it out of the dirt, and one that was picked up later by other MTB framebuilders.

   

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My thanks to Neill Currie for these pictures. On Neill's webpage he writes:

"This bike is made from Columbus Off Road tubing and has possibly the most gorgeous one-piece bar-stem combo I have ever seen. Originally equipped with Deore XT 6 speed indexed stuff, it still has some of that on it, but is now a more eclectic mix of high end componentry. After I had owned the bike about 3 years the downtube broke and Dave replaced it with a heavier CrMo tube and repainted it. So the paint you see here dates from about 1990 or 1991. This bike has a ride like no other: lots of zip, stand on the pedals and she becomes a rocket."

[Neill's Website]

  
 

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Dave Moulton competing in a cyclo-cross event; circa 1976.
The 1985 Fuso MTB and the cyclo-cross connection: A brief history leading to the disign of this bike.
 
      In Europe cyclo-cross is the winter sport of cycling. The season runs from October through February. The sport started in the 1950s as a way for road cyclists to stay fit during the winter, but soon developed into a sport in its own right with people specializing solely in cyclo-cross. I was one of these; my frame building business kept me busy in the spring and summer months, in winter business slowed and I had the time to train and race.
 
 
 
 
 

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      The bikes were not far removed from the road bikes; slightly longer wheelbase, higher bottom bracket, and more clearance under the fork crown and rear bridge. Cantilever brakes with the brazed on pivots were used; not for their stopping power, but because there was nothing above the wheel but a thin loop of wire therefore nothing to catch mud.

      Mud is a big factor in European cyclo-cross because it rains a lot during the winter months. Tires are special sew-ups with knobbles, not much wider than the standard road sew-up tire. The trick in riding through mud is to do so in as high a gear as possible. A higher gear means more traction, translating into more speed therefore less time to sink in the mud.

 
 
 
 

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      Bikes were built with standard light weight road tubing; Columbus or Reynolds 531, and a bike could go for four or five seasons and not break. I used a single 48 teeth chainwheel with chain guards either side to prevent the chain from unshipping. I used a five speed free-wheel with 14-16-18-21-25 teeth. This was the 1970s and six and seven speeds were not yet available.

  
     
 

      Meanwhile back in the USA in the late 1970s, early 1980s. Misters Cunningham, Fisher, and Ritchey and others were bombing down mountain trails on old cruiser bikes and the MTB was born. The old cruiser was a bicycle designed more on style than function; it was never a race bike, it was a bicycle styled after a motor cycle. Some of them even had fake gas tanks, and was born out of the opulence of the 1950s that also put tail fins on cars for no reason other than style. The balloon tires were for effect not efficiently. Everyone knows fat tires make a bike harder to ride.

 
     
 

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      By 1985 the people building MTBs had a following and I realized if I were to break into this market I would have to find my own niche. I felt there might be a market for a light weight MTB built on the lines of a cyclo-cross bike that would be fun to ride in the hands of skilled rider who knew how to ride within the limitations of a bike. This didn’t happen, people were using it as a stunt bike, jumping off picnic tables, destroying the bike and then expecting their money back. I saw no future in this and I quit after building some fifty frames.

  
   
 

      The problem as I saw it was the tires and wheels available were too heavy and strong for the frame. Other people seemed to have the same problem because soon after bikes appeared with oversized tubes and shock absorbers. The MTB had become heavier and more complicated than it need be. Now I see a trend in bike riding for simplicity; people are riding single speed and fixed gear bikes. Maybe it’s time to rethink the MTB?
 

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Cyclo-cross bikes built in standard lightweight road tubing can go for many seasons of hard racing without breaking. But the lightweight sew-up tires absorb shock, plus the cyclo-cross rider goes around obstacles rather than jumping over them, and rides down steep embankments rather than jumping down flat.

I can see in retrospect there was a whole generation of riders who grew up on BMX bikes and were used to riding a certain way. I was mistaken, maybe even arrogant to expect people to adapt their style of riding to suit my bike.

 
     
  Those of you who know me will understand that throughout my framebuilding career I always did what I believed in rather than what was fashionable or what the market dictated. Not necessarily good business sense, but a person has to choose between doing what they believe in and what they enjoy doing, or on the other hand give people what they want even though you hate doing it. Sometimes called 'Selling your soul to make a buck.'    
   

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