One-Off Titanium “Moulton-type” bicycle, built by Mike Augspurger with the blessing of Alex Moulton circa 1991-1992
Summary: This is a One-Off Titanium “Moulton-type” bicycle, built by Mike Augspurger with the blessing of Alex Moulton circa 1991-1992. It is one of two titanium Moultons in the world, both built by Mike Augspurger as described below:
Excerpt from Tony Hadland’s book The Spaceframe Moultons describing the relationship between Mike Augspurger (One-Off Titanium) and Alex Moulton (Moulton Bicycle Company).
Notable components include:
- Custom chainrings, with a 82t big ring and 70t small ring
- Campagnolo Record Ergopower 8s shifters, rear derailleur, crank arms, and brakes
- XTR Front derailleur, modified to work with the large chainrings.
- Titanium Campagnolo bottom bracket
- Chris King headset (circa late 1980’s per manufacturer)
- Chris King rear hub (circa 2010 per manufacturer)
- Titanium front hub of unknown make
- Titanium Selle Italia Flite saddle
- Hopey steering damper
Scan from a One-Off Titanium catalog (undated) showing two photos of this bicycle (bottom left, bottom right), and the following note from Mike Augspurger about this bicycle:
This could be the stiffest Ti frame (2.6lb) and fork (14oz) ever made. It is the hill climbing fiend with no suspension, 20 inch sew-ups from a racing wheelchair, 1 1/4 headset, no head tube, and an adjustable tripod stem. Note the world’s best water bottle cage (king cage).
(Note: at some point in the bike’s life, the wheels as described were replaced with the current set. The rear hub was manufactured in 2010. Front hub is titanium and has no maker’s mark.)
- Auction listing from this bike’s sibling, sold in 2015 for EUR30,000 (pdf)
- A blog post from 2011, from a DC-area blogger (pdf), who met Paul (owner) and was intrigued by by his bike. Note this comment from Eric Moss, who commissioned this bike’s better known sibling:
That’s the twin of the bike I commissioned after seeing a Moulton Speed that was used by Dave Bogdan in the 1988 RAAM [link]. I thought, “What could be cooler than that, except for one in titanium?”. Moulton wasn’t interested (“What’s with you Americans and exotic alloys?”), but Mike Augspurger, who had an ad in the back of the same Bicycle Guide where the Speed was featured, was. A couple years and all my savings later, there was the suspended space frame and fairing. IIRC, there was another customer of his who wanted one, or something similar, but Moulton wouldn’t allow a second “prototype”, so that one was unsuspended. I think it’s just as cool as mine was. I had to sell mine back in 2008, and it just sold at auction for 30,000 euros. Ah, the rich get richer..
