04-04-2020, 09:32 AM
Since it is a quiet Saturday morning and the workshop will happily wait ten minutes to be opened, perhaps I might be excused a RSW anecdote. It was by a country mile the most awful bike I have ever owned. I was given one by a lady who had received it as a present from her husband, and who rode it to the village shop and back once. It came to me in as new condition and with all the paperwok, so a historical treasure. I cycled across town for a lift to a Veteran Cycle Club event from a friend, who I swiftly persuaded to take me back to my shed to collect a different machine. I reckon that I managed to get the mileage just into double figures. Eleven miles in twenty five years! It is no surprise that a quick approach was made to Sir Alec to allow Raleigh to build Moultons. There had been an burst of enthusiasm for collecting and riding small wheelers. When chaps in car parks discuss torsional rigidity, or the lack thereof, some people want to make comparisons with the Maxi, if your car is more rigid than a Maxi it's OK. My experience is that the unsurpassable nadir of torsional flopiness was the Airframe folding bike. It had more sliding nylon joints in its short wheelbase than you could shake a stick at. Relating to the RSW 16" I await Bob Culver's comments on the desirability or otherwise of big section low pressure tyres, no fear of locking up hub brakes.