Get a load of the Moulton Double Pylon, a 20-inch wheel bike with a £22,000 price tag

With Alex Moulton's original small-wheeled bicycle dubbed "the greatest work of twentieth-century British design" by Norman Foster following Moulton's death in 2012, the Double Pylon takes the inventor's brainchild and turns it up to 11 with some impressively intricate features, stunning finishing kit and a huge price tag, which is higher than anything on our main shortlist of the world's most expensive production road bikes. 

Despite being stowable, the Double Pylon isn't technically a folding bike, and despite its 20-inch wheels, it packs in plenty of features. Though if you want to own one, you'll need to wait a good year for it to be made... but that might be a good thing, as it'll give you time to decide if splashing out £21,950 on a bike was a wise idea in the first place! 

Moulton bikes have been around for more than six decades, and when they first came out in 1962 they were showcased at the Earl's Court Show in London. Interest was so high that “we had to beat them off with sticks," Moulton’s Marketing Manager at the time, David Duffield, recalled on Moulton's blog.

The Moulton bikes, with their 'mini' size, quickly became a hot commodity, and over 1,500 small-wheelers were built each week in Bradford-on-Avon – the same Wiltshire town the bikes are built in today. 

> Dr Alex Moulton dies aged 92

Not only were a lot of 'mini' things trendy in the 1960s (mini skirts, mini cars, and so on) but the Moulton was something almost entirely new in the realm of bikes with the separable frame, small wheels and unisex-one-size design with a rear rack. Thus, perhaps righteously Moulton claims to have "created the small-wheeled bicycle", although folding bikes have existed in some form or another since the early 1900s. 

So, what are Moulton bikes like in 2024? Well, they're more modern but still retain some of the very key features of the early bikes. When it comes to the bike showcased here, Moulton says the New Series Double Pylon is the "ultimate Moulton".

Moulton has taken the multi-tube construction to the drawing board and made stainless steel 'pylons' to replace the head and seat tubes to further increase stiffness. The tubes are still made of aerospace stainless steel and silver brazed by hand. The result, according to Moulton, is "sublime ride comfort and breathtaking looks".

> Limited Edition Moulton 60 goes on sale

It's not only the double pylons in this bike that make it quite far removed from the original 1960s design, but the overall bike has seen quite an overhaul. The main tubes which run along the length of the bike are placed outside the pylons, and the spacing around the rear swing arm is different. 

The 'separability', as Moulton calls it, remains much the same as it was on the original Moulton bikes, with the Two Pylon frame section separating into two halves via the removal of a kingpin. The front and rear 'fork' should also be quite easy to remove for transport. 

The fork (made of Reynolds' highest grade 953 stainless steel) is new, with a Moulton Flexitor (featuring an adjustable bump-stop and soft lock-out) at the front and a Moulton Hydrolastic with Moulton Flexitor pivot at the back.

Then, we have the overall build kit. No expense is spared of course, and the New Series Double Pylon is built up with a Campagnolo Super Record 12-speed groupset. You get a 10-32T cassette with either 53/39T or 58/44T chainrings.  

> A history of folding bikes with Mark Bickerton

The handlebar is Deda Speciale Classic, and you can choose either a 44cm or 42cm width. The bars are wrapped in Brooks Leather bar tape, and Brooks also supplies the Leather Swift Ti saddle. The wheels are stealthy black Moulton MT20 shod in Schwalbe Durano tyres.  

What about that price then? The New Series Double Pylon is priced at a whopping £21,950 (about the same as a Mini Cooper, or about ten times more than the 'cheapest' Moulton on its website right now) and as mentioned earlier, the lead time is currently around 12 months. That is perhaps partially due to the complex nature of the double-pylon frame, which has a trade-off of adding complexity and man-hours to the manufacturing process, but then again none of the new Moultons are currently shipping with less than a three-month lead time.

Is this the ultimate small-wheeled bike? Let us know in the comments if you'd like to own one, and be sure to also check out our other Bike at Bedtime features.