General Chat

Anything at all about bikes. Type; adaptations; memories.tandems.

Particularly for the older ones, could you still ride a bike. If yes - no-handed in the street?; on a main road if it was cold?

Happy days

Can I have an encyclopedia for Christmas - no you can walk like everyone else.

A recent UK Newspaper headline caught my attention. It declared that more bicycles were sold in Britain last year than cars (3.6 million bikes & 2 million cars).

I was a bit dubious about the veracity of that statement. Some editors & journalists have been known to accept overblown proportions & outrageous assumptions as if they are normal & expected just for publicity purposes. But the fact that the information was backed by Boris Johnson, Tory Mayor of London, gave some credence to published figures. After all, Boris set up ‘cycling for London’ when he introduced his ‘Boris Bikes’ scheme to encourage their use in an attempt to reduce car congestion in the capital. Some hope!

Not many of his Conservative colleagues have taken up his offer. In fact, one unfortunate chap who did, got into a spot of bother while manoeuvring his bicycle through the guarded gates in Downing Street. This gentleman became well known in the UK & beyond possibly for allegedly calling a few young & totally innocent policemen - as they all are - by the pejorative term of ‘plebs’. Immature children sometimes indulge in name calling. As a mature adult, he should have known better.

He resigned under Press duress from his prestigious Government position. The sorry debacle of claim & counterclaim continues apace to this very day.

As a young lad of about 14, I free-wheeled down the hill from where I lived, round the roundabout at the bottom the hill, no hands on handlebars, straight onto the platform of a double deck bus. I may have started off with no hands - I ended up with no front teeth :-(

I had a New Hudson 2 wheeler for my 7th birthday. The logo was an arm sticking out of a chimney which looked odd to me. I used to go to school on it and would attach reins to the handlebars and ride it like that as well as no handed. I remember hitting a tree root in the farm driveway opposite and pitching over the handlebars.....more plasters on my knees!!

Then as a teenager I was given a secondhand semidrop handlebar bike with derailleur gears by a chap who worked for dad. He felt sorry for me still riding the New Hudson with my knees under my chin as it was far too small for me by then. I thought it was the bees knees and rode miles on it. It had a posh chrome headlamp and dynamo.

Now I have a purple Giant mountain bike, very lightweight, with loads of gears and a soft gel seat for my larger derriere!! Sadly this has hung in the garage the past few years due to me having knee problems. I'm hopeful to ride it again though as there are some nice canal and disused railway tracks nearby with cyclepaths leading to them. I would NOT want to ride on the roads around here, far too busy!!

I didn't have a push bike :-( I had a motorbike. :-D

Annx - your derriere has hung in the garage for the past few years :-D :-D :-D

My first bicycle was a new Hercules.

From my family tree:

"Currys was founded in 1884 by Henry Curry (born in Leicester in 1850), when he started to build bicycles full-time in a shed at the back of his garden at 40 Painter Street, Leicester, England.

He opened his first shop in 1888 at 271 Belgrave Gate, Leicester.In 1890 he moved to larger premises at 296 Belgrave Gate, then in 1900 to 285-287 Belgrave Gate. The company was put on a proper financial footing in 1897 when Henry formed a partnership with his sons, calling the company H. Curry & Sons. The business continued to grow and floated on the stock exchange in 1927. By this time the shops sold a wide variety of goods including bicycles, toys, radios and gramophones.

Currys pulled out of cycle manufacturing in 1932 when they closed their Leicester factory but continued to retail Hercules bikes (badged as Currys) until the 1960s."

You don't stay cold very long riding a push bike :-)

I have ridden all sorts of push bikes through my father's police bike ( very heavy, rod brakes ), penny farthing ( terifying), American fixed gear - back pedal to brake (*wow), sister's Palm Beach ( stupid turquoise color, too small, excruciating saddle, Falcon 10 speed (stolen by Burnley FC Supporters) Claude Butler ( 20 speeds excellent for crashes) and ( shame ) other people's when coming home a bit merry while at uni. My own at uni. was often borrowed ... I hated fixing punctures. There were those little kits, lever off the tyre, patch the tube etc. Now I just get Halfords to do the work. At one time I had a Raleigh with a "Sturmey-Archer" three speed and a dynamo lighting which I thought was the bees knees until I got the Falcon. The old bikes were all so heavy ... even "Reynolds 531" tubing weighed a ton by modern standards. Now wonder people got their a-- on a BSA Triumph or Honda at the first opportunity.

The brakes were terrible, even the new ones with knobbly blocks. Riding rellies bikes in such cities as Nottingham required blind faith.

Stunts? Hanging on to lorries/buses, feet on handlebars, no hands, no brakes, passenger on the cross bar, bike polo with a football, no lights ... somehow it was possible to ride a pushbike complete with cricket kit and bat, how I don't remember

Youth hostels were fun. Back then cars and motorbikes were banned but not girls :-)

Nowadays I have a Giant too. I had thought that the brand name was something to do with it being hi quality but given my late middle age spread the name may well be after the owner's posteriors as Anne says. It is comfortable as bikes go. Useless for shopping as very uncertain it will be there when u get back so I use a cheap Halfords red n black. Heavy :-( The Giant is light enough to hump up stairs if needs be.

best British movie about bicycles; sadly the Raleigh factory has been demolished

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=witdTZ1F8v0

My first two wheeled bike was a family heirloom :-D

It had been given to my eldest sister by our Grandparents, used by all of my 3 elder sisters, but when they left home it was all MINE. Though not new & shiny it had unbuckled wheels & brakes that worked.

Interesting Rollo as I know all those streets in Leicester having worked in the city many years. So you have an ancestral connection with Curry's and their Hercules bicycles. OH has just said his mum used to ride a 1933 Whitworth Rudge with the complete chain guard, with those uncomfy little folding metal child seats that he used to ride in. I remember riding in one of those too. The metal slats would leave stripes across the back of your legs where they dug in and the metal was so cold when you first sat in them.

I wish I could hang my spare derriere up 1FITG!! I replaced the Giant's standard saddle with this big gel topped seat that is really comfy. I also got some of those gel topped handlebar grips as well........such comfort was unheard of years ago. Yes, I remember the juddering brake blocks too. I seem to remember rubbing them with a matchbox if they got greased up and didn't grip properly. Sticking a twig so it strummed the wheel spokes as you went along too and weren't there a lot more insects years ago......I was always stopping to fish them out of my eyes when I was out on my bike.

One memory that will never leave me is dad going ballistic when I told him I'd found something really good to clean the chrome wheels on my New Hudson........SAND from the pile he had in the driveway!!! Well I was only 7 so how would I know it would scratch them. :-S

Great postings. We used fag cards rather than twigs. I use to ride a police bike for a living in the 50's and 60's. We got half an hour a shift to clean them.

My own bikes were el cheapo's - Hercules or BSA (bits stuck anywhere). Always wanted one of those Raleigh's which ticked as you went along, but never made it.

Happy days

Dear Harry

Hello

Hope you are okay.

I would like to ride a motor bike.


However, my car driving is so poor that family occupants have been known
to try and jump out before I even do a 1/4 of a mile. :-S

I think I will keep using the bus and the popular shanks pony. :-D


Take gentle care
Best wishes
Elizabeth, EOS
xx

Don't worry , I carry a sponge to wipe the blood off the front bumper, so you're not alone.

Elizabeth on a motor bike? The mind boggles.

Happy days

My first bike was bought in "The Lane" in London, my dad rode us there on his motorbike, and as I was a bit unsteady on it he hoisted it over his shoulders bow and arrow fashion and we then rode home on the motorbike........ I learned how to ride it and as we lived in sight of west ham speedway, it was the bike races in the road, speedway style using two manhole covers in the road as bends for the track.......one day my dad caught me giving a crossbar to a mate......result bike was confiscated, and subjected to surgery by hacksaw..........

bike was a bit unstable without a crossbar...........

My next bike was the result of a ploy...............pass your 11+ (scholarship)and you can have a new bike

I did, and got a Triumph Tourer for biking to school........ was paid for on HP............14 1/2 guineas, If I recall correctly,