Mybike-stephenpridgeon

How I Came To Enjoy Cycling
Cheap green (?) tricycle. Very small fatwheeled kids bike at about 6, which went to my brother, then to the scrapyard. Then a blue bike with straight bars and SA 3speed - BSA? British Eagle? This got me to school and back until I was about 15ish. Then I was bought my best bike ever - an early eighties Raleigh Clubman, 531, 10 speed. Pearl white. I had that for about 3 days till it got stolen. If anyone has one for sale..... Then another Raleigh, but a much lower spec. This was always getting stripped and "improved". After reading "Richards Bicycle book" I took the "safety levers" off my brakes, I discovered how to use parafin, and how to fix a flat in 5 mins. Mildly amusing anecdote - I used to keep all the puncture repair stuff on a high shelf just inside the garage door, for quick access. I went home twenty years later, and they were still there, unused and untouched. A couple of the guys at school rode with Seamons, but I wasn't really into bikes then - all my money went into climbing. I also had my first big flyer, my first cut-up, and my first embarassing accident with toe-clips in front of girls. Left home, left bike for brother, bike got stolen. That was that. Cheap s/h steel mtb about 6 yrs ago, left to rust when I moved flat. Then the latest re-incarnation when I had to do something to build up my quads and the gym was just too boring. And here we are. Strange that I have so few memories of something which was so large a part of my life as a teenager. Stephen Pridgeon