Uk.rec.cycling/Albert

How I Came To Enjoy Cycling, by Albert

raleigh budgie, red, (?) stabilisers and all, aged 3 or 4 ish.

raleigh tomahawk, no stabilisers, all growed up, see ?

then a bright red chopper. I went everywhere on it and thought nothing of setting off to far off places, 10 20 even 25 miles away, with nothing more than a couple of sarnies a jam tart and a can of pop ! great fun for 5 years or so until the 'bars sheared off mid wheelie causing a helluva crash. oof !

I had a go of a friends grifter which was very heavy (scaffold poles?) and was raleighs first stab at the BMX. (any wonder they went down the pan with 'interpretations' like that ??) I rejected the style and decided to stay with my chopper. ( more later)

as I wanted a chopper sprint ( were'nt they purple with 5 speed ? ) but couldn't afford one I managed to get some drop 'bars and fit them.

the novelty wore off after a while and then I was off to boarding school which had a bike shed and, every 2 years, a fresh crop of cheapish cycles to replace the last crop ridden mercilessly into the ground/walls/ pond by us kids.

this provided for a large selection of frames, wheels and gears with which to build a selection of 'boneshakers' with cowhorn 'bars and big, heavy rims, to go hammering around the school grounds and on mad expeditions through mud, rivers etc, this is in 1981/2 which kind of predates mountain bikes

one nutter (julian scott) attempted a tightrope style crossing of the school pond (a good 50' wide) on a bike with the tyres & tubes removed, but with insulation tape reverse wound on the rim 'for extra grip' (no, really)

he went about 6 feet out along a saggy rope attatched about 15' up a tree and landed in a heap at the waters edge with a broken arm. if he did it today the school would be sued 9 ways till tuesday. no doubt about it. instead we all laughed, staff included !

then there was barry mcalearny (sp) the road race king, always going on about the latest 'trainset' (as we used to tease) but could *always* be relied upon to dig out a spare part that would actually fit the 'bitsa special' someone was always trying to put together. an expert by now, no doubt.

after leaving school I bought a succession of cars and custom motorbikes (choppers for big boys ;-) ) only taking up cycling again this year. since then I have been out on it almost every day, and it is now my main form of transport. I have lost 1/2 a stone, improved my recovery rate by about 100% and seen more widlife out in the stick than I can remember seeing in all the previous years.

My partner is into it too and we regularly go out for 30 mile pootles and I've even convinced her to go on 3 or 4 day 'safaris' as long as "we spend at least one night in a good clean b&b"

Albert