I was in a bike shop yesterday looking at stuff for my Grandson. Staring at all those shiny bells and bike pumps brought it all back, the fab kid pushbike culture of the early Seventies. What fun!
I remember the bikes I had, a Raleigh Chopper and a Moulton Mini and maybe another 'normal' one, over those formative years. Bikes and kids were inseparable, like Romans and chariots. They were our chariots as we Ben-Hur'd through the streets to the local park!
I remember all the accessories you could get: the mirrors, the handlebar tassels, the wonderfully loud bells, the pavelco gears, the lights, the dynamos and the cool metallic decals.
Best of all were the DIY accessories, especially the spoke clickers. I adored those things, which were basically thick card attached to the bike frame with a strong clothes peg. The card would click like mad as the spokes went round. What a racket they made but wow, great fun!
I can feel the wind rushing past me now as I free-wheeled down the hill, legs high, tassels flying and the spoke clickers clacking like castanets. Get out of the way! Blimey, what great fun it was!
Did you accessorise your bike as a kid readers?
Don't remember any accessories but I did have a Moulton Mini! Deep metallic red with a white saddle!
ReplyDeleteAnother Moulton! Yay! Am I right in thinking you could disassemble them using a lever on the saddle bar Kev? To carry them?
DeleteI don't remember that being a feature but it's possible that the lever was to adjust saddle height?
ReplyDeleteI think I'm remembering the Raleigh Stow-Away Kev. That was foldable.
DeleteDidn't accessorise but lucky you having the awesome Raleigh Chopper. My cousin had one and I gor to ride it whenever we visited them. Great fun. Totally cool looking but absolutely useless going uphill though!
ReplyDeleteSaw one at a car boot this week Yorkie. £700! It wasn't even in good nick!
DeleteAs I recall the Mk1 choppers were made to compete in the U.S. market against the Schwinn stingray, they didn't do well so we're modified for kids in the uk (the mk1 had I think 6" longer frame to fit adult riders)
ReplyDeleteFascinating MJ. The Schwinn Stingray... or maybe even the Schwingray! What a great name. I seem to recall Schwinn tyres being involved in early NASA and USAF space rover programmes.
DeleteErrrr, no. The only accessories I ever added were the bell and lights! I learnt to ride on my sisters' Raleigh with rod brakes, starting off with those dreaded stabilisers. I failed my first cycling proficiency on it-it was really heavy and the brakes were rubbish, so trying to do the cones part of the test was impossible. I got my own bike that xmas (a bog standard Raleigh, 1973) so passed the CP with ease. After I outgrew that it was back to my sisters' Raleigh Twenty and Raleigh Shopper to cycle to and from school until I got my first car in 81. I bought a second hand Emmelle 24 speed mtb about 1995 to cycle to and from work, and about 2000 I splashed out £250 for a new Saracen 21 speed alloy Y-frame mtb. Some of my friends think nothing of spending over £1k on a bike - some pay over £2500 for one (and they go through bikes at a crazy rate-2 to 3 years and the bikes worn out!).
ReplyDeleteBlimey Timmy, you're a proper cyclist for sure! I haven't ridden a bike since the 80's and it got nicked outside Farnborough library!
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