A brief history of cycling – My Bicycle Journey

It started with a tricycle … this is my first bike back in 1967…

My-cycle-history-Tricycle

Closely followed by another trike in 1968, but this time with a boot, which was the perfect thing for carrying toys and food…

My-cycle-history-Boot-Tricycle

Stabilisers arrived in 1969, and I realised the importance of a proper crash helmet… although I had my first proper crash on this one, wipe out in the gravel on the road right outside the house…

My-cycle-history-Stabilizer-bike

By 1981 I’d moved onto a proper racer and had turned dad’s old bike from a Sturmey Archer hub-geared bike into a five-speed derailleur jobbie… and first first set of bicycle-related stitches, this time in my head after running into a high bank on a school cycle holiday on Dartmoor (no helmets back then)…

My-cycle-history-Dads-racer-and-Sue

A gap year in Australia in 1988 found me working a bike courier in Melbourne, which was probably the best job I’ve ever had… and I went through two Hillman mountain bikes in twelve months…

Courier-on-Carlton-St

I had a lurid pink Hillman first, which horrified most of the Aussies…

Courier-Blue-Hillman-at-Rialto-Towers

And then swapped for a more modern version, which had a U-Brake under the rear chainstays, which was great in sunny Melbourne, but not so good in the clay of Wiltshire… I had two big crashes on this one, the first one in Melbourne when a van jumped a red light light and I ran into the side of it, and another one back in the UK when I dropped it going down a hill near Runnymede and ended up with a knee full of stitches…

Blue Hillman

The Saracen came next in the early 90’s…

Kiliflyer-Garden

Young kids meant a decent hybrid, the Cannondale Adventurer… what a fantastic bike…

Charlie ready for a milkshake and bun at the Summer Cafe
Charlie ready for a milkshake and bun at the Summer Cafe

With a road bike joining the stable in 2004…

Cannondale R700 - Tour ready

The Saracen was replaced by my first front suspension bike, a Marin Eldridge Grade…

Jura - La Frasnee

And then came the Giant Anthem…not to mention Louis growing too quickly and starting to ‘borrow’ MY bikes on a regular basis…

SPAM 2013

And a very brief foray with an old Post Office bike…

Post-Office-bike

For a ‘big’ birthday the Bianchi was a treat, but the decision took months in the planning and sleepless nights over the colour…

Bianchi-Sempre

And in recent months I’ve taken a turn to the dark side, of cyclocross, with another Cannondale…

Cannondale-R700-vs-CAADX

The story continues… watch this space.

This summer (2015), I’ve been using a Kinesis Crosslight Pro3 to great effect in my first series of cyclocross races… oh my word, how hard is this proving to be??

Kinesis

Not forgetting grandad’s bike as a fall back…

My-cycle-history-Grandad-and-his-bike

 

 

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