Re: Gumbud Leisurely Scribbles (part 1)

PART III – in which gumbud gets his own wheels

Up to this moment remember all journeys had been with relative short walking distance by feet power. So the 'connectiveness' to people, places and faces had always been there. I do believe that this makes for a more harmonious whole of the community and stops us rushing about all day.

But using a push bike can also of course keep us fit and it did. I’m sure many can recall the absolute joy of owning a first new racing bike even if it didn’t have derailleur gears! The freedom was also of course a joy and in the days when the society in which I lived was safe. Even the traffic was low key [kept to speed limits and were not large in numbers] At a much younger age I had once cycled from Liverpool to Chester so adventure was my middle name. this time though my travels were around and about a small village of 6000 souls – my longest journey being 10 kms daily to school and to our nearest town which had a real cinema.

Riding to school through ice and snow never daunted us we were foolhardy and adventurous and I cannot remember any major spills.

One of the joys of cycling is that you can go where you want and that we did. So those hot summer evenings seen us out to beyond dusk and at w/ends all day. Occasionally we would ‘plan’ a journey but for the most part just random forays. In those days there was no thought of chaining up bikes [can’t recall one ever being stolen – oh golden days]. The school run was probably one of the longest through the Cheshire countryside – up hill and down dale. Most of it was on bitumen but then a short cut through cattle country seen us navigating ruts rutted lanes and the occasional herd of cattle heading our way. Then eventually back onto bitumen and the school bike shed – again no lock and key needed for the bikes and it was an open shed!

One small adventure I experienced was ‘canon fire’. One of my mates was an engineering freak and somehow had managed to build himself a small canon [cigar size version]. Ball bearings were of course easy to come by but God knows how he got the gunpowder. As we cycled through the non-bitumen track of farmland he announced he had a canon and was going to explode! I couldn’t believe my ears but we stopped on the river bank and he produced his small canon from his school satchel set it all up and lit the fuse. And bang it went – he never retrieved his ‘cannon ball’ from the opposite bank. May sound a trivial story now but my God I thought we were storming the Houses of Parliament and kept looking over my shoulder.

Another danger moment was occasionally racing each other home for 10kms. Whizzing along downhill and up dale – how we never collided or crashed I do not know but in those days it was all excitement and nothing less!

I’m exhausted just typing this!!

Re: Gumbud Leisurely Scribbles (part 1)

Happy days, we never thought of safety back then, could you imagine if someone told you to wear a safety helmet on a push bike in those day, the shame of it, "Who do you think you are, Sterling Moss?"

Re: Gumbud Leisurely Scribbles (part 1)

I seem to have little to say atmo, but I'm enjoying reading the posts here.

Re: Gumbud Leisurely Scribbles (part 1)

....jussa fort-Gumbud's fault,so blame him...

We use bicycle clips to ride a bicycle.
We use hair clips to hold hair in place [well,the XX-chromosome lot do]
We use news clips to hear the news.

....but we don't use paper clips to read the paper.....hmmmm

Re: Gumbud Leisurely Scribbles (part 1)

I always found bicycle clips to posh - so long trousers tucked into the socks! - always did have a problem tuckin me shorts in though!!

Re: Gumbud Leisurely Scribbles (part 1)

post script - dangerous accidents did happen occasionally and did prove fatal. a younger former at our school lived in the same village - we just could not believe the calamity that befell him. He was setting out one Saturday morning on a lone fishing trip. Had his long rod strapped to his crossbar - it somehow got tangled into his front wheel spokes and tipped him off the bike - he struck his head on hard concrete became concussed and unconscious and died the same day. setting out on a simple fishing trip - we just could not comprehend this.

Re: Gumbud Leisurely Scribbles (part 1)

I am enjoying your blogs Gumbud, it takes me back to when I was growing up with a bike.
Mum & Dad, both being cyclists taught me to ride when I was three, there were thrills and spills. But after mastering the art of defying gravity on two wheels I was never without a bike. Small ones turned into large ones as I grew up, and like you, I cycled everywhere: To school, on my paper rounds and finally the five miles to work and back every day as an apprentice Engineer. But money corrupts, and I saved up my wages and eventually purchased a brand new Honda Fifty. The cycle was forgotten and confined to the back of the shed. The Honda was soon replaced by a motor car, and getting married and having children altered my priorities in life. One day, my motor car broke down while I was at work, the foreman offered me his bicycle to ride home; I was in my mid-twenties, and it had been a long time since I had been in the saddle, but I accepted. It was seven miles home, and for the first few miles I enjoyed the ride so much I wondered why I didn't cycle any more, but when I arrived home and dismounted the bike I was shocked and embarrassed to find that; My legs had turned to rubber and was unable to stand up straight or walk, and I felt like I had been repeatedly kicked up the bum.
With a growing family and mortgage, money was scarce, so it was while perusing a second hand shop I noticed a bicycle that the shop owner had 'done up' it was quite a bodge job, but I could see that the frame was a racing frame with all the runners in place for the derailleur and centre pull brakes, I purchased it for about a tenner, brought it back to it's former glory, and we have been together now for over 30 years. A have we done some stuff together...which I hope to document in the future in 'Robert's Bits'

Re: Gumbud Leisurely Scribbles (part 1)

“The Man me mother married was a smashin’ lookin’ chap,
With a lovely suit of Navy Blue and a gorgeous stripey cap,
That’s accordin’ to a photo that was took so long ago,
Me mother swears it was me Da, I’m sure I wouldn’t know!”

That's all I remember of that, an old friend of mine used to recite that in the pub when he'd get a few jars, he's gone now and so is the rest of the monologue.

Re: Gumbud Leisurely Scribbles (part 1)

PART IV in which the wheels get bigger!

Well the sturdy bike did some service and miles for a few years and I think got passed onto to the younger bros. Once I started work I had a 10 mile hike each way. I do recall trying it a few times on the pushbike but doing this everyday whilst keeping me fit could be exhausting in rain and hail. So finally I scored a Dot scrambling bike - the only thing going second hand in my price range. I must admit I did feel quite impressive and professional riding it handlebars shaped like the Harleys! Still no crash helmets I recall.

A good mate of mine bought a Francis Barnett and as it was my reliable than the Dot we often took off together helmetless into the hinterland of Cheshire – drank at pubs and rode home drunk – not a care in the world – the breathalyzer hadn’t been invented. Luck must have been on our side as I cannot recall any spills on either bike – perhaps we were just good riders? So bikes became our mode of transport apart from Saturday nights out when we caught up with other mates and hit the nightspots. Not places for bikes really, so buses and lifts when we could. Everything seemed so easy in those days and of course quieter. The bikes sufficed for a few years until the ‘leaving of Cheshire’ for a new life ‘down south’. I just can’t recall what happened to my bike but suspect I just passed it to little bros again.

So walking gave us a slower pace of life, time to say hello and smell the roses – the wheels more places perhaps to visit, little more excitement but was it a good exchange. I can clearly picture the street I lived in as a teenager perhaps having no more than 2-3 cars in the entire street. Where has it brought us today? – metro trains getting faster and faster – bullet trains in Japan for what – to save time – for what? What have we exchanged – a poorer life for a better one – I doubt it

Re: Gumbud Leisurely Scribbles (part 1)

I can only remember one man on our street who had a car, we all thought he was in show business, he was always immaculately dressed and came and went at all hours of the day and night, one day a tow truck came to take the lovely car away, turned out he was a gangster and involved with a gang that specialised in bank robberies, we never saw him or the car again.