Do as i say...not as i did

[gbb]

During a discussion with my now aged dad a few years ago..i was getting more interested in cycling and wanted a better bike...
'Dont go spending a load of money on a bike...an expensive bike wont make you go any faster'....said in the way Dads do

No problem...i know hes right, but thats not why i wanted a new bike, and i wasnt going to spend a fortune anyway.

So...we're talking about cycling some time later...
'Yes' he said ' they used to think nothing of cycling 60 mile round trips as kids in the late 1930's and early 1940s'....my first good bike cost me two months wages'

...'Hah ..you didnt hold back then did you Dad..

By todays standards, he spent the equivelent of about £2000 to £4000 on his first good bike

 

[alecstilleyedye]

During a discussion with my now aged dad a few years ago..i was getting more interested in cycling and wanted a better bike...
'Dont go spending a load of money on a bike...an expensive bike wont make you go any faster'....said in the way Dads do

No problem...i know hes right, but thats not why i wanted a new bike, and i wasnt going to spend a fortune anyway.

So...we're talking about cycling some time later...
'Yes' he said ' they used to think nothing of cycling 60 mile round trips as kids in the late 1930's and early 1940s'....my first good bike cost me two months wages'

...'Hah ..you didnt hold back then did you Dad..

By todays standards, he spent the equivelent of about £2000 to £4000 on his first good bike

it's very easy to overestimate how long/fast you've gone on a bike, unless you have a computer (your dad won't have back then). all of us are prone to exaggeration of some form so the odds are your dad probably cycled about 20 miles on a bike that cost maybe two weeks wages.

your grandad might tell you he'd do 100 miles on an iron shop bike

 

[monnet]

My grandad was more of a realist. He had two stock sayings about bikes (he cycled to work most of his life - never learnt to drive)
1. It's no use spending all that money on the thing, you've still got to get off and push it uphill.
2. What do you need all those gears for? You only need 3. Slow, very slow and stop.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

My grandad was more of a realist. He had two stock sayings about bikes (he cycled to work most of his life - never learnt to drive)
1. It's no use spending all that money on the thing, you've still got to get off and push it uphill.
2. What do you need all those gears for? You only need 3. Slow, very slow and stop.

i take it he didn't come from holland or east anglia then.

 

[monnet]

He didn't, but funnily enough his family were all from Norfolk.

 

[Tetedelacourse]

It's a dad's right to be hypocritical (in my experience). I can't wait til my bairns are old enough to preach at.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

i'll never make it stick; both kids' bikes weigh more than either of my two road bikes.

 

[gbb]

During a discussion with my now aged dad a few years ago..i was getting more interested in cycling and wanted a better bike...
'Dont go spending a load of money on a bike...an expensive bike wont make you go any faster'....said in the way Dads do

No problem...i know hes right, but thats not why i wanted a new bike, and i wasnt going to spend a fortune anyway.

So...we're talking about cycling some time later...
'Yes' he said ' they used to think nothing of cycling 60 mile round trips as kids in the late 1930's and early 1940s'....my first good bike cost me two months wages'

...'Hah ..you didnt hold back then did you Dad..

By todays standards, he spent the equivelent of about £2000 to £4000 on his first good bike

it's very easy to overestimate how long/fast you've gone on a bike, unless you have a computer (your dad won't have back then). all of us are prone to exaggeration of some form so the odds are your dad probably cycled about 20 miles on a bike that cost maybe two weeks wages.

your grandad might tell you he'd do 100 miles on an iron shop bike [/QUOTE]

We all do it, but when he was telling me, he even retraced his route...Avonmouth Bristol to Gloucester.
I just looked at it on the map...about 30 miles and then back. It took them all day mind, it was done in the summer for pure pleasure...just the way it should be when youre a youngster (i guess he was mid to late teens at the time)

Interestingly, he said the 50s were the hayday for cycling. Clubs abounded, and you would regulary see runs with maybe 50 guys in them. No traffic to worry about in those days....heaven

 

[dangerousjules]

strange timing for me to read this thread since today i saw my dad after 3 years of no communication through a family rift, it took all of 25 minutes to pass before we were talking about bikes and cycling, he did'nt like the look of my road bike(a moots titanium custom jobby) and proceeded to enlighten me on the joys of his 40 year old claud butler who apperantly were one of the better manufacturers in his prime...he said he often went on rides around leicester with his mates for over 100 miles...this cycling lark must be in my superior genetic make-up! alas still never done a century though!

 

[Keith Oates]

It's good to hear some of the stories told by people when they are younger and frankly if it was 60 miles or 40 miles, does it really matter, they remember it and enjoyed it, that's important!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Elmer Fudd]

...........40 year old claud butler who apperantly were one of the better manufacturers in his prime...

They were one of the makes when I was a youngster (not 40 years ago mind !) I had one, Dawes were for older gentlemen.
Thats probably why when I decided to get a bike to commute to work a couple of years back I went straight for a CB, may not have been the best choice but I like it

 

[Pete]

it's very easy to overestimate how long/fast you've gone on a bike, unless you have a computer (your dad won't have back then).

My first bike (1950s-60s) didn't have a computer, OK, but it had a cyclometer, one of those click-click affairs mounted direct on the fork, with a stud on the spoke. It only showed distance but was reasonably accurate. Some of the other kids - with more indulgent dads - did have speedos - again purely mechanical gadgets with a twisting cable linked to the hub. They were hopelessly inaccurate though, and slowed you up!

But - for determining average speed - there was always your watch wasn't there? (In those days we knew how to do arithmetic without a calculator ).

As for the cost of bikes - well I'm wondering whether they have in fact gone up or down in price, in real terms, over the years? Over a slightly shorter timescale: I bought my first custom road bike - 531 hand-built frame, basic alloy components - for just over £100 in 1976. Allowing for inflation that would now be rather more than £1000. For that price you start to get reasonable bespoke bikes today.

 

[gbb]

it's very easy to overestimate how long/fast you've gone on a bike, unless you have a computer (your dad won't have back then).

My first bike (1950s-60s) didn't have a computer, OK, but it had a cyclometer, one of those click-click affairs mounted direct on the fork, with a stud on the spoke. It only showed distance but was reasonably accurate. Some of the other kids - with more indulgent dads - did have speedos - again purely mechanical gadgets with a twisting cable linked to the hub. They were hopelessly inaccurate though, and slowed you up!

But - for determining average speed - there was always your watch wasn't there? (In those days we knew how to do arithmetic without a calculator ).

As for the cost of bikes - well I'm wondering whether they have in fact gone up or down in price, in real terms, over the years? Over a slightly shorter timescale: I bought my first custom road bike - 531 hand-built frame, basic alloy components - for just over £100 in 1976. Allowing for inflation that would now be rather more than £1000. For that price you start to get reasonable bespoke bikes today.[/QUOTE]

In 1976'ish, as a 17 year old, i was earning between £30 and £50a week, so that £100 was say 2 and 1/2 weeks wages.
By todays standards, (using my sons wages as reference) thats £600ish. Not much in it is there....