Good memories ( and not so good ) of cycling to School.

[chriswoody]

I never cycled to school either, given it was only 3 minutes walk away. At School I hated team sports so was always bunking off of PE, but no one could work out why I was so fit given that they never saw me exercising. However I had been a really keen cyclist from about 10 and living in North Devon it was certainly hilly. Little did most of them know about my long rides every week over Exmoor.

 

[HLaB]

School was a wee bit of a waste for me cycling wise. At primary there was no place to store a bike and no safe route, as a net result I never cycled and nobody else did too. At secondary there was at least a safe route (or safe for the first year) but again there was again no place to store a bike and the net result was the same, nobody cycled. After school was my time to cycle.

 

[graham bowers]

I used to cycle to school sometimes in the late 1960's / very early 1970's in Llangollen, about a mile each way. Sometimes I forgot I'd cycled and walked home - the bike was always still there the next day - and never locked. Cycling was just a form of transport then, and my bicycle was discarded as soon as I was 16 and got 2 wheeled motorised transport. I didn't discover recreational cycling until much later, around 1989, and in my early 30's.

 

[Bazzer]

Junior school I had to get a train to as it was 12 miles from my home and as it was a victorian built school in a city centre there was nowhere for my bike to be kept there anyway.
Secondary school in the 60s was at first about a mile and half from home and easily doable on my single speed Dawes Dapper. The school had covered bike storage which ran the length of the junior and senior playgrounds. At aged 15 we moved to a much hillier area nearly 7 miles from school and I was bought a 10 speed (x5 and double chainset) Dawes, (whose model name escapes me), for travel to and from school.
Must admit, it was only when I had children that I realised how poor cycling provision was for the local junior and secondary schools my children attended. Which I found shocking as all bar one of the schools had been built from the 60s onwards.

 

[colly]

As @jonny jeez siad cycling was just a way of life. Transport to and from school, to mates houses, etc.

We would go far afield at weekends looking for differnt places to play our games. I lived in Twickenham and it wasn't unusual for us to ride out to Virginia Waters, Box Hill, Leith Hill or a place called Blacks Pond outside Esher in Surrey.
We had a mixture or bikes, mostly with Sturmy Archer 3 speed gears of just a single freewheel. Later on some of us experimented with cobbling together fixed wheel affairs from bits and pieces found and scrounged. (old bike frames seemed to be everywhere, wheels too)
Crossbars ! Giving a mate, of if you were lucky a girl, a crossbar lift. I don't think I could do it now. I once carried a mate on the crossbar from Twickenham to Blacks Pond. Not up the hill by Kempton Racecourse though, he had to walk that.
Cowhorn handlebars were the rage at one time as were hard nylon orange saddles. Campag 'double clangers' were the stuff of dreams.

My mum and dad bought me a new bike when I was probably 13 or 14 and while it was a lovely Dawes bike with twist grip 3 speed hub gears I was so disappointed that it didn't have what I really wanted which was derailleur gears. It still had masses of use though.

Girls and cars hove into view and cycling was dropped. Only for me to pick it up again in my early 40's.

In fact it was Sanddown Park Racecourse near Esher.

 

[Katherine]

Oddly, I never recall carrying water, a lock, a helmet, a puncture repair kit (never remember getting a single puncture as a kid)...or anything more than a pocket full of change for the sweet shop.

I also don't remember riding up hills. I know I did, I had to, but I don't recall it being an issue.

That's what I remember too.

 

[Katherine]

I used to cycle to school and college on a kingpin shopper, because it was better than walking and there wasn't much of a bus service.
There were bike sheds but they weren't actually used much for bikes lol! I remember my so called friends relieving my bike of its pump and lights and giving them to me, so after that I had to carry them around with me.

 

[EltonFrog]

I'm reminded of trips I used to do in the school holidays, I'd load up the rear bag on my Kingpin with some clothes, and I'd cycle from home in Willesden Junction to Welling in Kent to stay with my aunt for a few days, a sort of holiday.

Looking back on those trips amuses me because for some reason I'd ride via Acton, Gunnersbury, Kew, around the South Circular Road, via Wandsworth, Clapham, Dulwich and Catford. Why the hell didn't someone direct me through the centre of London over the river diagonally?

The Kingpin

I was 12,13,14 when I did this, I think it took me four or five hours, I bet parents wouldn't allow kids to that kind of journey now, this was in the early 70's . I only ever did the ride once on my new road bike.

 

[Grant Fondo]

6 miles to school last 2 miles bloody big hill in Dorset, legs like Greipel at 12 yrs old.

 

[CanucksTraveller]

I cycled to school on an 80s Raleigh Racer, and later on a Peugeot ANC Halfords race replica, probably about 5 miles each way from Burnage to Whalley Range in Manchester traffic. This was from about age 13 to 16.

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

We had a small boat - nothing overly fancy - on the Driffield canal, so a couple of nights a week I would ride out from Hull on narrow farm roads, all seasons all weathers - pouring down with rain on a dark evening with those ubiquitous Ever Ready "Night Rider" lights that gobbled D-size batteries and gave a glow with all the power of a nearly-used-up Poundland tealight candle. No magicshines and exposure flares in those days - I learned every pothole by heart. And hammered straight a few dented steel rims from the learning process

 

[freiston]

Ah, where to start?...
...And a favourite bit of juvenile pranstering in the cycle sheds was unlock the barrel locks prevalent at the time from two bikes and swap them over.

We used to do that too - the predominant lock was a grey capsule shaped combination lock with 4 rotating numbered 'barrels' and a length of chain going from one end to the other.

I found a (not very good) picture of the sort of lock - but I don't recall any plastic sleeving on the chain:

 

[dfthe1]

I didn't know a single person who cycled to school when I grew up in the 80s and 90s. It just wasn't a thing...

...apart from once a year at junior school if you got your name down for the slow bike race on sports day. Such a magical day. Unfortunately I was (and am) terrible at track stands -- but it was all about cycling to and from school.

Outside of school, though, we lived on our bikes. They were an integral part of everything we did. Raleigh Budgie, Peugeot BMX, Falcon 5 speed racer, GT Outpost.

The first puncture I remember was in my late 20s on the Raleigh Highlander that replaced the Outpost, which was nicked when I'd had it just a few months. I was really pleased my parents happened to be staying that weekend and my dad could roll up his sleeves, get out a bowl of soapy water and teach me a traditional skill.

 

[hopless500]

10 miles to school and 10 back. Across a common that had hundreds of squashed frogs at one time of the year. Past the best sweet shop on the planet. Yes we stopped. Lots. A couple of miles of uphill at the end.
Abiding memory is not wanting to ride home on one occasion so resorting to attacking tyre with old fashioned maths compass and getting lift off music teacher who lived at the end of our road. Memories of very confused stepdad when confronted by an inner tube with about 15 holes in it

 

[johnnyb47]

My dad's old bike wheels were identical to mine, so when I used to get a puncture I would swap my flat tyre/ wheel for his when he was down the pub sampling a few pints. He couldn't understand why he was constantly getting flat tyres for months on end. When he eventually found out I ended up having the full force of his boot up my backside :-((