My parents cycling memories

[biggs682]

Both of my parents were cyclists back in their younger days , in and around Coventry.

Any time we go that way a tale or two is told and quite often certain bikes are referred to.

Well we visited my parents earlier and dad's 1949 racing license was bought out for inspection along with his discharge papers from 1951.

Mum still claims to have done a 10 mile road race in under 28 minutes I can't get near that today!!!

 

[Saluki]

My Dad used to tell of cycling on to the army base and riding 12 miles there and back agin. We were never sure if he meant 12 miles there and 12 miles back or if it was 12 miles there and back, if you are with me. He loved leisure cycling, never raced or anything.

Great to see pix of your Dad's old licence @biggs682. Sounds like your Mum was a fast lady - in the cycling sense of the word, of course.

 

[vernon]

Mum still claims to have done a 10 mile road race in under 28 minutes I can't get near that today!!!

They were made of sterner stuff in those days. I regularly visit an 85 year old who was a keen cyclist and motocycle rider. He and his wife used to time trial and their summer holidays were usually spent cycle touring between youth hostels in the Lake District and Cornwall. They'd even cycle through the snow to get to Keld and Kettlewell Youth Hostels from Darlington in the winter.

He served with the Army in Israel and the Lebanon and has some real horror stories to tell about his time there. The motor cycling stories were amusing and hair raising at the same time.

I'm hoping to persuade my friend to part with his Bates BAR cantiflex tubed road bike with strange curly forks but the negotiations have been dragging on for the past five or six years.

 

[biggs682]

My Dad used to tell of cycling on to the army base and riding 12 miles there and back agin. We were never sure if he meant 12 miles there and 12 miles back or if it was 12 miles there and back, if you are with me. He loved leisure cycling, never raced or anything.

Great to see pix of your Dad's old licence @biggs682. Sounds like your Mum was a fast lady - in the cycling sense of the word, of course.

must admit i am not always sure how true some of stories / tales are


and yes Mum on pink Rotrax were quick if times are right

 

[DaveReading]

I remember my Dad telling me that when he and my late Mum used to go cycle touring in their courting days, she never fully mastered the use of brakes, so her preferred way of stopping was to point the bike at the nearest wall.

 

[Dave7]

I recall my Mum telling me how (in 1957) she & my Dad were cycling across the "4 bridges"............Birkenhead to Wallasey. She ran into a pedestrian at the beginning and apologised. Half way over she ran into him again. They waited ages to set off again when at the very end she managed to run into him again.......at which point the air turned blue

 

[gbb]

As kids in the 1940s my dad and his brother (probably in their early teens) would cycle from Bristol (Avonmouth probably) to Gloucester..over 40 miles each way. They probably spent ALL day doing it TBF.
He told me how in the 1950s, maybe 1960s, some club runs would inculude hundreds of cyclists, no exaggeration.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

As kids in the 1940s my dad and his brother (probably in their early teens) would cycle from Bristol (Avonmouth probably) to Gloucester..over 40 miles each way. They probably spent ALL day doing it TBF.
He told me how in the 1950s, maybe 1960s, some club runs would inculude hundreds of cyclists, no exaggeration.

Round about 1970 I went on a combined clubs run with over 100 riders. Up the A11 from Woodford where it started before meandering off the back roads. I still remember swooping down through Royston while onlookers gaze open mouthed at the never ending peloton. And all done in a disciplined two abreast fashion inches from the rear wheel of the rider in front. Sportive cowboys take note!

 

[mjr]

He told me how in the 1950s, maybe 1960s, some club runs would inculude hundreds of cyclists, no exaggeration.

Some things never change

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

My Dad and his pals met through train spotting during their schooldays in the late 30's. After the war they combined trains with cycling and cine film photography, using their bikes to travel all over the UK, visiting loco sheds and recording their travels on film. I still have my Dad's old bike from those days.

 

[biggs682]

I still have my Dad's old bike from those days.

i would love to have one of dads old bikes but alas they went before i arrived

I remember my Dad telling me that when he and my late Mum used to go cycle touring in their courting days, she never fully mastered the use of brakes, so her preferred way of stopping was to point the bike at the nearest wall.

mum and dad did some of their courting on tandems and dad always tells the story how mum use to pick flowers as they rode along !

 

[Firestorm]

My parents were both club cyclists in the 50's, Dad was in the Penguin until he met Mum and then he joied her at the Buccaneers (Now called Redbridge) . He always said it was because they were a better track club.
He went on to win the Eastern Counties 5 mile in 54, I think Mums best 10m tt was about 28 too.
Mums parentents were cyclists too, Nan was in Roslyn ladies and Grandad in University CC, apparently lots on Uni members married Roslyn girls.
Mum still has one of her dads Uni club medals.
there was an article in CW recently on thr Roslyn, I need to check with Mum, but her Mum might be in one of the photos

 

[Firestorm]

https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/e...ime-trialling-on-a-fixed.145149/#post-2847842
Dad
mum

 

[Firestorm]

I was transported around for the first 8 months of my life in a sidecar attached to my Dads bike.
Mum tells a tale of riding to her parents with a case of tinned meat in the sidecar with me, Dad stopped at a set of traffic lights and when he pushed off the sidecar wheel stuck on something and he did a full 360 before getting away.

I had a chat with Dad a few years before he passed away, I asked him how good he actually was, as I had for years been telling everyone he could have made the olympics had he done National service. He said, I weren't bad son, so it told him he was old enough now , he was 78, to can the modesty. He said that the day they announced the team for the olympics (1952 I think) one of those selected was riding at Herne Hill, They announced it and the chap took the applause in a lap of honour. Dad then added , 3 hours later he finished second. Did you beat him ? I asked, to which he replied,"Beat him ? I f******* stuffed him.
I miss the old boy..

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

My wife's parents were cyclists too, they met on the Lothians CTC clubruns of the 50's. And her mother's parents were also cyclists, her grandfather was a keen racing man with I think the Lothians CC. They used to ride a tandem in the 20's. Her grandmother used to shock polite society by sporting knickerbockers when riding.