Strangest cyclist you've ever seen?

[Fnaar]

I once had a teacher at school who cycled one of those ancient bikes a bit like the picture below: Anyway, he always moved at only slightly above a stately walking pace, regardless of weather, wind or incline.

 

[Globalti]

I remember the Wolverhampton tramp from 1975 - he used to stand on the corners of the ring road throwing grenades.

 

[Twenty Inch]

The Limehouse Golem - Danny. 6' 6", red hair, corpulent, on some heavy meds for various psychotic episodes. Every so often he'd stop taking them, and cycle round Limehouse, Poplar and Bethnal Green yelling abuse at car drivers. If he found an abandoned cone beside the road, he'd get off his bike, set the cone up in the middle of the road and start directing traffic around it. He had taken the whole cycling radical thing too much to heart.

Then there's the wierd courier in the City of London. Late 40s, no teeth, skinny, dressed like a tramp, CDs, teddy bears, basket on his bike, radio taped to the handlebars, bags and bits of string hanging off him and his bike. Basically looks likes he's homeless, but is holding down a job as a courier.

 

[Maz]

These are some awesome stories. Not a cyclist, but there's 'goggles man' here in Bristol who walks around in shorts, T-shirt and ski goggles no matter what the weather is.

Ah, this is one of those lateral thinking puzzles, right?...the answer is that he's lost his specs and until he gets some replacements, he's wearing his ski goggles which have prescription lenses in them.

 

[Disgruntled Goat]

that's hilarious. i wish more people would shout humorous things at me when i'm cycling along.

What?

Like "Cheer up you mirthless bastard!!!"

 

[Mr Pig]

I understand she's very well spoken and is called Virginia or something and is married to a professional.

Bodie or Doyle?

Some crackers here, good thread! I've never seen anyone weird. I used to know a mentally handicapped guy called Andy who was well known in the town as 'Andy Bike' because you never saw him without a bicycle. The problem was that he was a totally liability on them and kept crashing, causing accidents etc, so the police and the people charged with looking after him kept taking the bikes off him. I say 'kept' because every time they took away his bike he'd get another one! No one knew where he got them, he'd just get them. If I remember correctly he's dead, I can't remember if he was killed in an accident or what happened to him.

 

[Dayvo]

I used to know a mentally handicapped guy called Andy who was well known in the town as 'Andy Bike' because you never saw him without a bicycle. The problem was that he was a totally liability on them and kept crashing, causing accidents etc, so the police and the people charged with looking after him kept taking the bikes off him. I say 'kept' because every time they took away his bike he'd get another one! No one knew where he got them, he'd just get them. If I remember correctly he's dead, I can't remember if he was killed in an accident or what happened to him.

Is this him taking his final fall?

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKzDDBHd4es

 

[Mr Pig]

Is this him taking his final fall?

No, but good video :0) Any was about forty, that was twenty years ago.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

just seen a bloke who rides with a feather in his helmet, or alternatively on a decent road bike with slacks and cycle clips (the fashion police have been informed).

 

[CopperBrompton]

A guy on a Brompton wearing a full-face motorcycle helmet.

That was probably me. I had one to deliver to a friend, and that was the easiest way to carry it. :-)

Ben

 

[Amanda P]

There's a party of gypsy types usually camped around here somewhere on the side of a road. They move on every couple of weeks, and have a dozen or so horses that they tether on the verges to graze. They use various beaten-up old bikes to pootle round and check on the horses.

One old chap always rides an old roadster. He has a tweed jacket and a trilby hat and a flowing white beard, and always replies politely when greeted on the road.

I also get a wave if I go past their vans on the recumbent. The smell of their campfire-cooked bacon on a morning ride to work can be distracting, though.

 

[Amanda P]

I also get a wave if I go past their vans on the recumbent.

I guess to them, I'm the strangest cyclist they've ever seen.

 

[domd1979]

Friend of a friend in Stockport painted his bike black, every last bit of it - rims, spokes, cranks, brakes, the lot. Then cycled round Stockport at night with no lights, dressed in a white sheet ghost outfit....

 

[spandex]

what about these two wrong'uns in purple coats & beige hats?

What can I say?

 

[Speicher]

I could not see the handle bars on the Bike-propelled sofa on the left at first. Then noticed the steering wheel! Do you need a licence for a bike sofa with a steering wheel? and where's the brakes?

Reminds me that I should try and find the photo of my colleague riding the bicycle propelled radio!