Rode a motley collection of second hand bikes as a kid and not entirely sure that my dad knew much about bikes though he always rode his bike to work - wouldn't take the car to work like so many others did as he didn't trust the ICI dust.
None of them were more advanced than a sturmey archer 3 speed though some friends had mysterious machines with drop bars and more than three gears.
Rode to school with books in a plastic bag over the bars until the day the bag went into the wheel just outside the school in front of a bus - seem to remember someone laughing as I flew through the air and landed on my head and had double vision for a few hours. Mum got me a rack after that. Can't remember when I stopped cycling though it must have been until 18, at least in theory, as my somewhat liberal grammar school allowed you to nominate solo cycling around the country lanes as a sports activity in the sixth form - for me, that consisted of cycling home, jumping in my dad's somewhat wonky vauxhall and driving to a neighbouring town to watch a film.
After that, cycling disappeared, off to london and two vespas, the second one written off in a head on crash.
Then no wheels at all for a while, then two company cars - the second one a nice big red audi that was also written off in a crash. A bit of a pattern emerging maybe, though the audi incident did distinguish itself by managing to have the head-on/ish crash with a policeman (plain car but a convenient radio in his glove box), the intervention of a following ex policewoman, a mysterious helicopter overhead, and a bunch of savage chained dogs.
It seemed to be a good idea to get a bike as I conveniently changed jobs to one without a car. One lunchtime, escaping from the madness of the new job I wandered into a bike shop called wheelie serious (sadly long gone) in covent garden and bought a chromo ridgeback in the sale. When i picked it up the guy in the shop suggested i could ride it home to my house in the suburbs which at the time seemed to me to be madness. Soon after life events meant that a move from london was pending but in the interim I spent a few wonderful weeks cycling all over london using a very early lcc cycling map. Heaven.
Off to Nottingham where I cycled with some impressively fit 70 year olds in the peak district etc. Inspiring.
Since returned to London and despite now having 6 bikes, some quite pricey, some too clever by half, that chromo ridgeback, now pushing 20 years old but suspiciously similar looking to some of Ridgeback's latest touring offerings, is now my favourite bike. Just upgraded it to 8/24 speed - back to the future
