cycling in the sixties

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Cyril Haearn
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Re: cycling in the sixties

Post by Cyril Haearn »

bikepacker wrote:According to my mother (I was too young to remember) I did my first solo bike tour at the age of 4 that would be in 1947. Since then I have never been without a bike to ride so that mean I have so far been cycling for 71 years. And hope to go on for many more.

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bikepacker
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Re: cycling in the sixties

Post by bikepacker »

Wouldn't that be cool. :)
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: cycling in the sixties

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

HI,
Rod brakes on a shared bike.
Never been on a club ride, never been a member.
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Mick F
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Re: cycling in the sixties

Post by Mick F »

I've never been without a bike to ride either.
Maybe first turned a pedal on a small tricycle - Triang? - aged 3 or 4. Hardly been off one since then, except forced to by the inconvenience of being at sea. :wink:

66 now, so that's 62 years. No doubt I'm not unusual ................ but then again, many folk stop cycling and only take it up again in later life, so perhaps I am.
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531colin
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Re: cycling in the sixties

Post by 531colin »

mjr wrote:…..I wasn't about in the sixties. Therefore, it must have been terribly dull for all of you. ;-)

Oh, you've no idea!
mjr wrote:
531colin wrote:Modern materials are wonderful, but I miss the way we would all stop and put our capes on (or off) at the same time.

If they won't stop while people add/remove waterproofs, isn't that just more club cyclists being antisocial ****s now? Or do you mean modern materials are giving off fumes which make them so or something?

Modern materials allow you to ride all day in a jacket which is more or less waterproof and more or less condensation free, so there is much less need to keep stopping to adjust clothing layers.
But I miss some of the old traditions; everybody would stop to cape-up or un-cape at the same time by agreement, because wearing a cape is like riding with an air brake and you can't keep up with somebody who isn't wearing one. For heavy rain (or crossing a ford) everybody would stop and take their socks off; theres nothing so civilised as putting on socks which you have kept dry in the saddlebag. If 3 people wanted to walk up a hill we all walked....didn't matter how many were out, it was always three shouts and we all walked.
I miss riding with people who can actually ride like a club, two by two, as well. An untidy straggle along half a mile of road is no way to keep in contact and its a good way to antagonise Mr Toad in his car.
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531colin
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Re: cycling in the sixties

Post by 531colin »

thirdcrank wrote:
... I remember going to the sweet shop with my ration book ...


That ended in 1953

Makes me about 6. I wasn't going on my bike!
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: cycling in the sixties

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
Mick F wrote:I've never been without a bike to ride either.
Maybe first turned a pedal on a small tricycle - Triang? - aged 3 or 4. Hardly been off one since then, except forced to by the inconvenience of being at sea. :wink:

66 now, so that's 62 years. No doubt I'm not unusual ................ but then again, many folk stop cycling and only take it up again in later life, so perhaps I am.

Did you ever do a paper round whilst at school?
I did, also worked in a café school hols, delivered coupons.
The day I earnt my first 1P my weekly 6d had long since expired,
Shared bike at 8 and since then bike and upkeep on it was the sweat of my brow.

My cycling in the six tee's :P
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Re: cycling in the sixties

Post by bikepacker »

My school job was to deliver groceries for the local Coop shop every weekday evening and Saturday mornings. Riding a big heavy bike with no gears and a basket full of groceries on the front helped to build strong legs.
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Mick F
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Re: cycling in the sixties

Post by Mick F »

NATURAL ANKLING wrote:Did you ever do a paper round whilst at school?
Not whilst at school, no, as the teachers would have had a fit! :lol:

Before getting the bus to school, yes, and weekends too. 1967/8/9 Can't remember the wages, but it was maybe a quid a week. They issued me with a black "butcher's bike". Massive steel heavy thing with a steel basket holder on the front. No gears, and rod brakes.

This was the paper shop.
Parbold, Lancashire.
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al_yrpal
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Re: cycling in the sixties

Post by al_yrpal »

I did a butcher's delivery round on a Saturday morning for some years. A heavy no geared bike with a basket full of meat. They just slapped a bill on top of each joint which stuck on with the moisture.

One day they overloaded me, so when I got off the bike it overbalanced forwardso spilling all the meat on the road. Lots of labels came off and as I reloaded everything wiping off the grit etc I stuck them back by guesswork. When I got back to the shop there had been loads of phone calls complaining wrong joint, wrong weight etc... :lol:

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Norman H
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Re: cycling in the sixties

Post by Norman H »

My first memories, from the early fifties, were of a tricycle with a handy rear storage compartment. I would have been about 3 or 4 years old at the time. I duly progressed to two wheels and a succession of bikes cobbled together and variously upgraded from whatever I could afford.

Around 1965 I joined Edgware CTC whilst I was still a schoolboy. At that time I was riding a rather nice Olmo which I bought off a friend. I'd coveted his bike for some time and finally persuaded him to sell it to me. It was 5 speed with concealed brake and gear cables, and had a Gnutti steel cotterless crank set. My first made to measure frame came from Wally Green in Hendon and was paid for from the earnings of a paper round. It was largely equipped with secondhand parts and was upgraded as funds permitted. It was rare to own more than one bike in those days but the Olmo was ridden fixed gear as a winter hack.

I still have the Olmo frame in the loft but sadly the Wally Green was written off in a crash.
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Re: cycling in the sixties

Post by Vorpal »

I started in the early 70s, but I don't recall that it was very much different. In the early 80s, when it bought my first decent bike, it was a Raleigh Super Grand Prix. I bought it from a friend who had it from his older brother, who raced with a university club. The first owner of the bike was the only person I knew with chamois shorts or any special kit. He only had his club kit. We all admired it and looked up to him. I think I was 15. He sparked my interest in cycle racing. The timing was perfect, because the following year Greg LeMond became the first US American to win the men's UCI World Championship in road racing. The women's had been won by US Americans twice, though I don't recall that I was aware of that at the time.

As for the Raleigh Super Grand Prix, I rode it everywhere; 11 miles to school and back, and ranging farther and farther from home, often with my brother. We sometimes took our bikes to go fishing & camping. We didn't call it touring. Bikes were just how we got where we were going.

It didn't include any special clothes. In fact, I mostly cycled in what I wore to school.

The accessories to have then were an Avocet leather saddle and a matching saddle bag. My bike came with the saddle, and I saved money for the saddle bag. The only clothing items available at my local bike shop were cycling caps. IIRC they had ones with the shop logo, national team caps, caps with Campagnolo on, and one or two other companies that made bike bits.

Sadly, the Raleigh was stolen when I was at uni, and replaced with a basic, but decent bike I bought off a professor for $50.

The first time I eve bought any cycling specific clothing was in 1993 when I got my first job with a professional level of pay. I bought my first new bike; a Raleigh chromalloy hybrid, and some cycling shorts that had several layers in the crotch. I won't say they were padded because the layers all together were thinner than a proper chamois. But they were cycling shorts, and a revelation to me because I had had problems from time to time with underwear chafing, and not ever found a good solution.

I still have the hybrid and the shorts, though the shorts are no longer fit for wear in public :lol: They are still comfortable, and I sometimes wear them under other clothes.
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tatanab
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Re: cycling in the sixties

Post by tatanab »

For desirable clothing in the 1960s, see the early pages of Bike Riders Aids 1968 http://classiclightweights.net/united-k ... ds-1967-8/ This is when I started club riding (aged 16) and any clothing like this was a couple of years away from my pocket. For the first year or two I rode in down graded school clothing including shoes. I even rode my first 12 hour time trial in T shirt and shorts, although I almost certainly had cycling shoes by then. All this was perfectly normal. Club strip or race clothing was only used for racing. It was quite likely that you would change your clothing after a Sunday morning time trial, stash it in your saddle bag on your race bike which was quite capable of carrying it, and go off to join the clubrun for the rest of the day.
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Re: cycling in the sixties

Post by Vorpal »

tatanab wrote:For desirable clothing in the 1960s, see the early pages of Bike Riders Aids 1968 http://classiclightweights.net/united-k ... ds-1967-8/


Thanks for that, tatanab. Fascinating stuff :)

It does remind me that I've had a pair of net-back cycling mitts since I can remember and used to be proud of the funny tan they gave me :lol:
“In some ways, it is easier to be a dissident, for then one is without responsibility.”
― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
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