When I were a lad...

[Chris the Sheep]

The thing I remember looking back is going off on a 30 - 40 mile ride, on my own, aged no more than 14, with nothing but a drink and change for the phone. I don't remember ever getting a puncture, never had a mechanical issue of any note - now I wouldn't even think about setting off without a toolkit and a mobile phone.

Oh life was so simple!

[karlt]

The thing I remember looking back is going off on a 30 - 40 mile ride, on my own, aged no more than 14, with nothing but a drink and change for the phone. I don't remember ever getting a puncture, never had a mechanical issue of any note - now I wouldn't even think about setting off without a toolkit and a mobile phone.

Oh life was so simple!

What's changed though? Are bikes more unreliable? We didn't have puncture resistant tyres in those days. I often think that elements of nostalgic reminiscences about how simple life was when we were teenagers are (a) rose-coloured glasses wrt the past, (b) the optimism that underlies teenage thinking - i.e. we didn't take a toolkit because we simply didn't think what could happen. Now we're sensible adults we do. You set of with the toolkit because you know you could need it - but how often have you actually needed it? The only mechanical issue I've had recently was a broken chain, and I don't carry a chain pin pusher thingy in my toolkit

[[XAP]Bob]

The thing I remember looking back is going off on a 30 - 40 mile ride, on my own, aged no more than 14, with nothing but a drink and change for the phone. I don't remember ever getting a puncture, never had a mechanical issue of any note - now I wouldn't even think about setting off without a toolkit and a mobile phone.

Oh life was so simple!

What's changed though? Are bikes more unreliable? We didn't have puncture resistant tyres in those days. I often think that elements of nostalgic reminiscences about how simple life was when we were teenagers are (a) rose-coloured glasses wrt the past, (b) the optimism that underlies teenage thinking - i.e. we didn't take a toolkit because we simply didn't think what could happen. Now we're sensible adults we do. You set of with the toolkit because you know you could need it - but how often have you actually needed it? The only mechanical issue I've had recently was a broken chain, and I don't carry a chain pin pusher thingy in my toolkit

In four years of commuting I've suffered:
- Two visits from the fairy (one was wearing through the canvas whilst waiting for new tyres, the other on a day I'd left my fairy repellent kit at home)
- One snapped chain (chain tool in pack)
- One crank falling off - cycling 7-10 miles on one foot is much easier with cleats than without.
- One (safe) frame failure (result of an RTA)
- Numerous close overtakes...

Now that I' only commuting 5 miles I could easily walk home - but I have tools for others I might come across as well...

You'll notice of course that you had the equivalent of a mobile phone - a coin... Remember when phone boxes were prevalent and unbroken?

[Mick F]

The thing I remember looking back is going off on a 30 - 40 mile ride, on my own, aged no more than 14, with nothing but a drink and change for the phone. I don't remember ever getting a puncture, never had a mechanical issue of any note - now I wouldn't even think about setting off without a toolkit and a mobile phone.

Oh life was so simple!

That sounds like my memories too, except I didn't take money for the phone!

Also, I can remember quite vividly my first puncture. I was 13 (1966), and about a mile from home. I heard a rhythmic hiss hiss hiss as the wheel went round, and I looked down thinking I'd run over a piece of wire. The noise sounded like a bit of wire swishing through the mudguard. I sussed it out though, and walked home.

I was distraught! Here I was aged 13 and my FIRST puncture. I had no puncture outfit at home so I had to wait for Dad to get one and show me how to mend it! How could I get the the great age of 13 without a puncture?

These days, I don't get punctures because of puncture-proof tyres. I go for years and years between punctures, and usually it's never actually a puncture, but more a pinch puncture from a stone, or me nipping the tubes when changing the tyres. I cycled everywhere in the 1960s but I'm sure I do 10 times the annual distances nowadays.

[Guy951]

snip

You used the p-word 9 times in that post Mick.

You're doomed

[Mick F]

Go on then, here's the TENTH time .......

PUNCTURE.

[ferrit worrier]

Eee by eck here'sa bit of nostalgia for yer

if you had a leaky valve we'd fix it with a bit of rubber tube

but then later on a new type of valve came out, posh eh?

No bits of sand paper a metal scrarifier

and a little pot of dusting chalk

if the tyre blew out there was a piece of canvas? to glue to the inside of the tyre

and somewhere I've got one of the old style metal tyre levers

Malc

[nosmo king]

I remember in the mid 70's me and my brother would ride about 30 or 40 miles on our red Raleigh Choppers with little wooden boxes on the back our dad had made. We put Barry Sheene number seven stickers on them and put our Heinz sandwich spread sarnies in them. No tools, waterproofs or spare tubes. Just a few tuppence pieces for the phone!

[Mick F]

Did someone mention a Chopper?




I took no money when I went out cycling, not that we didn't have a phone at home, however, we were unusual for having a telephone at all. A big black thing it was, with a plaited brown cord to the receiver. Weighed a ton!

Parbold 412 was our number, but Mum and Dad were at work, so even if I'd rung the number, no-one would have been at home.

[Chris the Sheep]

To be honest I think commuting does put a lot more stress on a bike than summer Sunday rides, so maybe I'm comparing apples and pears. Plus there was virtually no.glass on the roads, and farmers still used bladed hedge trimmers and not.those flail things so punctures were rare.

Also I was on a sturmey archer three speed which was unbreakable.

On the phone - we didn't have one at home but my mum worked in the post office so had access to the 'village' phone.

[[XAP]Bob]

Parbold 412 was our number

A good friend of my parents had the phone number 1 when they were at school.

They did live in the lighthouse though

[Guy951]

Back in the early-to-mid 70s I always took a couple of 2p coins for the phone. We didn't have one at home but 0462 811103 was the number of the phone box right outside our front door.

'Ow the 'eck did I remember that?

[jayjay]

I only realised after we moved away from Bridlington, but our phone number there used to match my first name in the letters on the dial. Dial j-o-h-n..

[nosmo king]

I also used to take waggon wheels with my sandwich spread sarnies, and they needed two hands to hold them, not a thumb and forefinger like todays puny ones!

[wirral_cyclist]

I also used to take waggon wheels with my sandwich spread sarnies, and they needed two hands to hold them, not a thumb and forefinger like todays puny ones!

But u woz littler then so WW appeared bigger, sandwich spread brings back memories