"Push Iron"

General cycling advice ( NOT technical ! )
Col

"Push Iron"

Post by Col »

Hi!
Does anyone know the origin of this phrase - "Push Iron".
Sounds all northern, flat cap and cloggs to me.

I know bicycles started off as hobby horses with wheels which you pushed with your feet, and soon evolved into 2 wheels connected by iron bars, again pushed by feet, known as 'iron horses'. Later they became pedal powered, but is this where the term came from? "Push" because ytou would push with your feet, and "Iron" because it was an iron horse?
daveg

Re:"Push Iron"

Post by daveg »

Nah then, 'owd luv. Can wi 'ave a bit less o' this 'ere Northerners stuff wi t'flat caps n' towk abart wippets an' sich like? If tha' 'as a luk at google tha'll see that its wun a them queer Lancasheer sayings - now't to do wi real northerners i' Yorksheer.
Col

Re:"Push Iron"

Post by Col »

I did google it, but didn't really get anywhere. It does sound northern - we are a northern cycle training group - go into schools etc (or will be as soon as were up and running) and we liked the flat cap & cloggs sound of push iron - "Push Iron Cycle Training". Mi mums step gran was a lancashire dialect poet and she ad some great sayins.
So far I have come up wi summat - cycling was the domain of posh lads, and they were spurned by the working masses as effeminate poofters, hence "iron" - as in "iron hoofs"... and push as the cycles were pushed.
Thats a shame - we are a group of 3, 1 white male, 1 black female, 1 white gay female. A very PC mix, not by design I hasten to add - were just a bunch of friends. Tis quite funny that the name we have decided on might have its origin in good old fashioned homophobia! lol!
daveg

Re:"Push Iron"

Post by daveg »

Hi Col

The google results I got back all suggested Lancashire and I don't recall having heard push iron on this side of the Pennines. Made me think about the Writing Iron which I've heard used for typewriter, but thats all.

Sounds good as a company name though. It has a good ring to it. Hope you are succesful.
Jim Crosskell

Re:"Push Iron"

Post by Jim Crosskell »

Of course here in Lincolnshire they are reffered to as "tred irons"
Col

Re:"Push Iron"

Post by Col »

dave - thanks for the encouragement. It does sound lancashire, flat cap cloggs & whippets...... :-)

Jim - 'tred iron'... I ain't heard of that. interesting! cheers.

Col.
Peterhw
Posts: 1
Joined: 13 Jan 2022, 9:26pm

Re:

Post by Peterhw »

'Ey up. Yorkshire lad 'ere. Tha 'push iron' means a bike. I darent know where abouts it comes from but tha'nos' it is either Yorkshire or Lancashire.
peetee
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Joined: 4 May 2010, 10:20pm
Location: Upon a lumpy, scarred granite massif.

Re: Re:

Post by peetee »

daveg wrote: 2 May 2006, 12:39pm Nah then, 'owd luv. Can wi 'ave a bit less o' this 'ere Northerners stuff wi t'flat caps n' towk abart wippets an' sich like? If tha' 'as a luk at google tha'll see that its wun a them queer Lancasheer sayings - now't to do wi real northerners i' Yorksheer.
Could you convert that to East Riding speak please? I don’t understand that West Riding clap-trap. :wink:
The older I get the more I’m inclined to act my shoe size, not my age.
Mr.Benton
Posts: 182
Joined: 13 Jul 2009, 1:38pm
Location: Broadway, Worcestershire

Re:

Post by Mr.Benton »

As a youngster growing up just outside Hull, we called our bikes "push rods".
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Hellhound
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Joined: 19 May 2021, 7:39am

Re:

Post by Hellhound »

16 year old thread ressurection :shock:
That must be a record.
Col wrote: 2 May 2006, 2:10pm So far I have come up wi summat - cycling was the domain of posh lads, and they were spurned by the working masses as effeminate poofters, hence "iron" - as in "iron hoofs"... and push as the cycles were pushed.
How times and Forums have changed :D
gxaustin
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Joined: 23 Sep 2015, 12:07pm

Re:

Post by gxaustin »

"Push iron
A word scrubbers use to describe a 'bicycle'.
Phillip: 'az tha sin iz new push iron?'

Barnabas: 'ahh propa suspension 'n lot; musta cost a few bob'

Phillip: 'nar mate e nicked it frum that rich bloke's shed'
by The Serotonin Master May 14, 2011"

The term seems to be claimed by a couple of Yorkshire dialect sites too.

The use of the word, 'scrubbers' doesnt seem very relevant though?
Jdsk
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Joined: 5 Mar 2019, 5:42pm

Re: Re:

Post by Jdsk »

gxaustin wrote: 14 Jan 2022, 4:28pmThe term seems to be claimed by a couple of Yorkshire dialect sites too.
It does, although I couldn't find anything authoritative. I've never heard it in either the West Riding or Lancashire.

Withnell's brew a Push Iron beer in Chorley:
https://withnells.co.uk/real-ale/

Jonathan
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Hellhound
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Joined: 19 May 2021, 7:39am

Re: Re:

Post by Hellhound »

gxaustin wrote: 14 Jan 2022, 4:28pm "Push iron
A word scrubbers use to describe a 'bicycle'.
Phillip: 'az tha sin iz new push iron?'

Barnabas: 'ahh propa suspension 'n lot; musta cost a few bob'

Phillip: 'nar mate e nicked it frum that rich bloke's shed'
by The Serotonin Master May 14, 2011"

The term seems to be claimed by a couple of Yorkshire dialect sites too.

The use of the word, 'scrubbers' doesnt seem very relevant though?
A 'scrubber' was anyone 'poor' or whose dad was on the dole when I was growing up in the 70s.Just about every street had a family of scrubbers.The 'posh' kids at school also called us from the mining village scrubbers.
We always called bikes 'push irons' too in South Yorkshire(formerly West Riding).
hemo
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Joined: 16 Nov 2017, 5:40pm
Location: West Sussex

Re:

Post by hemo »

Just a geographical term, a push iron up north and a push bike down south.
jb
Posts: 1782
Joined: 6 Jan 2007, 12:17pm
Location: Clitheroe

Re:

Post by jb »

It's iron & you push it.
Seems logical round some of the streets in the Northern towns that I've experienced.
Cheers
J Bro
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