"Push Iron"
"Push Iron"
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?
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?
Re:"Push Iron"
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.
Re:"Push Iron"
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!
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!
Re:"Push Iron"
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.
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.
Re:"Push Iron"
Of course here in Lincolnshire they are reffered to as "tred irons"
Re:"Push Iron"
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.
Jim - 'tred iron'... I ain't heard of that. interesting! cheers.
Col.
Re: Re:
Could you convert that to East Riding speak please? I don’t understand that West Riding clap-trap.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.
The older I get the more I’m inclined to act my shoe size, not my age.
Re:
16 year old thread ressurection
That must be a record.
That must be a record.
How times and Forums have changedCol 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.
Re:
"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 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?
Re: Re:
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
Re: Re:
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.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?
We always called bikes 'push irons' too in South Yorkshire(formerly West Riding).