Shared interests
Aug 27, 2017 10:24:34 GMT
Post by Humph on Aug 27, 2017 10:24:34 GMT
Yesterday, we stopped at a visitor centre adjacent to a forest we were in the process of riding through. There are several fence posts with notches cut in them for parking bikes. As we were catching our breath, an old boy pulled up at the post next to mine. His bike looked ancient, with faded paint and many a battle scar. As I idly took an interest in it, I noticed that it was a Raleigh fitted with drop bars, a Sturmey Archer 3 speed gear set and a hub Dynamo. New tyres but an old leather Brooks saddle.
The rider was obviously quite elderly but as sprightly as a sprightly thing.
We got to chatting and he told me that he'd bought the bike while still at secondary school...in 1949..
Since then he's done Lands End to John O' Groats several times and even now does the London to Brighton run on it most years. Dressed in a formal, albeit open necked shirt, what appeared to be ex-army surplus shorts, and brown brogues and socks he was clearly not a Lycra man !
The bike was an unidentifiable colour somewhere between rust, mud and sludge, but he assured me it had once been bright green. It was fitted with slightly knobbly tyres which was his only concession to the fire trails he was about to tackle. He has never had another bike and intends to keep that one until, well, it is "no longer required" as he put it. It was obviously in tip top mechanical order though, with well tended components.
I enjoyed our brief chat, and we went our separate ways almost certainly never to meet again, but I was left with a sense of encouragement that I might continue to enjoy my hobby at some level for many years to come, if he was anything to go by. But I must admit too to a slight embarrassment at the difference in the standard of equipment I see as essential by comparison to his take on it.
Shared interests do so often lead to pleasant chance encounters don't they?
The rider was obviously quite elderly but as sprightly as a sprightly thing.
We got to chatting and he told me that he'd bought the bike while still at secondary school...in 1949..
Since then he's done Lands End to John O' Groats several times and even now does the London to Brighton run on it most years. Dressed in a formal, albeit open necked shirt, what appeared to be ex-army surplus shorts, and brown brogues and socks he was clearly not a Lycra man !
The bike was an unidentifiable colour somewhere between rust, mud and sludge, but he assured me it had once been bright green. It was fitted with slightly knobbly tyres which was his only concession to the fire trails he was about to tackle. He has never had another bike and intends to keep that one until, well, it is "no longer required" as he put it. It was obviously in tip top mechanical order though, with well tended components.
I enjoyed our brief chat, and we went our separate ways almost certainly never to meet again, but I was left with a sense of encouragement that I might continue to enjoy my hobby at some level for many years to come, if he was anything to go by. But I must admit too to a slight embarrassment at the difference in the standard of equipment I see as essential by comparison to his take on it.
Shared interests do so often lead to pleasant chance encounters don't they?
