** The CYCLING YEARS **
This page is the 29 September 2004 edition of this page.
My old diaries show puchases back into 1948 and 1949, but the LENTON was not bought until
12:7:52. By then, I had, however, already got my dynamo, leggings and cape for my all-weather
expeditions.
The early days of January 1951 (pre-Lenton!) saw me out in the snows and rains, cycling around
parts of Essex, before making a JOHN COBB racing car out of Meccano.
By Sept '52, my daily-mileage record had increased to 50.13 miles and many days had exceeded
the 39 miles tally .. and some tyre purchasings had been necessary.
My father had bought the LENTON (my first proper bike!) for me which I then bought off him,
in instalments. That bike saw me through many decades, but mind you, until the time I 'binned-it'
in 1990, it had so many part-replacements that it could hardly be described as the same bike!!
I had used it for cycling to my grammar-school (once per term) thus missing the twice-daily 11 miles (each way)
school-bus rides on those
days,- and multiple rides around Essex before moving to Worcestershire in 1955.
Until late 1954 my highest daily mileage had been 91.85 miles (from Essex, enroute to Somerset).
My 'trusty steed' moved, eventually, to join me in WILTSHIRE where I was doing my National
Service. From that point onwards it moved with me between counties in the South of England.
In 1954 onwards, my membership of the YHA (Youth Hostels Association) saw me visiting many of
the hostels in the UK and I had already puchased the "International Hostels" handbook!
Until my marriage in 1959 my highest daily mileage had been 115.20 miles (between 'digs' in Malvern
and the girlfriend's home in Lincolnshire!). My personal 'Tour de France' had to be cancelled because
of new interests.
Back in 'civvy street', the bike and I were inseparable as I used it to get around everywhere before
the purchase of my first car. Indeed, in August 1964, with my scientific duties from the Ministry as a
Civil Servant taking me to RAF Oakington, I was advised to 'take a car' as the mileages about the Airfield
would be quite large. A car-mileage allowance was offered, - but I had NO CAR at this stage. Ever
resourceful, I said "How about a bike mileage-allowance?"
They agreed and paid! (The bike went with me by train to Cambridge or March - and I cycled to and
around Oakington from there!). I even visited in-laws in Cambridge, by cycle at the weekend, - as the husband of that marriage
worked, for the RAF, at Oakington as a radar man.
Before my first car in 1965, my sole transport for political purposes was this 'LENTON', and I travelled around our constituency
continuously. Indeed, after 1965, it was still used around Malvern to contact members, raise funds etc..
My 1964 CYCLIST'S DIARY records the annual mileage by bike that year as 2141.5 miles (in great detail) and the
daily maximum (in April) to be 51.6 miles. After 1964, my annual cycle-mileage decreased each year, getting down to
345 miles by 1970!! It reduced even further by 1991 by when it reached ZERO! Having then moved into a smaller
house and its smaller garage, I effectively 'gave up' with my cycling (then aged 55 years!)
The only non-zero year after that was in 2001, when on my CHINESE tour, when a couple of us went for about
6miles on a rickshaw cycle.
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