Hi Phil, This might be of interest regarding the extraordinary British record feats of the 1930's: Notable riders with disabilities:- Jack W Rossitier Century Road Club (H.R.Morris's Brother-in-Law) was badly wounded in the First World War and one of his hands was of little use to him during his early period of record breaking. Must have caused him no end of problems when changing tubes and mending punctures and if you read the accounts of his record rides he suffered more than his fair share of tyre problems!
Sidney Herbert Ferris Vegetarian Cycling & Athletic Club had only one eye which must have been an immense handicap in a "24" and an even greater one riding the End to End or 1000 mile record attempts.
Rene Menzies 61,561 miles in a year. I believe he broke his left arm during this record and rode with it in plaster for some of that year.
Walter Greaves Walter lived with his mother in Newlands Place, Undercliffe, Bradford, and was determined to break the record for the number of miles cycled in a single year.
The current holder of the accolade had pushed the figure up to a back-breaking 43,996¾ miles, but Walter was convinced he could better it. What made his attempt even more courageous was that he only had one arm.
Walter, who lost his left arm in an accident as a teenager, had a specially-constructed one-handlebar machine, and as a vegetarian kept to a diet of milk, brown bread, butter, tomatoes, apples, nuts and orange juice.
Conditions werent kind to him, however. He quickly met a lot of bad winter weather. On the first day he rode against the wind to York and for four of the first seven days he was soaked by rain.
Travelling to Doncaster Walter finished with ears and fingers frostbitten. He completed a York-Beverley-Selby circuit in driving snow and on roads glassy with ice.
On one single day of his challenge, struggling through drifts on the North Yorkshire Moors, he fell off his machine eight times. But soon he was going further afield and finding better weather, and by mid-June he had completed 21,500 miles - well on track at this half-way point to beat the record.
To celebrate covering so much distance, Walter rode a lap of honour at a track meeting at Hearne Hill.
He was in line for 50,000 miles in the year when an abscess formed on his leg after a spill and necessitated a minor operation which cost him a precious fortnights worth of cycling time.
In November Walter was introduced to the Duke of Kent at the Bicycle and Motor Show at Olympia. He broke the record on December 13 and did a lap of honour at Hyde Park, followed by hundreds of other cyclists.
Walter was presented with a trophy from the makers of his machine. He said his biggest mileage on one day had been 262 but he went 374 miles at a stretch over two days without sleep.
When he finished his epic effort outside Bradford Town Hall shortly before midnight on December 31, Walter was welcomed by a large crowd and celebrated his final total of 45,383 miles with a drink of grapefruit.
In later life he moved to Skipton where he set up a business making wrought-iron garden ornaments from a forge business he had established.
Walter contracted Parkinsons Disease in 1979, and died in 1987, aged 80.
There was a book on cycling published recently called Wide-Eyed & Legless by Jeff Connor I know this is not very P.C but "One-Eyed and Armless would truly descibe these magnificent giants of the road.
Michael Butler Huntingdon UK.
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Michael Francis Butler
michaelbutler@fastmail.fm