Like most 50+ British children I started riding on a
tricycle. Brand names which come to mind are Triang,
Sunbeam, Gresham Flyer (Rolls-Royce of kids trikes)
and Raleigh Winkie. The last has a very strange name
as winkie meant something entirely different to us
kids back then, more about winkies a little bit later
on.
>From tricycles to bikes this was the normal right of
passage. No one used stabilisers in our part of London
far to sissy. You just got on and rode.
My first real bike was an Elswick Hopper, must have
visited every engine shed, railway terminus, bus
garage and trolleybus depot in London on that Elswick.
Mad keen bus and train spotter way back then.
Used it for fishing expeditions as well. It got me
everywhere.
Funny thing in London back then we were banned from
cycling to school and this was when traffic was
relatively light, now they are trying to encourage the
kids to ride to school and the traffic is downright
dangerous. Strange world.
In November 1960 we moved from West London to
Stevenage New Town, spanking new purpose built town.
This town had the finest cycle path network in Europe
at the time.
Soon found the local train spotting haunt where
everyone gathered this was on the old London North
Eastern Railway line, the one that runs from London
Kings Cross to Edinburgh using the East Coast route.
The initials LNER were corrupted to the Late and Never
Early Railway by us kids. This place was full of the
local railway society club people as well, some real
strange men amongst this group, one in particular
liked reading stories about single women living on
their own with an Alsatian dog, really pornographic
and a clear signal to stay clear of this gent. He must
have been only in his late 20's but he seemed ancient
to us lads. Now this guy had a gammy leg and because
of this he couldn't ride a bike but he did posses the
most beautiful Higgins Ultralight racing trike. This
is where I learnt to ride a proper mans trike. I use
to borrow it to ride up and down the hill on Bridge
Road which had a fierce camber. Firstly I rode it
cross handed so that you had to concentrate on
steering and then normally, wasn't long before I was
riding to Little Freds or Big Freds Cafe's in
Stevenage Old town to get the bacon rolls and teas for
the group, amazing the amount of stuff you can carry
on a tricycle a regular domestique. Wonderful times
waiting for the food and drink in the cafes watching
the girls jive to Nut-rocker by B Bumble and the
Stingers and other such classics of the times.
In the December my Dad gave me for Christmas a brand
new Claud Butler Challenge and I was soon riding with
our local club and racing in club time trials. Back
then most time trials had what we called dead turns,
the courses were out and back but you got turned
around in the middle of the road by a marshal, would
never happen today because of the traffic.
Well it wasn't long before I was borrowing the Higgins
to see what I could do an evening 10. Just to see how
much slower my times would be, much to my surprise I
was quicker on the trike and this is when I got
hooked.
Finally this loco spotters club was absolutely full of
perverts but because you knew who they were you could
always be on guard against their predatory advances,
but there was this one particular occasion where we
nearly got caught out. The club had organised a works
visit to Sratford Railway Works and being dead keen we
all wanted to go, this was one place you could never
bunk in (trespass) the only way in was with an
official shed permit.
Saturday came and we boarded the train at Stevenage
Station for the visit. This was back in the days when
they were still using non-corridor suburban coaches,
just compartments, well I got in one with by best
school mate Terry Harrigan. We thought great all alone
and we could have a crafty smoke without the grown-ups
around us when one of the adult loco perverts jumped
in our compartment at the last minute just as the
train was leaving the station, we were trapped no way
out and the next stop was over 23 miles down the line.
It wasn't long before he started making advances to
this pair of schoolboys but this is where humour can
diffuse a very difficult and worrying situation. Now
Terry had a wonderful Herfordshire accent just like
the late great Sir Bernard Miles the famous actor. Now
this accent and dialect has now sadly virtually
disappeared but it had a lovely funny sound to it.
Terry now said those unforgettable words which
diffused this tense and difficult situation "We know
what you are after you are after playing with our
water squirters!" This trike man was really interested
more in our winkies than the Higgins or engine numbers
but it worked and stopped him dead in his tracks. No
pun intended.
Sadly much later on several members of this club went
down (Prison sentences) for crimes of indecency
against children.
Next my children on the trike, the Hobbs TT and the
three F's ride.
Thats all for now. Keep those wheels spinning, in your memories if not still on the road. Be lucky Mick Butler Huntingdon UK.