I was thinking about how I have gone full circle with my personnal transport over a period of about 50 years.
I started out on a second-hand bicycle. It was black all over and huge for someone just ten years of age and who had never ridden a bike before. I can remember my dad encouraging me to ride it along the back lane and I can't remember falling off it.
My next bike was a 4 speed Dawes Racer in red. I was allowed to chose it in the shop as a reward for passing my 13+ to go to Grammar School. It served me for 3 years in all weathers and I can't remember having to do any repairs to it, not even a puncture!
At 16 my friends and I dreamed of motorbikes. We just dreamed about them because there was no way we could afford one. We talked about someday owning an Arial Arrow or a Tiger Cub. We marvelled at the beauty of the Triumph Bonneville and the Nortons but they were completely out of reach to us.
I started work in 1964 and was eventually able to buy an old Vespa 125 from a work friend for £1 a week for twenty weeks. This was out of my £3 8s 8p a week take home pay.
Over the years I acquired a few more scooters and a Honda 50 before I then got interested in cars. Those were the times when I began to learn about engines and spent lots of time dismantling cylinder heads and valves, polishing them up in the hope that the machine would go faster.
The first car was acquired when I was 21. It was an M.O.T. failure but I got it for £15. I bought another one for £10 and made one that worked out of the two. Again many hours were spent keeping it running.
There followed several other cars after that, my favourite being a Triumph Spitfire which I bought new in 1973.
In the 1980's I briefly thought about motor-bikes again and bought an old Honda with the intention of doing it up, but I eventually gave it away. He got it working again and allowed a younger friend of his to use it. Unfortunately this 'friend' used it to visit the man's wife - and she eventually went off with him. I sort of got the blame for giving him the bike.
More cars followed until 5 years ago when I decided I had had enough of traffic jams and bought myself a manual bicycle. At 56 years of age it was quite hard work especially on the hills or into the wind, but a chance glimpse of an ebike in my local bike shop started me thinking and I eventually bought a Giant Lafree Comfort ST.
It was just what I needed and I used it until I saw an advert about the ProConnect. I got one last July and it 'ticks all the boxes'.
I never would have thought that 45 years after my first bicycle I would be still riding around on one. The ebike has made that possible.
I'm interested in Local and Family History and believe that we should use the internet to record our own history for future family and generations to read.
I hope some of you on this forum will add your own stories as I know many of you will have interesting things to tell.
I started out on a second-hand bicycle. It was black all over and huge for someone just ten years of age and who had never ridden a bike before. I can remember my dad encouraging me to ride it along the back lane and I can't remember falling off it.
My next bike was a 4 speed Dawes Racer in red. I was allowed to chose it in the shop as a reward for passing my 13+ to go to Grammar School. It served me for 3 years in all weathers and I can't remember having to do any repairs to it, not even a puncture!
At 16 my friends and I dreamed of motorbikes. We just dreamed about them because there was no way we could afford one. We talked about someday owning an Arial Arrow or a Tiger Cub. We marvelled at the beauty of the Triumph Bonneville and the Nortons but they were completely out of reach to us.
I started work in 1964 and was eventually able to buy an old Vespa 125 from a work friend for £1 a week for twenty weeks. This was out of my £3 8s 8p a week take home pay.
Over the years I acquired a few more scooters and a Honda 50 before I then got interested in cars. Those were the times when I began to learn about engines and spent lots of time dismantling cylinder heads and valves, polishing them up in the hope that the machine would go faster.
The first car was acquired when I was 21. It was an M.O.T. failure but I got it for £15. I bought another one for £10 and made one that worked out of the two. Again many hours were spent keeping it running.
There followed several other cars after that, my favourite being a Triumph Spitfire which I bought new in 1973.
In the 1980's I briefly thought about motor-bikes again and bought an old Honda with the intention of doing it up, but I eventually gave it away. He got it working again and allowed a younger friend of his to use it. Unfortunately this 'friend' used it to visit the man's wife - and she eventually went off with him. I sort of got the blame for giving him the bike.
More cars followed until 5 years ago when I decided I had had enough of traffic jams and bought myself a manual bicycle. At 56 years of age it was quite hard work especially on the hills or into the wind, but a chance glimpse of an ebike in my local bike shop started me thinking and I eventually bought a Giant Lafree Comfort ST.
It was just what I needed and I used it until I saw an advert about the ProConnect. I got one last July and it 'ticks all the boxes'.
I never would have thought that 45 years after my first bicycle I would be still riding around on one. The ebike has made that possible.
I'm interested in Local and Family History and believe that we should use the internet to record our own history for future family and generations to read.
I hope some of you on this forum will add your own stories as I know many of you will have interesting things to tell.
