Marrock

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyz5d3entBw

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGYngjxJP1I

onbike 1939

Wonderful stuff....it takes me back.

Marrock

Great countryside and frequent pub stops... What's not to love?

Saintly Loser

Steel frames, Carradice bags, Bluemels fenders, Brooks saddles. . . hey, they all look just like my bike!

That stuff still works.

TomM

Hmm, why do we need high tech cycling clothing?

Marrock

Wouldn't know, I don't own any...

Unless jeans, t-shirts, and work boots count as high tech cycling clothes.

gpsblake

Great video. They even used the term "bonk" back then. This is the way bicycling should be. I wonder if the "cycling tourist club" still exist????

Marrock

It'd be a great way to see the isles if it was still around.

Gotte

I cycle like that in my head.

shakeNbake

I haven't clicked, but let me guess:

Is this the bicycle tour of north Cornwall?

Edit:

Dammit, I thought it was a Monty Python skit.

atbman

For the benefit of an earlier poster, the CTC still exists, membership about 50k+. District sections still organise rides, CTC ride leaders still organise group rides all over the world, and it is a highly effective campaigning organisation.

For shakeNbake, the area is in the West Midlands. Showing my age, I started riding out on Sundays with a mate in '55 and recognised a lot of the scenes in the film. Visited Draycote Manor, Battle of Naseby Civil War memorial (our C. W. not yours - Roundheads v. Cavaliers, Cromwell v Charles I) and most of the villages shown on the road signs. Too young to do the pubs tho'.

Did my first day rides over the Cotswold Hills (south of Stratford on Avon) on a 78" fixed. Not easy. Then graduated to 5 (yes, 5!) gears. Rode in toeclips, baggy ex-British Army surplus shorts, shirt and jacket.

Very little motor traffic. Also experienced my worst ride ever, riding 40 miles back, with a following wind, from Oxford to Royal Leamington Spa in the rain - with the edge of the rainclouds about 50-100 yards ahead for the entire time. We made a huge effort about half-way and finally got into the sun. The road then took a sharp turn to the right , the rain caught us up and stayed tantalisingly ahead for the next 20 miles.

I have never been so absolutely mad/frustrated and sodden in my entire cycling career.

Now taking a sharp intake of breath as I realise I'm turning into the kind of boring old fart I used to laugh (quietly to myself) about when I were nobbut a lad.

Am appalled, however, that all those 100s of riders failed to realise the danger they were putting themselves (and their kids) in by not wearing safety helmets and fuorescent, reflective clothing. Were they all insane?

Sixty Fiver

That is the same music I hear in my head when I am touring.

I could not help but notice the high number of fixed gear and 3 speed bicycles people were riding... talk about some C&V porn !

I kept looking to see if someone was riding my bike.


1955 Raleigh Lenton Sports (fixed gear).

wahoonc

Some of us still ride that way today...ABCE Tour and Lake Pepin and a new one that I have just found...Tweed Cycling Club I only wish we still had the train option available to us...perhaps in the future.

I still do my day rides along these principles, unfortunately they are usually solo rides in my area.

Aaron

Marrock

I found out recently that the chinese maker, Flying Pigeon, finally got a distributor in NYC and I'm giving serious thought to getting one of their double top tube bikes, they remind me of the old, as in WW2 era, Raleighs.

Sixty Fiver

This thread should be a sticky... that video is absolutely wonderful.

My 1955 Lenton got a little more English today as I finally installed some proper English fenders... it may have been sitting in a showroom here when that film was made.

discosaurus

I especially liked these parts:

"Most people, as soon as they get anywhere near the railway, are attacked by pangs of insatiable hunger or unquenchable thirst, especially if they have been up since seven, especially on a sunday morning, especially if they are cyclists."

"a cycling tour without a map is like new potatoes without the smell of mint."

"a touch of the bonk... an experienced cyclist always guards against this by EATING."

hahaha awesome!

solveg

You do now, in Mpls! You can take the trolly (light rail).

dobber

Love that "oh so casual" over the handlebar dismount @ about 0:24 into the video. I've got enough trouble swinging my stubby fireplug legs over the saddle as it is, something like that would have me tangled up in a ball on the ground.

Cool stuff though.

Marrock

Every so often folks need reminding that new or modern isn't always better...

There's something to be said for the old ways of doing things.

You know, a friend of mine watched that and said something about them not being in church on a sunday, to which, after smacking him on the back of the head, I had to reply that they were in a church of their own worshiping in the way that suited them best.

Dr.Deltron

Because there is so little wool cycling clothing available these days!

wahoonc

Yep...but there isn't any train service to amount to anything where I live. There are two trains a day...on northbound and one southbound and they stop 35 miles from my house and at some ungodly hour in the dark of the night I have ridden a bit on the MSP light rail and it is great.

Aaron

ken cummings

A sure sign that all of the earlier posters are mad keen cyclists is that none of them commented on the Steam Engine pulling that train. Some main line steam train rides these days cost as much as bikes.

brianmcg123

You don't. I have been having more fun riding my bike with cheap rat trap pedals and in normal clothes. It is so much easier to just jump on my bike and go in whatever I am wearing. I don't have to "suit up" to go on a ride. Try it sometime.

Dahon.Steve

What surprised me was the video being made by a private transit company! Today, most rail transit either prohibits bicycles or limits them to one per car or allows them only during non-rush hour. The rest request the bicycles to be put in boxes or bags or restricts them to folders. How times have really changed.

Did anyone notice how some of the riders were using hub gears or single speeds! I don't know about you but those bikes looked kinda heavy and the terrain fairly steep to be using one gear. I wonder if they still offer this service since I'm certain those trains have been retired. From what I hear about British rail, unless your group are all using folders, there's no way their trains can handle all those full size bikes at once.

Personally, I still use trains for touring but with a GPS! ;-)

atbman

The film was made in 1955 for British Rail, the nationalised (dare I say that on a US forum?) railway company, so the bikes were typical of that time - most time triallists of the era still used fixed wheels, altho' some race with Sturmey Archer3-speeds.

The use of guards vans for cycle carriage was still going on in the early 80s (tho' there was nothing on the scale shown in the film). I got back into cycling from motorcycling in '82 when I did a systems analysis course, for the unemployed, in Manchester. The state paid my travel costs and course fees and I worked out that, if I rode my bike 4 miles each way to Bradford station and the 2 miles feach way to and from Manchester Victoria station to the course venue I could claim my bus fares and pay for a bike.

First time on a bike in 20+ years and it hurt for about 3 weeks. There were usually 10/15 bikes in the guard's van and they were carried free. The introduction of the more "modern" Sprinter" 3-carriage class of train put paid to the guard's van and daily use of bikes by train commuters. Isn't modern managerial theory wonderful?