As more and more people are encouraged to inhabit this small island (and the world too} and the rising waters of a warmer world reduce the areas suitable for our ever more sophisticated life styles and need to travel, does the bike need to make a big come back?
Before the car took over, old men rode womens’ sit up and begs because they didn’t have to get their leg over. The crossbar I mean. There was an old farmer used to ride up and down Northallerton High Street on one, waving to people on one side and then the other. Can you imagine that now? Fathers used to carry their kids on the crossbar; some had seats attached.
As soon as we got out of junior school, we were allowed to roam on ours. Mine was a sit up and beg with racing handle bars, put together by a fellow on Tang Hall Lane and sold to my dad for £1. For me passing the eleven plus to Nunthorpe. We knew the area all around for miles. Up Whitwell Hill, walking the last few yards then down to Kirkham Abbey without using the brakes. To the orchards we knew about. We were up a hazel pear tree in one when the farmer, from the house about half a mile away, took our bikes back to the farmyard and we had to negotiate their return.
My brother and I set off one Saturday for a ride and finished up at Brompton near Northallerton. The local bobbie had to ring York to contact our parents and we rode back the following day. Daffodil woods at Elvington for flowers for our mam. The road was full of kids doing the same.
All the roads of York were packed solid with bikes three abreast going to and from work. We also got out into the countryside to do a bit of courting. After getting off of course.
Bikes were as important to all stages of life as cars are now. Will it come round again? Maybe they could make them amphibious. A puncture was a big problem but not as big as running out of petrol.