Wearing purple...

By 60plus

Roy's Renovations rides again...

...and this is a bike with a past, for MonoMonday today!
I wasn't allowed a "proper" bike as a child ( after my lovely little three wheeler with a boot ) as we lived near a main road... but all that meant was that I took every opportunity to ride my friends' bikes instead...
Anyway - despite the fact that I'd reached the grand old age of 41 without ever owning a bike, we decided to do the C2C soon after the route was set up. Roy, John & I sat in the saddle after dipping our wheels in the water in Whitehaven on the West coast ( see extra, from summer 1996 ), then proceeded to cycle across the width of England to Seaburn on the East coast. It was an eventful trip - and the bike in the blip is the one I borrowed, and it didn't let me down throughout the journey.
John's chain fell off before we left the carpark, and continued to do on a regular basis. We thought Roy was having a heart attack trying to keep up until we realised he was having to pedal downhill as the brakes were seized on... he was also on a borrowed bike, and he borrowed two more to complete the journey, courtesy of and delivered by fellow blipper Sue Middleton & partner. Looking for our accommodation in Nenthead, we knocked on the door of my old History teacher and his wife, my English teacher - and had a bizarre conversation about what I should have done when I left school over 20 years before. We were hoping to find a meal in the village, but everything was about to close down, so our "landlady" for the night said don't worry, here's the key to my car, go to such a place and you'll be OK... and so it went on...and we had so much fun we bought bikes on our return ( and padded shorts! ).
So this blast from the past was triggered by seeing the lovely little yellow bike in the back yard of the friend we stayed with in the Lakes recently. It has a rich past for her too, as she remembers riding it with her two girls on their bikes, and the dog running alongside to keep up. It has been in her shed for some time now, and then in the back yard undercover when the shed was removed. She couldn't just get rid of it, but it was quietly mouldering away... so we brought it home for Roy to revive it with a couple of new tyres, a few new cables, and a little tlc.
Thanks for taking me down memory lane in your challenge today Chantler63!

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