Author Topic: Cycling clubs in Kent  (Read 6082 times)

Offline Lyn L

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Re: Cycling clubs in Kent
« Reply #25 on: June 03, 2020, 12:31:41 PM »
And apologies everyone for going completely off topic. :-X


Offline Lyn L

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Re: Cycling clubs in Kent
« Reply #24 on: June 03, 2020, 12:30:19 PM »
Yes Dave and they lived in Kings Lynn which had many cobbled streets then  OUCH !  He didn't like office life and joined the Army as soon as he could ( RAMC ) ended up as a Lieutenant and left the Army in 1945. I landed on their doorstep the following year by stork ! His life memoirs are brilliant to have but like many he didn't tell us anything about them until not long before he died.

Offline Dave Smith

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Re: Cycling clubs in Kent
« Reply #23 on: June 03, 2020, 12:19:03 PM »
Lyn. I'll bet that was hard going on solid tyres, but then, they didn't know any different. Lads ( & life) were very hard in those days so cycling to Hastings would have been good fun for them ; their only option would have been," Shank's Pony". 

Offline Lyn L

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Re: Cycling clubs in Kent
« Reply #22 on: June 03, 2020, 10:59:50 AM »
Just an anecdote to do with cycling.
 My dear old Dad born 1901 left school in 1914. His first job was as an errand boy earning 50p ( then ) a week ! He gave his Mum 40p for keep and saved the other for his first cycle. It cost 25 p and had solid rubber tyres. How long did he survive with that I wonder he didn't say in his memoirs I have. He died shortly before his 91st birthday.
Another one was the fact my middle son  apparently ? rode from Rochester to Hastings with his pals when he was about 15 yrs old and I didn't have a clue for years after  before he told me what they sued to get up to. No H&S  then of course.

Offline Dave Smith

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Re: Cycling clubs in Kent
« Reply #21 on: June 02, 2020, 09:28:37 PM »
AlanTH. Fantastic that you rode all that way on your first club run, some ( no names!) would have called it a day! Yes, there was a lot of " friendly animosity" between NCU & BLRC clubs. Although the League boys favoured Continental frames, etc. they really weren't as good as a British Reynolds 531 Double butted tubes, forks & stays. I bought a Frejus with double clanger, etc. ( 'cos it was Italian) but it weighed so much more than my A.S.Gillot frame. Also, a mix of Airlight or Harden hubs with French Mavic rims were the tops; unless you could afford Campag hubs to go with the gears! KeithG. Shame on you for giving up so quickly.

Offline Dave Smith

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Re: Cycling clubs in Kent
« Reply #20 on: June 02, 2020, 08:38:13 PM »
KeithG. A Campag gear, & a Claud Butler with Reynolds 531 tubing?- I bet you felt on top of the world! We lesser mortals couldn't afford those, Simplex was the standard. Later of course, Shimano came along with a much more reasonably priced gear to compete with Campag. Of possible interest, I met a chap who'd bought one of the C.B's used on the Lands End to John o'Groats record attempts. It had "squared! capital letters CLAUD BUTLER, rather than the standard script signature.

KeithG

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Re: Cycling clubs in Kent
« Reply #19 on: June 02, 2020, 02:33:09 PM »
Just found this!

KeithG

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Re: Cycling clubs in Kent
« Reply #18 on: June 02, 2020, 09:22:02 AM »
Well Alan you sussed me out quick as i did hate cycling or exercise.... I was the one put as the goalkeeper at school that let all the goals in!!
I chose the Claude Butler as it looked nice and i like nice things even then.
I left school in 1963 so needed a decent bike for work... think I only had it a year and Len Chambers gave me peanuts for it.

Offline AlanTH

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Re: Cycling clubs in Kent
« Reply #17 on: June 02, 2020, 04:51:51 AM »

Offline Smiffy

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Re: Cycling clubs in Kent
« Reply #16 on: June 01, 2020, 02:11:48 PM »
Chambers was also a dealer for Honda and Puch motorbikes. Dad bought his there in about 1959 after he retired his faithful Norman Nippy.

KeithG

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Re: Cycling clubs in Kent
« Reply #15 on: June 01, 2020, 01:12:12 PM »

Offline Colin walsh

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Re: Cycling clubs in Kent
« Reply #14 on: June 01, 2020, 12:39:49 PM »
Ok, while we are on cycle shops,any one remember Sharmans,corner of casanue St Rochester (is that the correct spelling)?and King st,oposit Troy town school,now that was a real old style bike shop,Thay sold new, second hand ,plus three wheeler kid bikes,had frames, wheels and a myriad of spares hanging from the ceiling when you entered you were hit by a lovly smell of new rubber and oil ,the window in King st was allways full of strange spaners,bike bells and a assortment of nuts & bolts,got my first bike from that shop about 1957 ,during the war mum used to send me to collect our recharged acumilater,6d a charge ,no electricity in our house,it would run the wireless for about a week,
When de railer gears became de rigor ,chambers sent a lot of there problems to the chap who owned chat mans.

Offline Dave Smith

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Re: Cycling clubs in Kent
« Reply #13 on: June 01, 2020, 11:01:10 AM »
Colin. Afraid that's the way all the " proper cycle shops" went with the loss of new, young cyclists to buy all their gear. First, lots of ordinary bicycles for the ordinary folk- especially at Christmas- then adding mopeds & even scooters. Fin!

Offline Colin walsh

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Re: Cycling clubs in Kent
« Reply #12 on: June 01, 2020, 12:00:40 AM »
Smiffy,take your word for that,have not returned to the Medway area since the yard closed,had to move way to find work,miss the places I grew up in,so many memories left there,it was our home and we were forced to leave,still feel bitter about it,our daughter still lives in Chatham ,but at my age there's no chance of returning,

Offline Smiffy

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Re: Cycling clubs in Kent
« Reply #11 on: May 31, 2020, 06:00:26 PM »
I believe the old Chambers premises is now Baggins Book Bazaar.