|
 | |  | |
Bert Kent of Worthing, who was born in 1928, has some fond reminiscences of his early cycling days.
In preparing for our West Country ride, brother Phillip said I should do some training. Night-time was the only time that we could get together, so on the odd night we would zoom along with head down and bottoms up in the cool of the night, with the wind whistling through our spokes, as we toured the surrounding country lanes for three hours or so.
With the preparation complete, we set off at 5.00 am on Monday, 26th September 1949, agreeing that we should pull our trailer 25 miles each. In training we had used the flat roads of Sussex, and so the hills of Hampshire were our first challenge.
The trailer pushed us downhill, but our calliper brakes were no match for our load, for in designing our trailer I had never thought of brakes!
Going uphill was hard work also. So to overcome these problems, we tied a rope to the trailer, and the solo cycle used it to pull uphill and restrain the trailer downhill, and working together in this way; we were able to keep the wheels moving up and down the hills.
There was very little traffic on the roads, so riding two abreast presented no problem. We even gave up the idea of pulling our trailer 25 miles each, and changed over when we had a break. We were able to maintain a good average speed, and by 1700 hours we were cycling through Bournemouth.
In Bournemouth we stopped at a pedestrian crossing, only to notice the two young girls we were waiting for were from Dominion Road in Worthing!!
Our first night we pitched the tent near Poole, and after two more nights under canvas we reached Exeter. While the nights were cold, the days were sunny, and we enjoyed Thursday with a gentle ride through the neighbouring towns, in an easterly direction, stopping that night at a campsite at Marymile.
Despite food being on ration, we bought some sausages at Lyme Regis, but they tasted awful, and in Devon we saw a woman collecting eggs at a small poultry farm, and bought some from her.
We only had one repair to carry out: a trailer tyre had to be replaced on the way home, but we had spare tyres and tubes with us, so that was easily rectified.
On waking Friday morning, I had the urge to get home in time for the regular Saturday night dance at the Assembly Hall, so we decided to go for it. Stopping in the evening at Southampton for a good meal, we made record time, and were in our own beds early Saturday morning.
We were both very fit, and have had the pleasure of talking about our long ride ever since, and I wonder how that ride would compare if undertaken with the increased volume of traffic and road network of today.
Bert Kent, Worthing, 2001
| |  | |  |
To add a comment you must first login or join for free, up in the top left corner.
|
|
