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Bert Kent of Worthing, who was born in 1928, has some fond reminiscences of his early cycling days.
The celebration plans for Queen Elizabeth II coronation included a carnival procession through Worthing. The Excelsior's Cycle Club was to take part, and a bedstead cycle used in the coronation procession for George V1 was found, and one of the member's cleaned and oiled it, and made it useable.
It was a very good engineering job, done by a Mr. Jackson, of Northcourt Road. Having made it roadworthy, none of the club members wanted to ride it. They all wanted to ride their shining sports cycles. So I was asked to ride it.
Because it was made with the head of an iron bed, it was higher than a normal cycle, making it very difficult to get on and off. So to get on I used a tree or lamppost to support me, and just fell off when I stopped.
It was difficult to go slow, and as the procession progressed, I found myself ahead of the other cycles, and had to cycle up and down the route, to stay with the club. Needless to say I covered many more miles than they did, but was noticed more by the crowds, and received a lot of cheering.
On another occasion, I exchanged my 18-teeth rear wheel sprocket for a 14-teeth one. It made the first gear too high, but providing the wind was in my favour, I could go very fast. But when I was stopped by the police for overtaking a bus, I put the original sprocket back.
Early one cold morning, in the 1960's, I was cycling to work with my hands behind my back to warm them, when I was stopped by a police car, and had my name and address taken.
A few days latter, I received a warning letter from the constabulary, accusing me of dangerous cycling, and warning me that I would be fined should this happen again.
There was also the time when a cat ran out in front of me. I hit the cat and it stopped me dead. I went straight over my handlebars, but fortunately I was wearing gauntlets, and the recently gritted surface tore into the palms of them.
About 1950 there was very little traffic on the roads, and the heavier trucks were restricted to 20 mph. They displayed a small round plate with 20 on it. Because trucks were so slow moving I used to hang on to the back of them, to get a pull uphill.
My back-pedalling brake was useful, because with one hand on the back of a truck I still had two brakes to stop quickly.
Bert Kent, Worthing, 2001
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