Vintage English Bicycles!

They make my heart flutter.  Maybe it's because when I was a kid, my mother's 1975 green Raleigh Sport was the "good" bike that we weren't supposed to ride? (We did anyway which may be why it didn't survive).  Miles' bike/time machine is of a considerably earlier vintage.  He has a 1914 Gentleman's Royal Sunbeam that he has, indirectly, inherited from Taffy Davies.  Fortunately for me, a very generous blogger with a deep love of these bikes thoroughly documented the bike I imagined for Taffy, his son Morgan and eventually for Miles.  A period ad from the website (with a few of my own modifications) appears above (thanks to Oldbike.Eu). Click through to have a look at more pictures of the bike that carried Professor Davies from the England of 1918 to Vermont in 1958 and then took Miles back.

You can also find out everything you have ever wanted to know about the beautiful Chater-Lea tandem bicycle that Dr. Slade ordered for Susannah Peppermore - before he got cold feet.  Here's another OldBike ad showing the Chater-Lea.

I have my own a small collection of old English bicylces.  I have had a couple brought back to life and have endowed my daughter with two of those.  When my son gets bigger, I have a Gent's Humber from the 1950s for him.  (Whether he wants it or not - see below).  I have a couple of others that I love to hang from the rafters of the house I imagine I will build someday.  They are art as far as I am concerned.

Here are some pictures of my little bike collection.  Any one of them might be found in stock at the Britannic Wheelman in Austin (if there were such a place - it's fictional but I think it's a great idea!)