We were on Box Hill this weekend and there were some lovely, super-expensive, drool-inducing road bikes with state-of-the-art gearing and featherweight frames, but this was the one I *hearted* the most:





I got chatting to the fella and he said he'd got the 50 year old petrol-driven 'Mini Motor Gearless Cycle Outboard' engine from eBay, and it had successfully powered him to the top of the hill.

In true Brit eccentric style, he was also building five other bikes at home (including one for his girlfriend who had arthritis and couldn't pedal any more).

He had to drive the bike over to the licensing place to get it registered (it has a 50cc engine running hand-mixed two stroke fuel), so it has a numberplate on the back and a tax disk on the front too.

The bike's motor runs against the rubber of the back tyre and apparently hits around 18mph max, notching up around 250 miles to the gallon.

I love it!

Labels: bicycle, box hill

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While rummaging around in my woefully disorganised pile of old photos, I came across this one of me in full cycling regalia.



I used to do a lot of cycling and regularly did a London-Windsor return in the mornings before cycling off to east London to rehearse with my band and bash drums for a few hours (where the fuck did I find the energy for that?!)

Note for bike fans: the frame is made of Raleigh Reynolds 653 lightweight tubing, Shimano 600 brakes, chainset and front/rear derailleur and the wheels were the fantastic Mavic MA40 rims with Shimano 105 hubs - I did thousands of miles on those puppies!

Labels: bicycle, photos