In our household we're big fans of the Tour de France.
Each summer we enjoy wall to wall coverage of it. And yet despite it being popular on the box whenever I’m in Oxgangs I’ll rarely see a youngster out on a bicycle - an ironical contrast and twist on the 1960s when cycling was incredibly popular in the area.
Retyred
There was no better feeling than just circling around and tootling about on your bike; and even today it’s the nearest older people can get to feeling like a kid again.
Many of our bikes were built from scratch and there was a great trade going on with bike frames being picked up for five bob. And with a basic frame you could then build your own bike with trips to Thomas Piper, tobacconist and cycle maker, 41 Morningside Road - I don't recall the tobacco! - cycle shop at Churchill just along from the Churchill Theatre.
Thomas Piper's was an Aladdin's Cave full of serendipities. It had an interesting mix - a feeling the shop came from an earlier era and tradition but was up to date too with the latest products.The shop had a distinctive smell probably from the Dunlop rubber tyres. The business existed there for decades although Thomas Piper had actually died back in 1939.
At the top end of the price range there were of course brand new bicycles not that I could ever afford such a new item and also wheels too; however I liked the gimmicky items such as speedometers, bottles and bottle-holders but visits to the shop were mainly for new inner tubes, puncture repair kits or spanners at the lower end of the price scale.
If you were very lucky you owned a bike with 3 speed Sturmey-Archer gears. Upstairs at 6/6 Oxgangs Avenue Douglas Blades’racer which he kept on his balcony had five gears. I was always up at his door borrowing his racer. Looking back he was pretty decent to allow me the use of it although often it was perhaps his mum, Helen, who gave me the go ahead to use it when he was out.
Each of the eight flats in
The Stair had a small lock up or shed as they were more commonly known. I enjoyed sitting out in the back alleyway pottering away with my bikes, fixing a puncture or just tinkering with the gears. There was something very satisfying about working with your hands. The experience was enhanced if it was raining outside whilst I remained sheltered and dry under the alley roof; the back alley was open on two sides one of which was the entrance to our back garden so you felt both inside but outside too.
On wet school summer holiday days it was a Zen like experience; I was focusing on working on the bike while being vaguely aware of the rain pitter-pattering down outside whilst I remained dry inside - a lovely feeling. Because of the weather I'd usually be working alone as everyone else on holiday was inside their homes but occasionally someone would pass by and pop their head in and exchange some pleasantries.
But once the sun came back out we were straight back out on our bikes and had great fun playing in The Gully which lay between Oxgangs and the Braid Hills; the gully was located to the south of some large houses at Pentland View and lay in a hollow dip or small valley. I guess with its circular paths with rises, declines and jumps it was a fore-runner to BMX riding.
That I'm alive to write this vignette is down to good luck. One afternoon after playing in The Gully I came home via Comiston Road on a made up bike which had no brakes. I was flying down the main road (Braid Road) when an Eastern Scottish bus was leaving a bus stop adjacent to BraidBurn Valley opposite the Braid Hills Hotel. I was going so fast that I would have run into the back of the bus so I had to take evasive action by trying to overtake it. This was a struggle as the bus was gaining speed all the time. To the astonishment of the passengers on the lower deck I peddled furiously alongside the bus thereafter just managing to overtake it. However as I edged in front of the bus I had to immediately take a sharp 90 degree left-hander veering into Greenbank Crescent to return home to Oxgangs. I knew it was going to be difficult to make it. I did manage to keep upright but of course riding at 30 mph I swung straight on to the other side of the road before mounting the pavement. Very fortunately there was no oncoming traffic.
Occasionally some of the older boys from Oxgangs Street organised bike races out to Currie. Surprisingly to me the boy who dominated these races was someone who I hadn’t seen excel at any other sport. His name was Paul Kaszynski from 6/3 Oxgangs Street and Paul still cycles today. I was impressed at how good he was. Even at a young age it occurred to me that you also needed fortitude and mental resilience to put in such a strong performance in sport and that it wasn’t just about physical talent.
Boo-Boo Hanlon (right); Iain Hoffmann (left)
Just as extraordinary a performance on a bike was by Boo-Boo Hanlon (6/7 Oxgangs Avenue) when a group of used to go on long cycle adventures during the summer holidays. This particular trip was to Dalkeith and home via Liberton Brae.
We all had passable bikes except for Boo-Boo who borrowed one of mine which had a slow puncture. Boo-Boo was so keen to go on the outing that he rode the whole way, slow or not, there and back, with not a great deal of air in one of the wheels - respect!
