Love him or hate him, this phrase from Boris Johnson in this article about his broken beloved bike made me laugh out loud:
I swear it sometimes wagged its rear mudguard when it saw me coming.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
Boris's Broken Bike
(9 posts)-
Posted 10 years ago #
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"...the only defect it had. My friends, it was made in California. Now is the time for a bike that won’t expire beneath me, a bike that won’t snap. It’s time for a British bike. "
I wonder what he'll get? Pashley? Mercian?
My Genesis is "British" - but it's not made here.. I think the Airnimal is, but with tubes from elsewhere... (My oldest bike is German...with tubes made in Poland)
Posted 10 years ago # -
My Dawes is made in Britain, but I bought it 15 years after it was made and 14 years after Dawes stopped making frames here.
My "British" Ridgeback was made in Taiwain.
My British Raleigh was made 4 years before I was born.
My American Cannondale was the last batch made in the US before they shifted production of frames to Taiwan. It says in garish silver letters on the stays "HANDMADE IN THE USA".
Posted 10 years ago # -
Brompton!!!!
I liked the article, though I'm no fan of Boris...
Posted 10 years ago # -
Shand...
Posted 10 years ago # -
+1 for Shand (beat me to it)
Posted 10 years ago # -
There was a good article on British bikes in the Guardian a few years back, involving Shand, bikemakers from Livingston, and they said that even when they make the frames from tubes from Reynolds in Birmingham, no-one makes transmission components here, tyres, etc, etc...so there can't really be a "British" (or as Pashley proudly say, English), bike anymore.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Boris says -
"Now is the time for a bike that won’t expire beneath me, a bike that won’t snap. It’s time for a British bike."
The only bike that has ever collapsed under me was a Birmingham brazed Dawes.
Got a new frame free - still in almost daily use (not by me).
Posted 10 years ago # -
Posted 10 years ago #
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