A family of bikes...

Most of the bikes we pick up have a tale to tell or bear the marks of an experience or some adventure... I think children's bikes must bear more marks than most. The other day I was lucky enough to meet with a family of six who had asked me to recycle some of their bikes. Looking at them I was struck immediately by how clearly the bikes reflected the growth of their children, from first wheels (and the removal of stabilisers) to the independance of the big wheeled mountain bikes...brilliant

I thought this was great, I can still remember attempting my cycling proficiency- wobbling around the cones in the school playground...come to think of it I can't remember whether I passed or not!

How does he do that?.. Danny MacAskill

When I was alot younger my friends and I would gather on our bikes in the little park at the back of our houses. We'd construct ramps out of old bricks and bits of board that we'd found lying around and spend the afternoon taking turns to race off the end...hoping that we wouldn't be the one to fall off and embed six tons of gravel in our knees (which, with a sinkfull of dettol, our mums would have to carefully pick out later). Jumping off the top of that ramp felt like a real achievement, particularly on my mates grifter, which had 3 gears and weighed as much as a car. It's summers spent in the park falling off my bike that make me appreciate how amazing guys like Danny MacAskill are, someone showed me this video the other day and its blown me away- have a look and see what you think

Bike wheel fence update....

Last year, in an effort to stop our determined pooch from pooping on everything, we put together a quick fence out of a few bike wheels we had lying around ( click here for the original post). As you can see it still there, the dog hasn't yet managed to find a way through and as a result we've had a bumper crop of gooseberries, strawberries and a few raspberries...Brilliant.