DDW Challenge; at the movies. Easy Rider

My new bike is finally finished. I’ve done a bit of fettling since Anniemay acted as an impromptu bike-stand here. I’ve changed the handlebars from straights to what used to be known as North Road bars. Partly for comfort and partly for looks. They’re a very old design - my Dad had a pair on his old Raleigh roadster. I wouldn’t be surprised if his Dad had a pair on his old bike.

They’ve suddenly become fashionable among young metropolitan - I was going to say males, but women ride them too - people - who have decided that ‘retro’ is cool. Not just bikes - witness the rise in digital cameras that have proper dials and buttons rather than menus. I am not immune from this marketing strategy, being quite happy to be thought of as ‘cool’, although the children sometimes frown and think that this is not age-appropriate behaviour.

The young metro-bikers will turn the bars upside down to mimic a style that is Edwardian - the scorcher. In this position the bars offer a shallow drop and were used for racing before the development of the drop-handle bar that we know today. If you have £900 to spare you can even buy a brand new ‘scorcher style’ bike.

There is another reason for these particular bars. I have long wanted a Harley. A friend bought me a plastic model for my 60th, but it’s not the same. He often comes round on his non-plastic Harley to show it off to me. I can hear him approaching from miles away.

Anniemay is dead against it. I can look at them. I can sit on them while stationary. When we visited the USA in 2012 Anniemay drove along Route 66 so I could rubber-neck all the Harleys going the other way. But to actually ride one is out of the question.

When she reads this, she’ll wring her hands and say something like “that’s not true - you know you can get one if you really want….” But I know she would worry. And she worries enough about me as it is.

So - North Road bars it is; they’re a close facsimile to the real thing. And once I fit the electric motor I’ll be zipping up the road at 15mph no bother. Easy-peasy rider.