bikeworkshop
Old School Grand Master
A true barn find.
Out ridingmy bike, I stopped to chat to an old farmer leaning on his gate.
He invited me to have a look at what was hanging in his barn:
Do you know what that is? He said.
I only knew it was an early cross framed safety.
He's bought it 50 years previously, it had been hanging in another barn nearby that was being cleared out.
A couple of years later, I saw the farmhouse was empty and up for sale, and learned Den had passed away.
One evening on my way past I saw a light on, so I stopped and knocked on the door.
It was answered by den's daughter.
I expressed my interest in the bike if it was still there, gave her a card.
A couple of years after that, I got a call from her brother, who invited me to come and look at the bike.
I went round, still not knowing what it was. He asked if I'd like to buy it, and how much? I said it was a museum piece really but I could offer a thousand pounds, with which he was pleased - we shook hands, and I took the bike away.
Some researchreveals it to be a Hillman Herbert & Cooper Premier cycle from 1886, one of the first modern bicycles, as owned by the Prince of Wales.
It's now spent 5 years in the shop basement, needing a solution to the tyres and chain before it's usable.
Finally today after a very long wait, the chain has arrived:
Out ridingmy bike, I stopped to chat to an old farmer leaning on his gate.
He invited me to have a look at what was hanging in his barn:
Do you know what that is? He said.
I only knew it was an early cross framed safety.
He's bought it 50 years previously, it had been hanging in another barn nearby that was being cleared out.
A couple of years later, I saw the farmhouse was empty and up for sale, and learned Den had passed away.
One evening on my way past I saw a light on, so I stopped and knocked on the door.
It was answered by den's daughter.
I expressed my interest in the bike if it was still there, gave her a card.
A couple of years after that, I got a call from her brother, who invited me to come and look at the bike.
I went round, still not knowing what it was. He asked if I'd like to buy it, and how much? I said it was a museum piece really but I could offer a thousand pounds, with which he was pleased - we shook hands, and I took the bike away.
Some researchreveals it to be a Hillman Herbert & Cooper Premier cycle from 1886, one of the first modern bicycles, as owned by the Prince of Wales.
It's now spent 5 years in the shop basement, needing a solution to the tyres and chain before it's usable.
Finally today after a very long wait, the chain has arrived:
