Bicycles! Any good memories of them?

[KayGeeExOPG]

Royal Mail delivery bikes may be a thing of the past now, but I can just about remember a time when they were standard kit for completing a delivery. What memories, either good or bad, do people here have of using them? As a long distance cyclist of many years myself (recreational), I'm interested in reading what staff, past and current, think about them.

KG.

[Mr Rush]

Well, since no-one has any stories I'll just say that we never had cycling duties in our unit but this looks wonderful (in the summer at least)...

[Basildon Bond]

...this looks wonderful (in the summer at least)...

If only the camera had panned right a bit it would have shown...

steep_road.jpg

...which even our 2013 Fiat Doblo vans now struggle to get up without a rolling start.

[Tman]

Well, since no-one has any stories I'll just say that we never had cycling duties in our unit but this looks wonderful (in the summer at least)...

That bike is nothing like the ancient dropped frame Pashleys that our place had. Then again, they never had whitewall tyres, plastic chainwheel guards and little drum brakes on the front either.
The bloke in the pic should try pumping up his tyres too.

[wookie]

Before the tray on the front, just a rack. The bag used to just slip off sometimes.......

[clashcityrocker]

I never saw a bike that looked like that.
The Ben Sherman shirt and the blue pouch - wonderful.
But what has he got on his feet?

The only good thing about the bikes is you could buy them for about a fiver when they came to the end of their working life.

[Jack1960]

My fondest memory is riding them to the local after er ....the second delivery and seeing about ten of them already chained up like horses outside a western saloon

[postslippete]

Ha! Remember the Pashley well. Used to overload the first pouch to put on the front and cram the side panniers full of mail to drop in the bag box on the way there otherwise I would be waiting for the driver to turn up with the rest of the bags. Best thing about the job was being able to drop parcels that we had slipped to the local post office and then go straight home once they stamped our little books.