By Sally Clifford

Published 1st Apr 2023, 06:00 GMT

“It means things that are worthless,” says Tony, who clearly views the term disdainfully. The earliest bicycles evolved from 1868 to the 1880s. In 1885 Safety Bikes were introduced which were closer to the ground with tweaks to improve rider safety. Tony’s regular ride-about is an 1888 High Bicycle. Elsie has also ridden high bicycles, as have their three grown up daughters, Suzie, Alice and Amelia. Alice and Amelia were accomplished high bike racers. For the couple’s daily ride around their village in the East Riding, Tony takes his high bicycle and Elsie rides her 1910 Rover – from a collection the couple have accumulated over the years.

Acquiring the rusty frame of a ladies Rover bicycle from a scrapyard, Tony, who trained as a sheet metalworker with Rolls Royce before entering education and becoming Head of a Technical Studies department, was able to restore it for the Rover Centenary Ride organised by the Veteran-Cycle Club (V-CC).

“We cycled 100 miles over the weekend. It was an Indian summer weekend and it was fantastic,” says Elsie. For Tony, whose great grandfather, Aurel de Ratti, was president in 1885 of the newly formed bicycle club at Bradford Grammar School where he was a German master, bygone cycling led him to develop a part-time cycle restoration business in retirement.

Maurice Bartlepal,with some of his vintage racing cycles, in his loft, near Richmond.

In his orderly workshop, wheels are suspended from the ceiling; saddles he has hand-crafted from leather are neatly stacked, and the intricate tooling he has skilfully made to repair bikes for customers all over the world is stored. Tony’s High bicycles are dotted around the workshop, and the collection continues into the couple’s home where solid and pneumatic tyred veteran cycles occupy the cosy sitting room.

Moscow, South Africa, Indonesia and the Czech Republic are just some of the countries they have visited, and made friends for life. This network of friendly and sociable people share a passion for turning back the pedals to times when the bicycle shared road space with the horse and carriage.

Three precious diaries Elsie purchased over a decade ago document the social changes through a shared love of cycling. ‘The diaries of the ABC and Leeds Ramblers Cycle Club 1881-1883’ are a beautifully illustrated record of the rides enjoyed by the young boys at Ackworth School, originally founded in the West Riding in 1779 to educate Quaker boys. This small club, whose oldest member was 22, kept their activities private. Only their relations knew of their adventures. It was the fragility of the books that prompted Elsie to have them professionally published to preserve them. “When I first read the diaries I was captivated by them,” says Elsie. “They are unique. I haven’t seen any other cycling diaries like this before. They mean a lot to me because they were people who enjoyed cycling in the way I do. I like being out in the country and I don’t mind plodding up hills because I know there will be a free wheel after it!” smiles Elsie.

“They are a good social history. They tell you how much people paid for lemonade and milk, and also you know the speed they are going along the roads,” says Tony.

“If you ride a bicycle you are more in contact with people than when you are in the car. Someone will wave and smile and I’ve done my good turn, I’ve made someone smile."

John Parsons, who runs the North Yorkshire and South Durham section of The V-CC, has 11 bikes, some of which he has restored including a 1951 Kerry Cadet, a Pashley delivery bike, a 1961 Falcon Black Diamond and a 1963 Flying Scot. “It’s the fact you are using something which is so old and it is a representation of the past,” says the retired auto cad designer from Hartlepool.

Fellow V-CC member, Maurice Bartle, is a classic racing bike enthusiast. Both have competed. Maurice’s extensive collection – more than 100 at the last count, and dating back to the start of the century - include a 106 year old Swift Gents Roadster and a 2001 Trek. He is also the custodian of an 80-year-old replica of a 200-year-old Hobby Horse. It was a 1935 Leader Bike which started his association with bygone cycling.

“It was purchased from a soldier during the Second World War by a guy I worked with in the Test House,” says Maurice, recalling his metallurgist apprenticeship. He refurbished the bicycle in 1947 for his colleague who, in advancing years, sought Maurice out and told him the bike was the only thing he had left in the world and he wanted him to have it.

Tony and Elsie Huntington who have a collection of high bikes and Rover bikes at their home near Beverley.

“That is the bike that started the collection,” says Maurice, who also has a 1950 Tillston Road Track Bike, a 1948 Gasparetto and a Claud Butler touring bike. Over the years he has amassed the majority of the bikes he recalls ogling with his nose pressed against the window of the Harrogate bike shop he and his pal would regularly visit.

He is keen to educate others about cycling and regularly gives talks. “I am passionately concerned people should realise how important biking has been to the development of civilisation and culture. If it hadn’t been for bicycles motorbikes wouldn’t have developed,” says Maurice, who lives in North Yorkshire.

Derek Browne’s interest in cycle speedway led to him taking up cycle racing in the Fifties.

“I joined the Halifax Imperial Wheelers when I was about 17. I was in the club from 1953 to 1961,” says Derek, whose proudest moment was winning a road race in 1956 – the first win for the Halifax Imperial Wheelers.

Tony and Elsie Huntington who have a collection of high bikes and Rover bikes at their home near Beverley.
Elsie looks through diaries written by a small group of young Quaker scholars at Ackworth School who set up a secret bike club and recorded their rides with beautifully illustrated paintings, in the diaries during the 19th century. — Tony and Elsie Huntington who have a collection of high bikes and Rover bikes at their home near Beverley. Elsie looks through diaries written by a small group of young Quaker scholars at Ackworth School who set up a secret bike club and recorded their rides with beautifully illustrated paintings, in the diaries during the 19th century.

Following a break from the cycling scene he returned in the ‘70s. “What started it off again was two wonderfully hot summers in 1975 and 1976. I started riding again which led into the veteran races.” A racing pal introduced him to Bygone Bykes (Yorkshire) Club.

Tony, Elsie, John and Maurice are also members of the club which was founded in 1967 by the Auty Brothers from the Wakefield area.

“They came across a derelict bike and decided to try and renovate it which led to other people doing the same thing. That was the onset of Yorkshire’s Bygone Bykes Club,” explains Derek, who has four racing bikes.

Today the club, which covers cycling eras from the 1800s to the 1980s, has more than 100 members, including some overseas, who keep up with news and events through the club’s aptly-named quarterly newsletter, The Spokesman. The club is affiliated to The National Association of Veteran Cycle Clubs.

Derek is secretary of The V-CC’s West Yorkshire Classic Lightweights section.“I suppose we do it for the nostalgia, it’s making people aware of how times used to be – but the mechanics come into it, we are all capable of stripping it down to the last ball bearing and putting it back together.”

For more information visit v-cc.org.uk or bygonebykes.weebly.com. Copies of the ABC & LRBC diaries are available by emailing [email protected]

Meet the veteran cyclists keeping vintage bikes alive on the roads of Yorkshire