Author Topic: 1962 Tyneside Vagabonds CC Reliability Ride - Vintage Cycling  (Read 4569 times)

Dave_C

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Re: 1962 Tyneside Vagabonds CC Reliability Ride - Vintage Cycling
« Reply #1 on: 24 October, 2016, 01:23:44 pm »
That was great, thanks. Very evocative - but rather them than me in what looked like cotton shirts underneath their jumpers in that snow...

LittleWheelsandBig

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Re: 1962 Tyneside Vagabonds CC Reliability Ride - Vintage Cycling
« Reply #2 on: 24 October, 2016, 03:37:15 pm »
Some tough blokes back then. I was a little surprised by how few fixed wheels were in use.
Wheel meet again, don't know where, don't know when...

Re: 1962 Tyneside Vagabonds CC Reliability Ride - Vintage Cycling
« Reply #3 on: 24 October, 2016, 03:44:18 pm »
I started riding a few years later than that, 1968.  Just as in the film, very few people wore club colours for anything other than racing.  By 1968 most seemed to wear Greenspot jackets or similar.  one year I tried wearing a big woollen jumper instead of the jacket.  It was not a success because the jumper was so much bulkier than a jacket if you took it off to stuff into your saddlebag, and it had nothing at all by way of wind resistance so a sheet of paper was often needed underneath it to protect your chest.

Si

Re: 1962 Tyneside Vagabonds CC Reliability Ride - Vintage Cycling
« Reply #4 on: 24 October, 2016, 04:06:24 pm »
Also, 100 miles and not many with water bottles on the bikes!  Funny how the stuff we think we 'need' is as much down to culture as practicality.  Or were there just more tea rooms then?


Re: 1962 Tyneside Vagabonds CC Reliability Ride - Vintage Cycling
« Reply #5 on: 24 October, 2016, 04:31:03 pm »
Also, 100 miles and not many with water bottles on the bikes!
Those were the days of "dry is fast" rather than todays "must drink every 5 minutes".  Also the ride in the film is early enough in the year that there's no chance of heat stroke or dehydration, so no reason to carry a bottle.  There were more tea rooms etc, proper tea rooms and cafes, but we did not stop any more than we do today.  The biggest difference is that normal club runs tended to be out all day (say 10 hours) rather than the half day rides popular these days.  Different times, different ways.

Re: 1962 Tyneside Vagabonds CC Reliability Ride - Vintage Cycling
« Reply #6 on: 24 October, 2016, 04:32:18 pm »
That was great, thanks. Very evocative - but rather them than me in what looked like cotton shirts underneath their jumpers in that snow...

I made the mistake of idly clicking through to the 1960 Tyneside Vagabonds CC Cyclo-cross video:
https://youtu.be/258PBJTV2iE?t=3m41s

brrrrrrr!

Samuel D

Re: 1962 Tyneside Vagabonds CC Reliability Ride - Vintage Cycling
« Reply #7 on: 24 October, 2016, 04:52:58 pm »
Fascinating! What amazes me is the exposed necks while riding in snow. The lack of gloves is another surprising thing in freezing weather, but no scarf is worse.

I made the mistake of idly clicking through to the 1960 Tyneside Vagabonds CC Cyclo-cross video:
https://youtu.be/258PBJTV2iE?t=3m41s

brrrrrrr!

And not a sealed bearing in sight!

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: 1962 Tyneside Vagabonds CC Reliability Ride - Vintage Cycling
« Reply #8 on: 24 October, 2016, 04:58:42 pm »
Lovely film. What struck me was that the participants have changed since then; 100% male and, for something that seems to be almost an audax (ride, time stamp, ride, lunch, self-sufficiency, no prizes) mostly much younger. But then I suppose although it looks like audaxy, it was for them a warm-up to the club racing season.

And some things have come back in different guise: cut-off trousers – Swrve jeans, musettes – courier bags.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: 1962 Tyneside Vagabonds CC Reliability Ride - Vintage Cycling
« Reply #9 on: 24 October, 2016, 07:15:38 pm »
From the bulges under the jumpers I assumed a lot of them were wearing jerseys (or something with rear pockets) underneath, which would suggest there was some specialist clothing in use.

The thing that I always wonder about in this era of cycling in civvies (cf. also _Cyclists' Special_, tales on the CTC forums, &c.) is how did people deal with sweat? For a summertime bimble along the lanes and picnic I'm OK with a cotton shirt, but add a tweed jacket and/or significant distance or hills and I'd be utterly drenched - and in weather like that, risking hypothermia!


Re: 1962 Tyneside Vagabonds CC Reliability Ride - Vintage Cycling
« Reply #10 on: 24 October, 2016, 07:24:12 pm »
how did people deal with sweat?
You did what your mother told you.  You wore a vest under the shirt because your mum said it kept you warm in the winter and absorbed sweat in the summer.  Seriously, I don't recall any particular problems although in the summer my shirt would often be wet when I got home, and my winter corded shirts would rot after about 5 years.


Age of riders - in the late 60s and early seventies more than half of the numbers on club runs would be late teens to mid twenties.  About 10% would be girls.  Many of us who started riding in those days are still riding and find it sad that there seem to be few young riders these days.

Samuel D

Re: 1962 Tyneside Vagabonds CC Reliability Ride - Vintage Cycling
« Reply #11 on: 24 October, 2016, 07:39:52 pm »
It seems the sweat problem was taken care of by a cunning combination of hypothermia and dehydration at once.

That said, cotton is not so bad. I’m in my thirties, and in my teens I did many a day ride in t-shirt and jeans before I learned I shouldn’t. I didn’t drink much on the road either, though I drank gallons before and after. I felt freer than I ever did since.

Re: 1962 Tyneside Vagabonds CC Reliability Ride - Vintage Cycling
« Reply #12 on: 24 October, 2016, 07:48:06 pm »
 Wey ye Bugger man , I think Iv'e  spotted one of my God parents . My uncle tommy   was a keen cyclists & rode in this era. He used to swear by Guernsey gansey  . Cycling club members used to buy the special wool & my auntie (when not on the tandem) used to knit up the jumpers .
Its More Fun With Three .

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: 1962 Tyneside Vagabonds CC Reliability Ride - Vintage Cycling
« Reply #13 on: 24 October, 2016, 08:30:59 pm »
how did people deal with sweat?
You did what your mother told you.  You wore a vest under the shirt because your mum said it kept you warm in the winter and absorbed sweat in the summer.  Seriously, I don't recall any particular problems although in the summer my shirt would often be wet when I got home, and my winter corded shirts would rot after about 5 years.
There's another reinvention/remarketing: the base layer!
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: 1962 Tyneside Vagabonds CC Reliability Ride - Vintage Cycling
« Reply #14 on: 27 October, 2016, 07:47:27 pm »
Interesting to compare this one with the cyclocross film, where they're wearing club jerseys and shorts and mostly using singlespeed, some fixed, but no derailleurs – and quite a few of them seem to be on frames which by modern standards would be considered too big for them. Maybe slammed saddles were the fashion back then?
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: 1962 Tyneside Vagabonds CC Reliability Ride - Vintage Cycling
« Reply #15 on: 28 October, 2016, 03:22:14 pm »
I'm fascinated with non-cycling cycling clothes of this era and earlier, and this film is a great find - it originally popped up on our local CTC round-robin newsletter.
There do seem to be a lot of what appear to be ordinary trousers in use, some with bog-standard trouser clips, some tucked into socks. My recollection is that we'd use toestraps to keep our trousers under control, but I can't spot any in the film.
There is one rider (at least) wearing a 'hiking smock' which I thought were more common.
I hadn't spotted the bulges that Jakob W refers to - but I'd be surprised if there were cycle jerseys underneath, I just don't think they were common among touring cyclists of the time.
As regards sweat - I believe that it was a smellier time. Personal hygiene wasn't what it is. Certainly that's what folk only slightly older than myself tell me!
My early touring and CTC section riding in the early 70s was (as far as I recall) in my school trousers, a school shirt, a random jumper, normal vest and pants (if string vest & pants are in any way 'normal'). The only cycle specific clothing I had was a pair of cycling shoes I kept hidden from my mum because of how much they had cost!
I don't think tweed was ever worn by club cyclists post the Second World War.


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Re: 1962 Tyneside Vagabonds CC Reliability Ride - Vintage Cycling
« Reply #16 on: 28 October, 2016, 09:23:47 pm »
Re bulges - at 01:30 in the group setting off one of the people on the right looks like they're wearing a red jersey under their top; similarly the person climbing the hill at 09:00 looks to have similar. Of course they could just be wearing a musette under layers...

Re: 1962 Tyneside Vagabonds CC Reliability Ride - Vintage Cycling
« Reply #17 on: 28 October, 2016, 10:01:14 pm »
Lovely film, made me chuckle 'cycling is like banging your head against a wall, its great when you stop.'
Get a bicycle. You will never regret it, if you live- Mark Twain

Karla

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Re: 1962 Tyneside Vagabonds CC Reliability Ride - Vintage Cycling
« Reply #18 on: 28 November, 2016, 10:57:01 pm »
Quentin's done another video: Cyclo-cross from 1960

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: 1962 Tyneside Vagabonds CC Reliability Ride - Vintage Cycling
« Reply #19 on: 01 December, 2016, 01:47:24 pm »
Quentin's done another video: Cyclo-cross from 1960
Bzzzzzzzzzzzt!

That was great, thanks. Very evocative - but rather them than me in what looked like cotton shirts underneath their jumpers in that snow...


I made the mistake of idly clicking through to the 1960 Tyneside Vagabonds CC Cyclo-cross video:
https://youtu.be/258PBJTV2iE?t=3m41s

brrrrrrr!
I think it even had a whole thread to itself some years ago... Bears watching again though.  :)
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Karla

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Re: 1962 Tyneside Vagabonds CC Reliability Ride - Vintage Cycling
« Reply #20 on: 07 December, 2016, 12:35:51 am »
Now here's one of Quentin's videos that I don't think anyone's posted up: 1958 BLRC national amateur championships

That's quite historic: it was the last year before the BLRC and NCU became the BCF.