Getting on the train at Newcastle at the same time as us:
Front disc brake only (as far as I could see), single speed at the rear but a double chainset.
If there was a thread for Interesting and Unusual Owners, this bike's owner/inventor/chief marketeer would be in it. He was a
frenetic Italian bloke who knew all the tricks of the trains (and appears to have had an argument with every train conductor between Kirkcaldy and Kidderminster - the Cross Country guard came along, clocked the bike in the doorway, clocked this chap, shook his head as if to say "too hard!" and carried on walking), and claimed to have built the bike himself.
He was scornful of standard bikes - he looked at Graeme's very nice ti Spa Audax, waved his hand and said "this is a caged bird, mine is free range".
What appear to be dual handlebars are.. something else - the outer ones have bearings and can turn, they seem to be some sort of prototype for a system of propulsion which would use the arms as well as the legs. He was very keen on this idea.
Note the saddle:
He was dismissive of traditional saddles, and reckoned that the only reason his saddles haven't taken off is that people are too tied into the traditional saddle.
I asked his name (basically so I could Google him), and he said something like "names are unimportant, they mean nothing". I asked if he was touring, and he said he is always travelling. Apparently mostly by train - I should have asked if he ever rides that thing.
He did briefly show semi-polite interest in what we were doing, before carrying on talking about his various train-related shenanigans. Loon or genius? Only time will tell...
