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| "Wow look at you lot" (photo: David Easley) |
17th July 2021 is a boiling hot day and riders have gathered in the shade outside Nottingham Train station. I count 17 of us as ride leader Andrew gives his introductory chat / Q&A: more than a quarter are women riders – this is common on style / heritage rides. It’s pleasing to see
that despite the heat, riders have made an effort dress-wise: this adds to the fun
atmosphere and passers-by smile and take phone-snaps of us.
We take a Trent-side route towards Beeston,
avoiding busy roads. Riding along I
chat to a few riders I don’t know: people have joined us from Mansfield, Loughborough, Derby and Halesowen - such is the
draw of the style / heritage bike ride.
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| Are 3 Speeds enough? (photo David Easley) |
Near the crest of a Cycle/Foot bridge, a man walking towards us does a
double take and then clicks away with his phone camera as we ease past. “Wow,
look at you lot” he says. I recognise David from local Cycle Campaign meetings years before – and he later shares his photos with me.
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| Blues skies and high-20's temperatures: less threads required. |
As we’re prepping to ride off from the
Lakeside Centre, a beaming woman makes a beeline for me and asks “what’s this
all about? – its looks great fun” – I think I said something like “it’s called
Nottingham Classic Ride, a bit of fun on bikes wearing nice clothes – we post
the rides on Facebook”.
Later on I reflect that I might have further explained that aside from the fun and companionship, something more radical has also been taking place: it always does on rides like these...
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| Pedal and Thread Power! (an earlier NCR) |
