Walter and pug

walter and pug are my two bikes. i am by no means a serious cyclist however i really do enjoy pottering around on them and ride to work most days. when i have had bikes stolen in the past (too many times) i have felt utterly lost. i'm a nervous soul and often find walking alone intimidating, but on my bike i feel great.

stolen bikes are:

vix: my purple raleigh vixen which i had for years, bought for my 20th birthday by my family and my only mode of transport for nearly four years, before my sister got a car and the one we had shared came with me to cardiff. stolen on the same night i had to be rescued from the side of the M50 when the wheel fell off my car and i missed adam green at barfly. i learned to ride no-handed on vix.

fruity bike: my sister's old bike, actually a kid's bike which my dad restored for me when vix was stolen. my old bike, a shocking orange raleigh racer was deemed too knackered. i could JUST get away with it as a stop-gap because i am 5'1". fruity bike is named after the game i invented with her help.

giant:

a lovely blue giant mountain bike, 24th birthday pressie from my parents and grandad. survived two theft attempts before finally being nicked from outside buffalo on a night i was already pretty miserable. police found footage of the theft but couldn't identify anyone from it. giant was lovely, even if she did make my little fingers numb.

(unnamed):

i didn't have my next bike long enough to give it a proper name, other than pinkbike. it was an apollo zodiac, loud late 90's design at its best. shocking pink, purchased from ebay for the princely sum of £30 to replace giant. the loudest bike in cardiff- visually and literally; the brakes did not stop the bike but emitted a good warning squeal when applied, i purchased bright orange floral pannier bags. if you're going to be seen, you may as well do it properly. it had two working gears, 20 and 21, and once, forgetting that it did not have suspension, i fell off it in humiliating fashion (ie people could see) when trying to hop up onto a kerb. nicked from outside the romilly pub when i was doing a quiz there.

intermission:  the poshbike. i acquired a dutch style town bike, free of charge, from my friend. it was too big for me really, and taught me that even though i think dutch bikes look cool, they do not suit my riding style (fast, erratic, standy-uppy). scrapped after the pedal fell off and i couldn't be arsed to fix it.

so, then i got walter (raleigh) for my 29th birthday. walter is ok, but a bit heavy and cumbersome. great for my short ride to work over the potholes etc but a bit frustrating on long rides. and so with this in mind, and also that it is likely to get stolen at some point, i decided to buy a spare. so i got pug from ebay. pug is  a 1993 peugeot racer, fulfilling my needs for a spare bike and a faster one. i have  a peugeot car from 1993 with nearly 200k on the clock and going strong, so i reasoned this to be a good  sign. pug need new tyres but after i have sorted that i am massively looking forward to being able to choose a bike every morning based on weather and where i have to go.

here are pug and walter getting a good scrub:

and just pug:
(i like her black and whiteness)

so getting pug is either the beginning of a collection of bikes, or of 1993 peugeots. i genuinely don't know which.