Old man's bike

[Straight Shooter]

Its the summer of 1964 ...i get my first bike so the guys suggest a day out to Castle Coch which is about 10 miles away , plenty of hills to climb and one mountain....Caerphilly mountain ....pretty steep....we slug it out and arrive alright and do the tour (free) there are four of us....we club together for two hot dogs and cut them in half and fill our canteens for the trip home , we slug it up to the top of Caerphilly mountain and stop for a drink ....."easy now boys down hill for a mile or two".....in those days Baseball Daps were the rage white rubber bands around the whole shoe with white discs to protect ankle joints ....only Glyn had these on ....brand knew they were ....he headed down (thorn hill) first ....we followed on up the rear ....Glyn is picking up some major speed ...we shout slow down! ....he is looking back and shouting back ...i can't stop! then we hear AAARRRRGGGHHH then blue smoke coming from the rear wheel then he heads up the bank and into ferns....we arrive on the scene to find Glyn frantically trying to remove his right hand BB dap AAARRRGGGHHH water water he shouts and points to the heel of his dap ....in the attempt to stop he had pushed the heel onto the rear tyre ...the friction had worn a groove through the heel and onto the skin ....we all take out our canteens are pouring water on his foot ...i remember the smell of burning rubber......the moral is as MB says good maintenance is essential