cb400bill

Unfortunately, Terry hasn't checked in since 2014.

1989Pre 

Let's hope that Terry sees the two messages from his two mates, here.

Terrywassall

Hi Bob, Neil and Tony. I've not been active on this thread for a couple of years now. I had a bad mountain bike crash last year that took a lot of the summer to recover from and then I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and recovering from surgery buggered up most of this year too. All on the mend now though and just got back on my bike for the first time in 3 months last weekend, only with a new bum friendly saddle! I'll reply in more detail soon but I'm away from home at the moment and hate using the poke keyboard on my tablet. Back next weekend some time.

qcpmsame 

Welcome back to the forums Terry, sorry to learn of your bad crash last year, and the Prostate cancer diagnosis. Hopefully the recovery and your cycling return is well underway now, stick around the forums if you would.

Bill

Cluley

Hi Neil Abrahart, Gary Adkins and anyone else I know on this forum. I worked at Holdsworthy, then at Hinds of Clapham back in the 1960s, also for a short time at Clive Stuart. Still cycling, now living in Esher minus most of hair but still fit and using bike almost every day. Query, was'nt Bill the Pill (alias Bill Shillibeer a member of the Balham c.c. rather than the Tooting? I also don't know how forum works but heigh ho willing to have a go.

Sraine

LAJ

Wow. This is quite a thread! Welcome to Bike Forums, @Sraine!

If you put the @ in front of a username, hopefully it will send a notification to a forum member you would like to contact.

NavyD

Hi Sraine,
Saw your message. I've not been in touch with Terry for some years now.
I was in the Tooting 1959-1964 and while I cant remember your Dad Mike, I do have (still) copies of TBC handbooks for 1960-64 n which Mike is clearly shown as 1/4 mile record holder - Time 26.7sec set 1956.
My name appears 2 & 3 lines below his on P 14 of 1964 h/book.
Do you remember anyone else of that era? (NB- my last post here was 2013)
Regards "Navy"

Sraine

Sorry to sat but my Dad recently passed away, I do not know any other names off hand but when I showed some of the names that are mentioned in other posts my Mum recognised them, I will try and take a photo of his bike and post on here.

Siu Blue Wind

Welcome from NorCal!! Nice thread, thanks for sharing!

Sorry about your dad, Sraine. Condolences.

Sraine

John12345

Hi

kiddermonster

hello terry,
do you still have contact for John Cole - ex Tooting BC?

Thanks
andy

DrZhivago

I have been reminded of this thread by an email notification. I have the impression that the club does not exist any more except in the form of this thread.

I continued to ride for pleasure for a few years after I gave up racing and moving away from "Tooting", but then gave up entirely when things changed radically around the early 1980's. From then, following a government White Paper on cycling, bikes were effectively re-classified from being vehicles to being a walking aid, both officially and in the mindset of a new wave of cyclists. Signs appeared requiring bikes to use the pavement, bike lanes were marked out (even on wide, quiet roads) and to my disgust cyclists started using pavements en-mass anyway. At the same time, car drivers began to regard ordinary roads as motorways on which cyclists had no right to be. Some residential roads had bike lanes with "Give Way" lines painted across them at every residential drive entrance. I was not prepared to ride a bike on those terms.

Until then, in my Tooting BC days, for a long solo ride I might go down the A23 to Brighton, along the coast to Worthing, then back home up the A24. For a shorter more scenic ride I might go via Leatherhead, then Guildford, then east on the A25 and return home up Box Hill or Pebblecombe. Our mid-week evening club training run was down the A3, and back home up the A24. The "A" roads and "B" roads threaded towns and villages together, centre-to centre, as they had for the previous 1000 years, and we happened to live at the time when that changed, a time of massive road building and the conversion of linear public spaces into motorways, effectively. Cycling may be officially encouraged as "green", but is frowned upon outside routes which have been designated as suitable by officials.

I took up photography instead, and more recently writing, including poetry. I think have a few years left, am in good health, so I was thinking of writing a book "Memoirs of a Long Distance Cyclist" as a nostalgic look back at those days before complete car domination. It would be in a similar vein to "Cider with Rosie", "Larkrise to Candleford", and Siegfried Sasoon's "Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man", which is not much about fox hunting and inspires my title. Don't worry, I shall use ficticious names to protect the guilty.

B_Vaisey

Hi, I stumbled upon this forum today when I Googled a name. My dad was Ron Vaisey, and was a TBC rider in the sixties. It is great to read your posts and see some names I recognise. I remember attending some of the Tooting Bicycle Club annual dinners (in the 1980s), and they were always a lot of fun. There was a real art to the cross toasting that went on.

My dad died in 2005, but I still have his old bike and some of the cycling trophies he won, plus some club memorabilia. His brother John is still with us though - I will tell him about this forum. Does anyone still read it??

I'd be interested in getting a few email addresses of my dad's mates (John Cole & Phil Wakefield) if anyone can oblige?

Best wishes, Byron