Nostalgic Rides and History of Bicycle

The recent night rides to meet my cycling community friends at Beasant Avenue brought forward many of my childhood memories with bicycle during late 70's, occasionally my uncle was given the job of dropping me home after my evening class,one late evening while he was bringing me home on his bicycle the front light was not functioning properly and the Cop clad in Khaki Shorts uniform with an unique cap stopped us and book him on another occasion in spite of repeated warnings I just crazily kept my foot into the running wheel causing injury and followed by a strong reprimand. My uncle kept his bicycle in an meticulous condition and loved his daily commute sometimes taking me on those almost lonely roads having the occasional two wheeler or car passing by with cycles and rickshaws ruling the road, most of these bicycles looked the same to me be it with the morning newspaper guy, the milk man bringing the milk supplied in bottles,my school teacher's or the Ice cream vendor and many more such sequences through the day.The lingering image of this cycle which played a pivotal role in daily life of the people propelled me to know more. This bicycle called "Roadster" has its origins from United Kingdom, with the invention of pneumatic tires, starting of Raleigh Cycles in 1887 and fast growth of bicycle technology in the early 1900's there began mass production of these bicycles which had impetus on safety,utility and durability, until mid 1940's these were the most sold bicycles and had already become practical form of personal transport, other cycling houses of the time like BSA, Hercules and Phillips also played a major role in its innovation and production that some of them were inducted into the services of few armies. In India cycles were imported from beginning of 1900's till the complete ban on it by the government in 1953, TI Cycles Ltd established their first A factory in 1951 and the first to roll out was Hercules Bicycle along with the then best seller Phillips, by mid 1960's Hero Cycles started exporting bicycles, others like Atlas Cycles soon joined the bandwagon. And as the night gets deep its time I conclude this rhetoric eagerly awaiting some more info on this great common man bicycle, till then ...

A Sadhu with modified Roadster at Kumbh Mela