Although it wasn’t a shiny new frame from Uppadines, Owen’s customised bicycle made his paper round feel like a stage from an elite race:
“We lived in Tickhill and our route into Doncaster took us up Sandford Road. As we turned right, Uppadine Cycles was a big shop on the left hand side. I used to get my Dad to stop and let me look in the window at the cycles on display. He always made the point that we couldn’t afford one of those bikes, but I wanted to look and dream anyway.
One day I was given an old bike for my paper round and decided I would ‘customise’ it. I stripped it all down to the bare frame, fitted a pair of drop handle bars and painted it in blue and yellow to match one I had seen in Uppadine’s window. After I had re-assembled it I now had the bike I had always wanted, not quite an Uppadine but at least it was ‘my’ version.
Every time I rode it I imagined myself as Tommy Simpson or some other famous cyclist and it felt great! The drop handle bars weren’t ideal for a paper round but having a ‘racing’ bike made up for the inconvenience.”
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DONCASTER'S CYCLING STORIES 