The Most Impractical Bike Ever Made

The gear stick was in the middle of the frame and would skin your inner thigh if you stood up to pedal. The front wheel was tiny and the back wheel was enormous and this made the handling genuinely dangerous at speed. The seat was designed by someone who had never sat on anything.

It was also the most beautiful object I had ever owned.

Red, with a black seat. The gear stick had a satisfying clunk between positions. Other kids would stop and stare. Some of them asked to have a go. I said no to most of them.

I rode it everywhere for three years. It was heavy as a small motorbike and slow on hills and impossible to corner sharply. None of that mattered,you sat upright like you were in a throne and you felt magnificent.

My dad sold it at a car boot sale in 1978 for two pounds fifty. I've never quite forgiven him.