Folding Bike Poetry

Hi

Now normally this blog is devoted to bicycles with occasional meanderings about shopping for junk or surfing.  But now my blog is expanding into culture - the arts - poetry.  No, don't worry, I not going to go out and watch a ballet and then review it or anything like that.  I have just had the words of Grit Laskin's verse "The Photographers" (as sung by Pete Seeger on his circles and seasons album) going through my head and decided that the lyrics could be converted to a discussion of folding bicycles.

The Folding Bikes (by Steve Nurse With Apologies to Grit Laskin & Pete Seeger)

Well early on a Saturday, rolling  through the wood
I came upon a lady who by the wayside stood
And what, pray tell, would such a lass as you be doing here?
I've come to ride my folding bike, said she as I drew near

Said I to her, I do declare, this is a fateful day
For I have come on folding bike, the same as you did say
Then I took out my Dawes Kingpin and placed it in her hand
She said that's quite a bicycle, you have at your command

My bike had so delighted her, she could no more delay
She let me see her pannier bag, wherein her accessories lay
I'm sure, she said, you have most everything that can be bought
Just let me stretch my hinge right out before I'm hot to trot

I let her pump my tyre right up, she let inhibitions down
and soon we had forgot about the wheels a going round
We rode under the moonlight, we rode the whole night long
We rode as dawn was breaking and still were going strong

This lady had experience with folders, yes, indeed
And I thought her rythmic pedalling the best I'd ever seed
Although she seemed to tire not as on and on we went
I said I'll have to stop now, my glycogen is spent

She said I've had Stridas, Bickertons and Bromptons
Moulton, Panasonic, likewise a Malvern Star
Viscount, Vairas, Birdy, Mifa and the rest
But now I've seen your Dawes King Pin, and surely it's the best

(End)

And while we are on poetry (which I usually skip over whenever I encouner it, here are a few more examples.


This was going to appear in my cycling book but never made the cut.  About not being a helicopter parent:

"You've learnt to read, you can swim and ride a bike
Now geroura the house
You little tyke"

And this ode to the simplictity of the Mifa Bicycle  from the German website http://www.klapprad.de/files/worldwide.htm
 "Ein bisschen Rohr, ein bisschen Draht, fertig ist das MIFA-Rad !"  or
"A bit of wire a bit of pipe, the Mifa bike is finished"