Some girls are girly girls, some are not. I fall heavily into the later category. How then does someone like me end up in possession of a very pink bicycle?
A pink bike?
Full City on Leather Lane is my favourite bike shop and my first port of call for replacing the Gitane’s lost wheels. The shop sources second hand parts from all around and a lot of frames from France. These guys have become firm friends of mine and I knew when I called in there I’d get coffee, commiseration and wheels in one delightful package. What I wasn’t expecting was this:
Mercier: a classic French frame
Mercier, intoxicatingly pink, a design classic and just my size. There is something very lovely about French bikes and ever since seeing Two Broad Arrows (Rapha & Ridley Scott Associates) at the London Bicycle Film Festival I’ve associated these classic frames with that cycling hook I first felt when riding my first proper bike, a second hand ‘sprint’ around the Yorkshire countryside.
So, I went in for wheels and came out with a little more than I bargained for but it’s a beauty, fits me perfectly and the reynolds steel frame coasts the bumps and lumps of London roads very nicely indeed. I’m not entirely sure I can handle the extreme white and pink combo so will be toning it down a little but the heart and soul of this bike is a good one, I can feel it already.
