Comment | Read Comments (4)

Writing this column every two weeks, you can imagine it's hard coming up with stories where you're not being negative or writing a list of all the number plates of vehicles that have treated you badly - oh so tempting sometimes!

I've had to confess to friends I feel like I'm going to get found out as I'm neither the most expert or avid cyclist in Oxford, so you can imagine my joy this week meeting a self-confessed armchair cyclist'. It all started like this . . .

I was standing outside my son's nursery when all the kids started squealing with delight as pedalling around the corner came an armchair on wheels (I kid you not).

After the initial double-take, one friend announced: "Only in East Oxford". Then after some confusion, one friend confessed with a shy grin that it was her husband cycling, so we went off to chat to him.

Henry Thompson, it turns out, has been working on this bike/chair in his shed. The whole bicycle has been remarkably cheap to make. He managed to get a leather armchair from eBay for £9. The front wheel is just 18in, with the pedals above.

The back wheel is a 26in mountain bike wheel. All the parts for his bike were from junk and the only things he needed to pay for were tiny chain runners costing £40 from Holland.

Henry started out by making a mock-up of the bike by putting 2in square pine underneath his armchair.

He then got Julian Bloomfield, who has a workshop at Shipton Quarry, to weld the metalwork under the seat. Henry emailed people around the world who had made similar designs.

One fellow eccentric cyclist in Canada, Brent Curry, built and rides an entire sofa round the streets with friends. He and his friends kept getting stopped by uptight Canadian officials for not wearing helmets - which led to a big discussion as to whether he was riding a sofa or a bike. I hear he was let off a fine!

Outside Henry's house, the crowd continued to stare at Henry's armchair bike - it was even upended to look at its workings.

My mother had come along and seemed very keen on the bike. Henry then announced that he had to get it finished (with brakes, gears and a flag) for the world naked bike ride in London in July. My mother offered Henry good luck' at this point - I'm not sure why luck was needed, but perhaps as a handsome man, my mother was worried Henry would get mobbed!

Other plans for Henry are to make a small film to put on YouTube', the popular online home video site. Indeed, this is where he initially got some ideas for the design of his own armchair bike.

I can see that a large comfortable armchair-bike suddenly feels like the way to go for cyclists wanting a bit more room on the road - perhaps we could fit a TV at the front to keep us from getting bored.

And with all that comfort, you may find yourself being able to cycle just a bit further. You just have to be careful not to nod off!

6:00pm Monday 28th April 2008

Print

Email this

Comment

Add your comment

Name:
Email: *
Location:
**
	e.g. 123-123
Comment: Please note: All HTML tags will be ignored. Format Text:
By posting a comment, I confirm that I have read and agree to the terms of use. Comments are not moderated but we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention and we may delete inappropriate postings. Please treat other people with respect. You must not post anything that is abusive, indecent, unlawful or defamatory. Remember, you are personally liable for what you post on this site. If you wish to complain about a comment, contact us here.
* Your email address will not be displayed ** To avoid register now or login