121. Pashley Bicycles

Riding a Pashley is like driving a Rolls-Royce. It's smooth and elegant, you're quite high up, and everybody looks at you as you go past.

Once you get past the old-fashioned looks (and weight) the bike is fitted with all sorts of modern gizmos that make life easier, like disc brakes, so it is not in fact exactly like riding an iron bicycle from 1913. Though when you're trying to go uphill it can feel like that.

They're no good for speed, or weaving through traffic, and they have three gears and brakes so their hipster rating is low. But for me riding my Pashley is an intensely joyful experience. I live in a calmer, more civilized world when I'm on my Pashley, and taxis don't try to kill me with the same malevolence that they keep for the single-speeds.

There are lots of 'retro' bikes out there now, but Pashley have been making the same bikes, by hand, since 1926. When the system will allow me, I'll put up a picture - because apart from anything else, and perhaps most importantly, these bikes are BEAUTIFUL.