Nothing new about bike bling of course.
Take this picture of a right 'flash harry' from the 1930's. Apologies for the quality, but you might just be able to make out that it's a Bates BAR, with a chrome-plated frame and a new-fangled derailleur gear where a fixed hub would normally have been.
Wrist-length black leather gloves (were Rapha around even then?) a white alpaca cycling jacket, white socks and black racing shoes are the icing on the two-wheeled cake.
The dashing rider is my father. Judging from the Anderson shelter in another photograph, they date from around 1940, when he would have been 18-years-old.
A Bates BAR cost about 38 pounds in those days, when manual workers in Britain earned a little over 3 pounds a week. My father was an apprentice in a bakery, so a bike like that was a significant investment.
He put it to good use though -- here, he's on the way back from a massed-start race at Donnington Park to the family home in South London. I'll repeat that -- he rode from South London to Donnington Park, took part in a race and rode home again.
And who could resist the cigar-shaped tubing, the wonky diadrant forks, the (5 pounds extra) chrome plating?
A passion for cycling and a love of style over financial common sense. He passed a couple of things on to his son.
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