New blog - ordered our Pashley bikes!

Hi folks - a brand new blog.  Why?  Because as much as I searched on the net, I was amazed at how little there is to read about the very wonderful Pashley bicycle company.

Considering this brand has had a 100% increase in sales in the last 12 months, and if you want one you have to wait for an order from the factory, I find that surprising.

So, wife and I have recently bought a Pashley each.  Me a Roadster Sovereign (see below)

And for her - the Pashley Princess Sovereign

Call us eccentric, but honestly when you see these bikes in the flesh, you realise what they are about.

You see Pashley are one of only two remaining hand made bike makers in the UK, and these things are built at a factory in Stratford.  These are not foreign factory produced frames, they are hand made, hand brazed, lugged frames put together with the best quality components you can think of.  Brooks leather saddles, Sturmey Archer drum brakes and gears, Schwalber tyres - you get the picture.

But why have we bought - well, we aint getting any younger (though still under 40!) and both own mountain bikes.  We asked ourselves - when did we last go down a mountain??  In fact, when do a lot of people go down a mountain on their bikes.

You see, thats all part of the problem.  Racing bikes and mountain bikes used to exist solely for sport.  For some reason, the bike shops thoughts - "oh, everybody wants a bit of that", and we all swallowed it.  We all bought them.

Now, if you are a racer or a downhill rider - you need those bikes, and that is fine.  Problem is, if the back is starting to ache, you are not an athlete and you want a bike for nipping to the shops or pootling around the lanes - why is my only choice a bike that is uncomfortable?

Well that choice in recent years started to widen, and you will find a host of commuter or hybrid type bikes for sale - all more functional putting comfort and posture over performance.  That got my wife and I thinking....

We read around, and found Pashley - sure, we too thought - "eccentric", and then we saw one in the flesh.  The chap in the shop chuckled as we placed an order - he said "these bikes just sell themselves".  He was right.

So, in a factory in Stratford on Avon, our two bikes are being built.  Not going to see them for 3-6 weeks, but we cannot wait.  I will, of course, provide full reviews of both in due course, but will, in the meantime look to keep this blog populated with Pashley items.