Elegantly Dressed Wednesday: The Pashley Guv’nor
When José Antonio Viera-Gallo, then a member of Allende’s government, made the wisecrack “Socialism can only arrive by bicycle”, you can bet your bottom boots that he’d never clapped eyes on the magnificent Pashley Guv’nor.
Bike nerds like Dornan will immediately rush to Google and return to my comments box to point out that Viera-Gallo couldn’t have eyeballed a bike that didn’t then exist. But I don’t care, because the Guv’nor was based on a Path Racer model made by the same company in the 1930s.
And just look at it! The elegant curve of the dropped handlebars. The irresistible white and black contrast that works so beautifully for tyres, and so badly for gents’ shoes. Hell, this machine has such a clean shape that it doesn’t bother with gears: a “single-speed rear wheel” - that’s what it’s got. None of your six squillion gears that allow fat blokes to get to the end of the street without collapsing.
Naturally, at £795 a pop, I’ve not set eyes on this elegantly-dressed marvel myself. But, as I was thinking of getting a bike, and as I hate to offend strangers by refusing gifts, I’d happily please any benefactor by test-riding The Guv’nor from its Warwickshire home to the depths of Hackney.
Sharing, of course, the mishaps and good fortune I encounter along the way…
Published on 7th May, 2008
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