Fiddy's tales of the unexpected

oh god then the time we went to Brighton. we decided to head out on a day trip so got up at 7am, washed, pissed around with bikes, had a drink, smoke, pissed around some more.

left the house at 11...

Fiddy wanted to take me a direct route. one without hills he tells me. so off we go through the shit hole that is the south and before i know it we are in the middle of the A23. my ass has never clenched that seat harder. i even feel sorry for Clive after going through that!

The road surface is shocking and cars pass at 70 feet away.. we get there in good time and Paul comments on the lack of hills! we hit the beach and put away about 3 pints of Guiness, catch up with GP and head off to find Fish and Chips.
Now Paul always liked Salt on his food, but as he gave the shaker a shake the top shifted covering his fish. at this point i wasn't sure if he did it on purpose or just wanted to prep for the ride back.
He polishes the lot off and on the last mouthful looks at me with a smile and says "that's my salt intake for the week taken care of".
by this time it starts to get dark, and the rain comes in. so Fiddy and i take it in turns keeping the pace on the return leg.. again up the A23..

We have a bit of momentum and i start to recognise some signs, but by this point i had to pull up and check out the hedgerows.. guiness!
Before i realise Fiddy has a full head of steam up and has gone sailing by and not stopped. I chased him down for nearly 10 minutes, shouting at the top of voice, before i managed to get him to pull onto the hard shoulder of the M23

We then decided the best way was back, so full speed up the wrong way of the slip road by bewbush and hope for the best. a few close calls and a tricky roundabout at the top but we made it. i was 3 hours late for a date and Paul slept most of the next day

Could that have been the day that Des and I recced the Brighton ride in February? We were on the phone to maxl from the top of Ditchling Beacon and he said the two of you had just left town.

Sat atop some hill between here and Brighton, at some godforsaken hour, the group taking a break to rest and refuel. Fiddy, away from the group, sat on a kerb, enjoying a tab. Dropout says something to the effect of 'now there's a man at ease with the world', and I remember thinking, but not admitting, 'I want to be that at ease with the world too!', and it's a moment I still recall whenever I'm getting all highly-strung.

The very one Oliver.. we never did meet up. Fiddy left without any numbers

Dunno if its been mentioned but I heard tell of Paul doing the London-Brighton a few years back. He decided this would be an ideal time to try riding 'brakeless' for the first time. Needless to say on the runout into Brighton he spun out of control, stacked in a dramatic style and took some other people out along with himself. Stupid and reckless, but hilarious non the less. Looking at the other stories this reflects his nature perfectly and made me smile.

Always made me laugh that he came into the shop countless times, but i never saw the same bike more than once.

Real friendly geezer, you dont meet many 60 somethings who could get on with 20 year olds so naturally.

He will be missed at Putney Cycles for sure!

Dunno if its been mentioned but I heard tell of Paul doing the London-Brighton a few years back. He decided this would be an ideal time to try riding 'brakeless' for the first time. Needless to say on the runout into Brighton he spun out of control, stacked in a dramatic style and took some other people out along with himself. Stupid and reckless, but hilarious non the less. Looking at the other stories this reflects his nature perfectly and made me smile.

Always made me laugh that he came into the shop countless times, but i never saw the same bike more than once.

Real friendly geezer, you dont meet many 60 somethings who could get on with 20 year olds so naturally.

He will be missed at Putney Cycles for sure!

Thats where Paul got the tag 50/14 as that was the gearing on the bike.

i have been laughing so hard reading these stories that my neighbor asked what's up.
Fiddy, priceless.

The rest of the ride was full of those great moments where you are just resting enjoying the veiw, wondering if you should wait or not, when in the distant you would see the shakey odd shaped outline you could recognise a mile away
The penultimate stop was a small school, by the time we got there they had ran out of cake and tea and the water wasn't up to much so we had to make a call on heading for the finish or wait for Paul.. there was a cut off.
and again this jean clad fixed gear rider (long hilly ride, had to be jeans and fixed) turns up. We hurry him through the gate to the station to get his card stamped and wait for him to get out. by this point he looks tired so looks up and says "alright, alright whats the rush, i just need a few minutes"

"NO worries, take it man you have done well" etc etc we reply

we give him about 90 seconds to roll his ciggie and lift it to his lips and we all jump on our bikes "Lets roll"

all we can hear in the back ground is the crack of a lighter and a grumbled "For Fucks Sake!"

The determined sod got on his bike and got over the last climbs before the deadline.. he was passing people on fully geared bikes half his age, and they were all asking where his brakes were. he just smiled and raised his eye brows

That was an awesome day.

It was the Good Friday meet at Herne Hill, I don't remember when - a couple of years ago I guess, and there was a good forum contingent there, doing as forum contingents do best: drinking beer, neglecting to watch the cycling, and drinking beer. Fun was being had. All of a sudden, Emilie comes back from somewhere (getting a beer?) and launches into an exitable tirade about how he's just seen the crazy old guy who rode to Brighton brakeless-fixed-on-50-14-crashed-on-ditchling-beacon-what-a-cunt and would you believe it but the guy is here! So, off stride Emilie and John Ma3K to 'have a chat' (my paraphrasing) with this geezer and ask him what the hell he was doing that time some months/years ago when he crashed into Emilie and Seb, due, no doubt to his peculiar gear choice, on said fateful ride to the town where pride lives. We were a bit concerned about the outcome of this 'chat' - Object & Ma3k not being, shall we say, the least volatile forum-enegers.

It was a little tense while we sat there in the beautiful sunshine and waited for the outcome of this situation. I remember talking to I think hael and aiden, wondering what the ending was going to be. It felt like it was going to kick off; Em and Ma3k had gone very purposefully to get some straight answers (no, I have no idea what answers might have been sought).

And then, suddenly, they were back, chattering away - the guy was amazing and charming, his name is Paul, he's massively into bikes, he's got a insert pedigree bike here with insert bling and insert bling just at home, you have to meet him, he's done this and such-and-such, we're going to arrange a ride...such a turnaround as we now know, could only have been persuaded by that fiddy charm. And soon after, he was dragged over to us over, melting into the situation, beer and smiles all around. Object championing him to anyone who said 'but isn't that the guy who....?' Calm returned.

Once I'd reintroduced myself to Paul and explained what had happened, particularly the permanent damage to my knee the first words he said were, "I'm sorry, can I buy you a drink?".

^ :d

[SIZE=2]In 2008 I went to visit Paul in hospital in Whitechapel with Jacqui. We turned up and expected the old scrote to be bed bound as he had smashed up his face and split his liver in 2 in his most recent crash.
We got to the ward and wandered around, trying to find the legendary 50/14 but there was no sign of him.
The nurses informed us that Paul had just gone for a fag break and he should be back soon. We waited for 15 minutes reading his bike porn and eating his grapes. As there was still no sign of him we asked where the smoking place in the hospital was. There were a couple so we went downstairs and checked them out, twice. Still no sign of Paul and he was not in his bed when we went back upstairs. We left a note along the lines of "you useless fucker, we come in to see you and you have disappeared, probably with a nurse in a linen cupboard".
A couple of weeks later Paul was let loose again and I saw him at the sloaney pony. He said he had found my note but that he had popped out of the hospital for a drink. Typical of Paul, he had left the ward only dressed in his hospital gown tied up at the back (so his saggy arse cheeks were probably on view to all and sundry) and spent 2 or 3 hours in the pub with Jay.
I still shudder to think that his liver had been split less than a week before and he wa already back in the pub!
When Paul went into hospital in December it was clear that things were not good. We had been chatting about our state of health for six months or so - we had bonded over our nearly synchronised arse operations. He was very clear that he only wanted to go public about his condition when he had an accurate picture as to what was going on, so for 10 days it was kept hidden from most people.
Of course once we announced what was going on I kept receiving very distraught phonecalls from people asking about him, visiting etc. The thing was Paul remained so upbeat throughout, and typical of the man he would do anything to make others at ease and comfortable. He was very clear that he would never ride a bike again but when people came in and made proposals for rides when he got out of hospital he would smile and go along with them (while winking at those of us who knew better). Paul was very clear that he had in his own words "I have led a selfish life, done everything i wanted to when I wanted to do it" he was not frightened or worried and the peace and tranquility he had was passed on to all his visitors. I had been quite concerned as to the effect of weeping visitors on Paul, but actually he was the one who counselled his guests and they all left him with the sense of peace that he had about him.
Pauls conduct in the face of grave illness and death was incredible, he never let it get to him and even when he was in immense pain he would still say he was fine and feeling better every day.
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object, should that not read "I am so shorry"

thanks for that post james, someone very close to me has just been diagnosed with a similar cancer and we know the next few months are going to be very difficult. it is great to hear that it is possible for people to remain themselves throughout such adversity.

Just a short tale, last summer Paul joined a few of us for a ride down to Brighton, my first with the legend. During a swift break at a petrol station in Redhill, just after Pigfarmer had found a discarded postie's bag, we were looking around for Paul so that we can set off again. Moments later he is spotted ambling across the forecourt past the pumps smoking away at the ever present rollup, when we pointed out his proximity to the pumps whilst holding a lit cigarette he just presented us with the beaming smile.

All the chances I had to take a photo of Fiddy and his beaming smile the only one I can find is the one of his left ear ;p

and murtle grinning like a fool...

This thread makes me grin like murts up there^^

I haven't been out and about doing forum things that much recently but when I've been able to venture out in this new year it's been hard for thoughts not to drift to the old boy.

As much as I'll miss him, knowing this thread is here, recollecting some fond memories and hearing some new ones that make me smile and say 'that was the Paul I knew' mean it's a joyous experience to celebrate the old scrotes life.

Thanks for sharing guys and thanks to Paul having a life well lived and worth talking about.

There are plenty of photos of murtle grinning like a fool, but only one of Fiddy's left ear.

listening to Syd Barret this morning and 'Bikes' started playing - made me smile and reminded me of the old goat

Love that song and was pleased to hear it at Paul's service.. My mum used to sing it to me as a child

Just doing a bit of housekeeping on our cycling club website - clearing out members that haven't been active for a while

Can't bring meself to delete the old goats account

A timely bump.

Thought of the old scrote last night at the norths birthday.

Remembered the first time I properly met him, he turned up there to buy a frame from me. Casually left his litespeed unlocked, and out of site around the corner, had a couple of pints, slung the frame around his neck, then hooned it off back to West London.

You were missed last night.

Minky was wearing a cap last night. As it was Paul's it could be nothing other than stylish

minky was wearing a cap last night. As it was paul's it could be nothing other than stylish on anyone but pigfarmer.

ftfy.

Couldnt remember who I'd had the brief chat about Fiddy with lastnight... guessing it was you Cake and Jon(?)

Real shame he couldn't be there, but nice to see his Moser still getting some action

Minky was wearing a cap last night. As it was Paul's it could be nothing other than stylish

I brought the cap up for Pigfarmer! As I gave it to fiddy for his birthday a while ago and seeing he isn't with us any longer it seemed a fitting tribute to the old scroat being present.