Short History, or: How I became a Gear Head

All the above efforts might have been inspired by pondering the dangers of cycling from early on. The picture shows what appears to be a trike on its side, and my brother howling. I am head-down in the grass behind:

My first failed engineering feat seems to have been an attempt to improve the stability of my brother's trike:

This mechanical talent inevitably led to an involvement with cars. When I was 16 my older brother and I acquired our first one, a 1948 Chevrolet (shown here loaded with surfboards):

The Chev. gave way to a more modest 1952 Ford Anglia. By now both my brother and I were serious Piston Heads. Here is my brother next to the "Puddle Jumper" as we called this one (taken somewhere in the 1960's):

Ford Anglia

The unfortunate Puddle Jumper suffered a heart transplantation, and ended up as a wolf in sheep's clothing with a 5.8l Chrysler V8 engine stuffed under the bonnet:

Then in 1974, amidst the world energy crisis and with oil prices sky-rocketing, our hotrodding fortunes plummeted. The hotrod was sold. We had had the foresight to fit a huge fuel tank which occupied most of the space behind the seat, but could no longer afford to fill it...

However, Mr. Piston Head did not take long to re-discover the delights of messing around with bicycles. No more pistons, but spokes, pedals and chains. The blessed realm of the Gear Head.

Amen