Tea-time stories!

Pip Higham Tuner, engineer, rider

- Pip Higham

Dust’a want a brew lad? That’s‘want’ with an ‘a’ not an ‘o’ mind.

This was one of the most oft heard bellows at VBS towers back in the day. (For those of you youngsters out there who never encountered ‘VBS’, that stood for Village Bike Shop, a poor attempt at a humorous moniker for my tooning business which stuck like chain lube to a Levi’s leg; after a while it just had to stay.)

We made a lot of tea back then, it always helped to maintain spirits at times of duress. And I have to say we experienced plenty of those. Mike and Brian, my two long-suffering side-kicks, were amazing at stuff I simply couldn’t do, Mike was, and still is, a meticulous engine builder with standards that could not be faulted. He took his tea big with about five sugars, but don’t stir it up, he don’t like it sweet.