Confidential's Travels

During the summer break Confidential Rick eventually stopped sobbing over events at the Valley and took himself off with his lady-friend to explore some of the more wierd and wonderful traits of this country including an antique motor-bike rally and a steam fair with traction engines and our friend in the picture, Mr Hudspith, who has invented the steam bicycle.

He's seen here riding the machine in full steam. He originally had the extraordinary and unlikely vision of a steam bicycle back in the 1970s but then spent the next ten years learning about engineering, welding and brazing etc. because he had no formal training. Eventually in the 1980s the bike started to take shape and after years of development and continual changes and improvements he now has the only Hudspith Steam Bicycle in existence and rides it at steam rallies all over Europe. Apparently he's very big in Germany and Denmark so draw your own conclusions.....

Mr Hudspith is British to the core. This traditional, slightly eccentric British inventor of yesteryear has made an intricate,beautifully designed and built machine - even if Health & Safety would no doubt have a seizure with it's calibrated fuel mixtures of petrol and paraffin - and while the rest of us sit in our sat-naved motorised euro-boxes , he's out there steaming and whistling along with his own personal achievement. He's also invented a Steam Gramophone ! (not sure if it takes CDs though).