The Lovely Ms Cooper

And so my lovely Cooper Oporto arrived. My gorgeous new bike. I rushed home from work to sign for it and immediately unpacked it in the living room.

Oh the bliss, it was beautiful. A lightweight ivory frame pristine in its loveliness with shiny chrome mudguards, a black leather Brooks seat and black and chrome leather handlebar grips. It was the bike equivalent of my beloved Mini Cooper. It was stunning.

In a city where a car is unnecessary, the bike becomes the car. This was the Ferrari of Old Lady bikes. This was bike porn.

I went for my first ride. I felt a little wobbly at first as the frame felt so slender compared to the Duchess. The handlebars were much more narrow and the gears (five of them) were inside the back wheel. 

I changed gears, up the hill, I changed gears, down the hill. Along the canal to London Fields and back through Islington. 

The poor purple Duchess, she’s the old lady dressed in a tweed suit wearing lady brogues while the lovely Oporto is Bridget Bardot in a bikini on the Riviera. There’s just no comparison and so the old Duchess has been relegated to the balcony while the lovely Ms Cooper takes pride of place in the living room.

Never to be out of sight as she’ll be stolen immediately, a high maintenance bike indeed!