Joe Brunetti
I first learned to cycle when I was 12 years old, mainly on the road into the railway goods yard and on a cycle that belonged to the father of my friend Frank Reid. We would fall off, and the left-hand crank would get bent, and his father would get the job of straightening it! I would be 12 years old at this time, and I pestered and pestered my father to get me a cycle. He got the frame from a scrapyard in Johnstone and I remember he painted it green and it had North Road handlebars and a backpedalling brake.
I would cycle through all the countryside on it and at that age would be about 16. I had what you would call an upright cycle with rod brakes and one-and-a-half-inch tyres. Round about that time me and my friend Frank Reid heard that two youths in Bridge of Weir were selling Raleigh Sports Cycles so we went and purchased them. On the way back to Kilbarchan, we rode our own cycles and held the Raleigh cycles in one hand. All went well until coming down Steeple Brae when I lost control and finished up in the gutter!
At that time we would cycle to Lochwinnoch, Kilbirnie and Beith almost every night in the week. In March 1935 we heard that the Johnstone Wheelers were holding a 10-mile race for unattached cyclists so we entered and I was second with a time of 30 minutes 15 seconds. The winner was a cyclist from Linwood who beat me by 20 seconds. My friend did not finish. I then joined Johnstone Wheelers. At that time the Wheelers Clubhouse was an empty house at the Thorne Brae in Johnstone where the new fire station now stands.
(Joe is on the left in this photograph, with Dougie Strachan.)
I then began to attend the Club runs on Sundays and many a pleasant time I had. I also started to take part in time trials from 10 miles to 100 miles, but I also enjoyed touring. My summer holidays were spent cycling and several times I and some of my clubmates would cycle in the Highlands of Scotland and sometimes we would cycle to Colwyn Bay in Wales.
When I was in my 30s, twice I took my cycle to Italy when I visited my wife's mother. She lived in a town called Barga which was situated on such a hill you could start off and did not need to pedal for about 15 minutes. I used to cycle in the morning to reach Luccha which was about 17 miles away.
One day I cycled to Pisa which would be about 30 miles from Barga. One day I cycled to Viaragio and I encountered the first roundabout in Italy. I was halfway round when a motorcycle ran into me. My back wheel was buckled, but there was a petrol station beside the roundabout and the attendant, who had been a prisoner of war in Britain and could speak English sent for the brother of the motorcyclist who also could speak English, and they took the cycle and got it repaired and insisted they pay for the repair. My leg was slightly grazed and the petrol attendant rubbed my leg with some petrol and I cycled back to Barga.
 (Left to right, the photograph shows Dougie Strachan, Joe, Willie McCulloch and Geordie McNeil.)
No-one could write about Johnstone Wheelers without mentioning Wattie Buchanan, one of the founder members. Johnstone Wheelers were founded in 1926 and Wattie was the Secretary and Treasurer for many years. I remember when Johnstone Wheelers started the Junior section; at the drum-ups, Wattie was kept busy sorting the punctures in the Juniors' wheels. It was also impressed on the members that you left the drum-up the same as you found it, and many a time I watched Wattie burying empty cans which had been used by the Wheelers.
When I joined the Wheelers, Wattie had a tandem and a sidecar attached to it and two of his children would be inside the car and one on the seat and one on the crossbar and this was how he would bring the family with him, together with his wife Teen.
Wattie had been a vegetarian since his youth. He first became vegetarian when he worked as a cabin boy in a railway signal box at the foot of Miller Street in Johnstone and he had to pass a slaughterhouse every day. One day he went into the slaughterhouse to see how they killed the animals - and became vegetarian for the rest of his life.
Later in life, he emigrated to New Zealand where he died in 1999, aged 96.
Wattie never forgot his native Scotland and he and his wife's ashes are spread on Gleniffer Braes.
There were two rivals in the racing section, Alfie Gordon and John Davies, and their racing abilities were about equal. There was one fatal accident in the Club when Frank Lauder was killed. He had just started a 10-mile time trial at the Bird in Hand Hotel, when he collided with a milk lorry which had come out of the road from the quarry. This happened in 1934.
We had quite a number of characters in the Club. I remember the time Willie Johnstone cycled to Carlisle and back in one day. There was Jim Barr who had a cycle shop in Johnstone for many years. At a drum-up he always cooked his potatoes and sometimes he would be the last to leave the drum-up. He was Wattie's wife's brother; he emigrated to New Zealand and Wattie's 3 three sons followed them not long after, and then Wattie and Teen followed them a few years later.
The Club used to go to the Cumnock Rally which was an annual event for cyclists. One year in the tent of the members who had stayed from Saturday - most of the events were on the Sunday - two had artificial legs! One was Jerry Boyd who won a number of the swimming events, the other was Jimmy Maxwell, he lost his leg in the desert war at El Alamein.
One popular member was Gavin Rough (Pictured right). He was Racing Secretary for many years. He was called up for the Navy during the war and was posted to the aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable as a telegraphic air gunner. One day on a mission, the engine of the plane he was on failed. With the other two crew he got into their dingy and floated until they came to an island. It was 180 miles from where they had had to abandon their aeroplane. The island had been occupied by French people as there was a house on it and there was a calendar in French. There was a donkey and hens also there. Gavin could eat the raw eggs but the other two could not.
They were there for some days. They had marked in the sand an SOS. One day a plane flew over and it saw the SOS and it waggled its wings to let them know it had seen the sign. Next day, a ship came and rescued them. His hair never grew again and for about a year after he was reported missing he would dream he was in a plane and coming down in the Mediterranean and him in the others had been drowned.
There was another popular member in the Club, Tom Freeman, from Linwood. He was in the Navy also and was killed on the 9th June when the Allies crossed the Channel to drive the Germans out of France. Jimmy Andrews was another member killed in the war.
There were many amusing incidents on Club runs. One year the Club were touring the Highlands, and at the drum-up one of the female members was going to cook tapioca. She put the whole packet in the pot, not knowing you only used a small amount. It started to overflow and almost all the Club had tapioca that day!
Another long-serving member was Larry McDonald and his tandem partner Onie O'Neill. Larry was the Chairman at committee and general meetings. He was given a medal for his services in First Aid and assisting in ambulance services. His wife is still living and will be 92 years old this year.
Pat Higgins was a very prominent member. When the wooden Clubhouse was in very bad condition it was decided to build a brick Clubhouse and Pat, being a bricklayer, took on the job to build it, assisted by Andy Tait and many other Club members.
There were many members with most unusual ideas. One member whom I shall not name was going to invent a bicycle which you took out of your pocket and blew it up with a pump. One of the other members said to him "would you make the spokes out of valve tubing?"
There were two brothers from Paisley who rode a tandem. At the drum-up, their main meal was brown bread and dates and this had to be measured exactly so that one did not get more than the other. At drum-ups myself and some others of the younger members would get any sandwiches etc which were surplus and we were nicknamed "The Wolves"! George Todd was another prominent member along with John Dickson. They were joiners and did any joinery work which had to be done to the Clubhouse.
Wattie was also a DIY enthusiast. One day John Davies broke one of the blades in the front forks, so Wattie took the branch of a hawthorn bush and shaped it to fit into the two broken parts. John Davies ran about on his bicycle for several days before he got a new pair of forks.
Before the Second World War the Club runs would be attended by about 50 members and you can imagine the space they took up on the road. If they did that nowadays, it would cause a diplomatic incident.
One weekend the Club run was to Inverary and some of the members decided to leave at 10 pm and cycle throughout the night. We set off and at Inverbeg decided we would rest for a time. We tried to rest under some upturned boats on the banks of Loch Lomond but midges made us leave. It was daylight when we got to Arrochar. We cycled on to the Rest And Be Thankful at 7 am.
 There were two members in the tandem, Stewart Houston on the front and Tam Freeman at the back. It was pointed out to them that the tyre on the front wheel of the tandem was unsafe. On the other side of the road to Inverary was a long incline and the tandem disappeared in the distance. As we approached the new road at Cairndow we saw the tandem lying in the grass verge and the riders walking down the field towards the hotel on the old road. We stopped to find out what had happened, it seems that the front tyre had blown out and they lost control. They were both injured and the women hotel-owner sent for a doctor from Strachur. While we were waiting for the doctor, Albert Johnston, one of our companions who was fond of alcohol at a very young age and had been nicknamed "Screwtop", asked the hotel owner for two whiskies. His luck was out - it was a Temperance Hotel!
The doctor arrived with a local policeman and the Club received an account from the doctor for five shillings and some pence and I believe that the receipt is still in the Club memoirs. There is also a photograph of Tom Freeman and his injured hand in the Club Album. (The puir wee souls Tam and Stewart make a sorry-looking pair!) John Lewis was a Club member with a motor car and was sent for and took the two injured members home while the rest of us continued to the drum-up spot at Inverary.
There was an Irishman Paddy Lawler, one Sunday who was the Club captain. He was taking the Club to Tilletudlum Castle. He took us a very roundabout route to the castle and after that it was called the Paddy Lawler detour. When we got to the castle it seemed that on a Sunday it was not open to the public. One of my workmates, Tommy McAvoy, from Howwood, was courting the castle-keeper's daughter. When I told the keeper we were from Johnstone and one of our members worked beside Tommy McAvoy, he let us see through the castle. My workmate Tommy was also there.
 One of our members became a professional racing cyclist, namely Brian Smith. He rode in the Tour of Italy for racing team Motorola. There is a competition for the fastest cyclist over 50 miles, 100 miles and 12 hours. The cyclist who does the fastest 50 miles and also the fastest 100 miles and the greatest number of miles in 12 hours wins the competition, called BAR - best all-rounder. Only one Scotsman has won this title and the year he won it a Johnstone Wheeler helped them. This member Duncan Baxter was riding in the same event and as the other competitor passed Duncan Baxter he punctured. Duncan gave him his cycle and he rode his fastest 50 mile ride which gave him the title of the winner of the BAR. No other Scottish cyclist has ever won this title.
Joe, our oldest Life Member, caught on camera during a recent visit he paid in 2003 to the Clubrooms of the Cycling Club he joined in 1935.
Another amusing incident took place at one of the Club's confined 30-mile races. Just after John Davies had started, he removed his dentures and threw them beside a telegraph pole. When the race was finished, he could not remember which telegraph pole he had selected. George Holmes, one of the Club comedians, said "tie a string to a crust and trail it along the grass and the teeth will come out to the crust!"
When some of the Club members were going touring for their annual holidays they would sometimes race the drivers of lorries going to England. There was a long uphill drag outside Lanark where the lorries would be travelling slowly and it was a favourite place to get a lift. I remember one year as some lorries were returning from Colwyn Bay, we got a lift all the way from Kendal to Johnstone, 144 miles. The lorry was going to Kilbarchan paper mills.
Before the Second World War some policemen would set out to catch cyclists with no front light. There was a policeman in Howwood who was notorious for catching cyclist without lights. He would hide behind the last tree coming out of Howwood and if you did not stop he would knock you off your cycle with his cape. In those days you do not need a rear light, all you needed was a reflector.
In the spring of the year 2001 I had to give up cycling owing to balance problems. It was a great disappointment to me as I had cycled for 72 years from 12 years old until I was 84 years old.
| Joe Brunetti
Johnstone Wheeler
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The above is the story in his own words of one of our earliest members on the beginnings of his cycling life and the beginnings, too, of your Cycling Club. If you know of any like information concerning the Club, please get in touch.
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