I love a good old vintage bicycle. There is something about the simplicity of them that I adore, no variety of colour as such, no fancy expensive components to replace and more or less every one is just a slight variation of the same design.

This probably sounds quite dull considering the wealth of different bikes we have to choose from today, but to me the “vintage bike proper” takes me back to a time of refinement, when the bicycle was king in the world of transport.

Look about you – most modern city bikes still conform to the same geometry, men’s diamond frames, and women’s loop/step through. Some 100 years later we are still riding around on much the same bikes, albeit perhaps with a few more gears.

Even my day-to-day bicycle is a Dutch bike that has been in production for decades, probably back to the turn of the century. It is a strong workhorse and has never let me down. I do also have some “real” vintage bicycles but they are only allowed out on a nice sunny day now.

It’s not that they can’t bear the elements, it just feels as if I have to carry on preserving them as to me they represent a little bit of history. Some of them may have been mass produced and can still be seen chugging around the Oxford student digs but, unlike my carefully restored and often polished exhibits, those poor souls are one wheel’s turn from the junk pile.

And that is the attraction – preservation. I have always loved museums, artefacts, junk shops and flea markets. I find it hard to make an attachment to most modern things but feel more at home with something with a history, something broken in, something carefully made and most certainly something without a “made in guess where” stamp on the bottom. You may never again see them in production – great bike manufacturers such as Phillips, Sun, Hercules and more either disappeared after the 1950s or got eaten up by the mass buyout by Raleigh in the 1960s. My father’s favourite “Carlton” suffered the same fate, but he is carefully building a museum of his own so we don’t forget them.

If you find a “vintage” for sale in good nick you might want to snap them up as they may be a one-of-a-kind in another 50 years. I recently watched an episode of Call The Midwife as a good friend had worked on the episode. At the beginning, 30 vintage bicycles and their riders storm through the East End streets on their way to work. The bikes and riders had been sourced from a vintage bicycle owners club, not without trouble mind you; the prop guys spent some time finding them.

I heard there were worries they would never be found but, luckily for the Beeb, there are other crazy old fashioned fools like me out there.

Finally, I’ll let you into the secret of buying a “vintage bike proper”. Once found, inspect it hard – ideally you want it in original condition, preferably with original components and paintwork. This is no mean task and not for the faint hearted but once found I bet you will cherish it. It may even become priceless one day.