DICK Reason gave villagers plenty to laugh about when he swapped his bike for a motorbike.

He invited a friend to his home in Bletchingdon, near Bicester, to teach him how to ride it, but got impatient and decided to teach himself, with amusing results.

His grandson, Bob, writes: “One day, he was working on the machine after which he attempted to start up the motor.

“It proved to be difficult and he was getting a little fed up with it.

“Finally, when it did start up, he must have put it into gear – it suddenly took off down the road, throwing him off.

“The bike went down the road on its own, only to stop when it stalled on the village green.

“An aunt had been looking out of the window at the time and saw the bike go past the window.

“She told her mother that she had just seen her father’s motorbike go by, all on its own, without father.

“Mother doubted her sanity, but had to concede when the aunt pointed out that father was at one end of the village sat on his bottom at the side of the road, while the bike was now in the middle of the village green with the exhaust still smoking.

“Clearly the villagers must have thought they had a huge source of fun here.

“On another occasion, he was riding his bike round the village green, apparently doing fine except he noticed that while engine revs were increasing, road speed was declining.

“It was a real puzzle. Why did this happen? No-one could say, especially as he finally came to a halt with the engine still doing about 50mph and he had to push the bike back to the group of spectators.

“All the family were standing around trying to fathom out what was wrong when the local postman came up, handed him a chain and said: ‘I think this must be yours.’ ”

The amusement had started as soon as the Reason family arrived in Oxfordshire from their native Wales, to seek work at the Morris Motors’ car factory.

Before getting a motorbike, Dick rode a pushbike nine miles from Bletchingdon to Cowley and back every working day.

Grandson Bob recalls: “This was tough going at the best of times, but winter brought additional aggravation.

“The bike chain froze overnight. However, he got over that by emptying the teapot over it, and I guess it was fine for a while.

“Hampton Poyle hill introduced a new hazard in that he would freewheel down it and then attempt to pedal again.

“But the chain had frozen again during the descent and locked solid, and he was sent flying over the handlebars.”

Bob, of Camborne, in Cornwall, tells me: “I’m told the locals are still laughing at what they saw.”