This information is on display in the Moving by Bike section of Places Gallery
Private transport has never been cheap and even today is regarded as a luxury. While cars may have still been out of many people's range to buy, other forms of motor vehicles such as mopeds were more easily affordable, especially if they were second hand.
In 1974, the Beddoes family in Bristol bought a second-hand Raleigh Ultramatic moped for their teenage children to use. Their daughter, Sally was the first to use it for riding to piano lessons in Muller Road. Her journeys there were usually event-free, but when returning home the bike inevitably broke down, leaving Sally "pedalling past Horfield Common and all the way home" to Coldharbour Road. Going down hill was fine, but as soon as Sally went up hill the engine cut out.
Later, the moped was passed on to Sally's brother Philip, who discovered that the source of her frequent breakdowns was a nail in the petrol tank. He rode it for a year, on paper rounds and to school, at all times going at top speed. He said "Occasionally the speed even approached 30mph when going down Falcondale Hill". Philip later graduated to ever-larger motorbikes, and the moped was passed to the next son in the family.