How Robert Penn found himself the perfect two-wheeler

I picked my dream bike up at the local dump, and went at it with a wrench and salvaged parts until it worked.
It will never, _ever_ be stolen, and if necessary I can throw it in a ditch and pick it up a week or two later.

Bikes should function. Everything else is just snobbery.
But the history sounds interesting.

No need to take the fun out of appreciating a beautiful bike. I ride an old beater bike that I bought for 50 bucks from an acquaintance and have repaired from there. I love my ride. She gets the job done and I don't worry too much about her getting stolen (though I ALWAYS lock; I don't want to walk home). I'm now thinking of fixing her up to be a little more aesthetic so when I ride to a business appointment in work clothes it doesn't look like quite so incongruous. But love of my beater is no reason not to celebrate beauty and excellence in craftsmanship.

It's a pity Robert Penn was too busy jetting off around the world building his very expensive bike to get his facts straight. The pneumatic tyre was not invented by Dunlop but another Scotsman called Robert Thomson from Stonehaven near Aberdeen. His invention, patented in France came some 40 years before Dunlop revised it.