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LOVED BY EVERYONE from Michael Collins to your granny, the High Nelly bike was a fixture on the Irish roads up until just a few decades ago.
With the advent of mass-produced motorised transport, the bicycle fell out of favour, but there are still thousands of trusty High Nelly bikes thought to be in sheds and attics around the country.
This week, President Barack Obama could become the owner of the very first High Nelly manufactured in Ireland in recent times – and the very first Irish-made bike in 40 years.
The bike is being sent to the American President as an unofficial gift by a Co Limerick company, Goeco.
High Nelly
If you’re wondering how this could be the first Irish-manufactured bike in four decades, Marty Mannering of Goeco, the company behind the resurgence of the High Nelly, explained that Raleigh closed down in 1976.
Goeco stepped into the void by accident. Eight years ago, they were manufacturing devices that could be put on ordinary bikes to make them electric, when they were visited by a man who wanted to turn his High Nelly electric.
The difficulty in sourcing replacement parts for the bike, coupled with the realisation that lots of other Irish people must have the bikes at home in need of refurbishment, set the company off in a new direction.
Now, it supplies parts for High Nelly bikes to 14 countries online through its website HighNelly.ie, and also manufactures its own new High Nellys.
Tomorrow, Mannering’s son Paul will travel to Atlanta to launch the bike at a special event
He will bring the very first High Nelly bike that Goeco produced – with the frame number 001 – which will be gifted to President Barack Obama. The bike is being sent to him in connection with Moneygall, Obama’s ancestral home.
We made [Obama] aware that his great, great grandfather was a cobbler and this was what he got around on.
History
Mannering and Goeco believe that “nobody had ever historically documented anything to do with the bike in Ireland”, so the company created its own history exhibition, which travels around schools.
The War of Independence was fought on bikes. You even had the Catholic Church trying to stop the use of bikes.
Today, there are 11 High Nelly clubs around Ireland, with 3,500 members in total. What’s the secret to the High Nelly’s success?
“It’s not the bike, it’s the stories attached to them,” said Mannering.
We’ve all got parents and grandparents [who had one]. Every single person in the country has those stories. It’s not particularly the bike. It just so happens it’s coincidental that its the bike – everyone needed it, not as a toy but as a survival mode of transport.
The chassis of the bike “just lasts forever and ever”, so all that is needed is the replacement parts. Many owners have quite the connection to their High Nelly, bikes, said Manning.
“We’ve people leaving in tears when they leave the old bikes behind… we have them in tears when they pick them up refurbished. The bikes themselves are something special, but the stories are even more special.”
There’s even a bike waiting to be refurbished that was used by a runner for Padraig Pearse in the Easter Rising. Now that’s some history. Who knows what could be lying in your garden shed?
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Brilliant! The best of luck to the Nelly Bike business!
Hipsters everywhere have all just collectively wet their drainpipes with excitement….
I dunno, the fact that us plebs are talking a about it may mean it’s too mainstream already. They’re probably waiting for the penny farthing to make a comeback.
Or rubbing their eyes in wonder through their lens-less frames.
I can’t help getting the urge to engage in great violence against the pretend glasses brigade!
Just what Mr Obama needs a right hand drive bike from Ireland.
The best thing about the High Nelly is the wide and well sprung saddle. It’s not one of those razor blades modern bikes use.
Fantastic success story! The saddles were more like the seats found on old tractors/farm machines, super comfortable and both weatherproof and bulletproof!
And it looks so good..
Nice bike shame about the price €1000.00 you would need a start in Rehab.
I bet
On your bike Obama !!
It’s Raleigh not Rally!
The pictures are taken at Pa Mc Graths and O’Neill’s Pub in Boher
Great spots :)
Great to see irish made bikes. Can they include a carrier, mudguards, chain guards, lights and a stand as well like the Dutch ones do? This makes them suitable for regular daily use.
‘the very first Irish-made bike in 40 years’ ?> don’t think so!
‘Woodelo Performance Wooden Bicycles’ made in Carlow from Irish ash have been around since 2010.
The following is taken from their website at http://woodelo.ie/business/
“So for example my current (one and only frame!) Leaf Speed. The Ash comes from Lisnavagh in county the Carlow and the aluminium parts were prototyped by a local tool maker (John Brennan) but produced in Czech Republic. Of course the the frame was designed assembled and laboured over by me (Liam), the final piece of the jigsaw is of course finishing, which is done by out of my workshop by Will.”
..made in Tipperary (as stated on their facebook page)
“The gross and net result of it is that people who spent most of their natural lives riding iron bicycles over the rocky roadsteads of this parish get their personalities mixed up with the personalities of their bicycle as a result of the interchanging of the atoms of each of them and you would be surprised at the number of people in these parts who are nearly half people and half bicycles…when a man lets things go so far that he is more than half a bicycle, you will not see him so much because he spends a lot of his time leaning with one elbow on walls or standing propped by one foot at kerbstones.”
― Flann O’Brien, The Third Policeman
I dunno – I don’t think it’s just the history. People have been trying for years to come up with the ultimate utility bike, but the High Nelly is hard to dislodge. Even in the Netherlands. Shared bike schemes have spent a fortune designing city bikes, and the end result is probably closer to a High Nelly than anything else. It’s just good design with staying power.
That man shouldn’t be drinking Guinness and cycling…
He only had the one……which is what many motorists see as acceptable.
Personally I never drink anything and drive…or for that matter cycle
A pint of coke is ok
Id have a line Or two but a pint is outta the question! Your nose would fall off…
He should be taking pills and flying…
Now I know I’m old.
The first thing I thought was “sure there’s no mud guards you’d get drowned “!
Are they really made in Ireland or just put together here?
I tried to gift something to president Clinton in Belfast years ago, a handcrafted Irish Desk for his library. The ammount of red tape I had to jump for the white house to accept it was unreal. US Embassey had given ok, Clintons team had given ok but ultimately rested with the White House staff who declined it.
In the end was given to the Clinton museum in little rock.
Now lets get Irelands once off motor car back into production too.
Obama will cycle it once a year. St. Patrick’s Day for the cameras.
Oh, and just before the election for whoever is running for the Democrats.
Where’s Declan with the negative spin? Ah, there you are, my little ray of sunshine.
There are some lovely classic bicycles available today, there are even models made in Italy which are fitted with rod brakes. The best have the German 14-speed internally geared hub, hub brakes & dynamo, and a sprung Brooks leather saddle. These bikes are far more suitable for round the town use than the impractical and uncomfortable racing bikes so many chose. It sure is difficult to understand why people buy an inferior tool for the job; it must be fashion!
Hi Joe – do you have any brand names or links? Cheers.
Bicycles very like this are not oddities in the Netherlands and Denmark, they are the sort of thing people use everyday. A bicycle that is comfortable, practical and fully equipped with lights, mudguards and carriers. It seems to be mostly in the English speaking world that using bicycle seems to be confined to some kind of sporting activity with specialist clothing and equipments. This High Nelly or Omafiets/Opafiets (NL) is a convenient transport appliance to be used in everyday clothing to easily complete short urban journies at a relaxed pace. Just like our grandparents or great grandparents used to do before the car became the only solution considered for personal transport.
In fairness Kevin – the Latins don’t even go near the bike – mopeds are king. Be grateful for our lycra-clad ranks!
Great weather for a bit of biking this week. Whatever your chosen steed.
That’s not true. The first high nelly in 40 years maybe but mountain bikes were built in Ireland up until the mid-late 1990s. I had a mountain bike in the late 90s early 2000′s (can’t remember the make) and it said Made in Ireland on it.
I bought a high nelly in 2009 best bike I ever got, it’s fun, comfortable and easy to cycle, just about the quickest way to do those short journeys around town.
Hey gift me a high nelly Obama can afford his own ;(
Over a grand for the 5 speed version. Sweet Jesus.
The High Nelly was a fixture (in addition to the motor car) on many Irish country roads until more recently than “a few decades ago”, Aoife Barry!
I’m glad they are starting to manufacture them again, as the height of this bike allows people a good vantage point to view the beautiful Irish countryside as one is going along.
John, keep your eyes on the road. Too many potholes, joggers, walkers, hedges!!! Worst fall I ever got was off my mother’s High Nelly. And the chain…oh the chain…. oily black hands. Delightful memory.
and f***ing pint in hand – no wonder theres is problem with “culture of drinking” in Ireland
Good news.
I didn’t see a link to this companies web site. I wonder where exactly they are
There’s a link after the first picture
Simpler and cheaper (Pashley, Guv’nor) but still great to see some irish bike building.
He looks like tony Fenton
Beware of repeating press releases: the first Irish bike in 40 years, for example. Nationwide featured another one a few weeks ago!
How come the lord mayor of Dublin did not ride one of these at the San Jose Bike Party? Perhaps next year for sure! http://www.sjbikeparty.org/2014/03/02/2nd-annual-dublin-ireland-mayors-ride/
Nice to see this company doing well. Best of luck to em.
I honestly can’t see Obama going for a cycle though. Will Goeco also be supplying bikes for the bodyguards too? :)
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