PEDERSEN bicycle fanatics gathered in Dursley to celebrate the great bikes.

Some 32 Pedersen riders converged in Dursley supported by family and friends.

The Veteran-Cycle Club in action rode and displayed their Pedersen machines around the town of Dursley. 

Many of these strange machines would have been built in this town so it is fitting that the Veteran-Cycle Club should visit and pay homage to their inventor, Mikael Pedersen.

Penny Cossburn of the Veteran-Cycle Club said: "We were warmly welcomed in the marketplace by the residents of Dursley.

"Members of the Veteran-Cycle Club were riding not only Pedersen machines made around 120 years ago in Dursley but also more modern ones built in various parts of Europe.

"Kingshill Creative Centre did us proud, making the weekend a memorable one"

Mikael Pedersen was born at Morbjerb near Roskilde in Denmark around 1860.

A farmer by upbringing, his inventive talents soon made an appearance, for a relative stated that while he was still young he invented a cream separator, the first in Denmark, and a thrashing machine with which he travelled around the local village thrashing farmers’ corn.

Another invention while still in Denmark was the bicycle upon which his fame rests.

When and why he came to England is something of a mystery but by 1893 he was to settle in Dursley. There are several statements to the effect that Pedersen came to Dursley to interest R A Lister & Co in his agricultural inventions.