Jill Hughes writes of her longing for a Triumph Pink Witch bike (Letters, 11 November). In 1975, my family moved house, and I needed a bike for school. Dad bought one via the local paper small ads – a secondhand Pink Witch, 1958 vintage, one careful past owner. I’m sorry to say that I didn’t love it: it was heavy, and I cringed at the girly colours and the kitsch badge (a witch’s hat and broomstick). I named it Rosencrantz, for the pink, and learned to appreciate its reliability and its hub dynamo lights.
After my A-levels, Dad gave it a makeover, painting it a more androgynous dark blue. In 1979, I took this old friend to university, where it was stolen – but then found thanks to the university’s system of numbering student bikes.
I remember it fondly now, and enjoyed the thrill of recognition when I first read Edna O’Brien’s The Country Girls, where the dashing Baba rides a brand new Pink Witch. Jackie Collins featured in Triumph’s first ads for the Pink Witch: “Smart bike for smart girls”.
Alison Cawley
North Petherton, Somerset
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