US President Biden gifts UK PM Johnson custom-made bike
It was made by a small Philadelphia firm that was given just a few days to build a red, white and blue bike that normally takes months to construct.
US President Joe Biden has given UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson a hand-built bicycle at their first meeting as G7 leaders in south-west England.
It was made by a small Philadelphia firm that was given just a few days to build a red, white and blue bike that normally takes months to construct, reports the BBC.
Johnson has often been spotted cycling around London.
His own gift to Biden was a framed picture of a mural showing the US anti-slavery campaigner Frederick Douglass.
The image of the former slave, who became a leading figure in the 19th-Century abolitionist movement, is part of Edinburgh's mural trail. Biden met the prime minister at the start of the G7 summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall on Friday.
The bike gifted by the US president was made by Bilenky Cycle Works, a business with a staff of four who usually take up to 18 months to make a machine.
The owner, Stephen Bilenky, was contacted by the US state department on 23 May about designing the bike and a matching helmet, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
It says the budget was just $1,500, a third of the minimum price the firm charges.
Bilenky told the newspaper that he had accepted the order to raise the firm's profile and that "controlled chaos" followed.