Your very first bicycle...

[Ypedal]

Do you remember your very first bicycle

I remember my ol'red, dark red, banana seat, 20" wheels.. coaster brake, chrome handlebars.. either CCM or Supercycle ( i need to call mom and see if it's still in the old grandparents barn or not... )

You remember yours ?

 

[knightmb]

Mine was a red "Murray" bike when they were still in business. 20" wheels and reverse pedal brakes. Those were the days, when the bike was solid steel and could jump off the side of the house with causing it any damage. I remember the fond times of trying jumps that were way to high and actually hitting my head on those safety pads on the front handle bars or falling off and the pad on the bottom bar saved my, err, reproductive areas, from damage.

Yes, those were the days....

 

[fechter]

Do you remember your very first bicycle

I remember my ol'red, dark red, banana seat, 20" wheels.. coaster brake, chrome handlebars.. either CCM or Supercycle ( i need to call mom and see if it's still in the old grandparents barn or not... )

You remember yours ?

I had a dark red single speed Schwinn with 20" wheels. I remember installing the banana seat and high rise handlebars myself. It had a Goodyear "grasshopper" slick rear tire.

I also remember taking apart the coaster brake and cleaning the parts with gasoline, regreasing it and putting it all back together (with all the little loose ball bearings).

Those bike really were nearly indestructable.

 

[Reid Welch]

I'm about to turn fifty three.
The first bike -of my very own- was a Huffy that my dad brought home
from the local police auction of stolen unclaimed bikes.
That was 1963. It cost $10 in a year that offered him thin wages.

The bike was sound; the paint was faded.

The best part was, we went that day to the hobby shop
to choose a paint to renew the bike.
We settled on 4oz spray cans of Testors Candy Apple Red.

I helped with the masking. That paint job was spectacular.
I've been partial to candy apple ever since.

The bike served great for two years till it was left outside
unattended; stolen--again.

I wonder now who got it next? I really ought to attend police auctions;
perhaps to find my bike again (jk). I'd know it by the color: ruby,
unique in all the world.

I miss the bike.

I miss Dad much more.

 

[xyster]

For my 7th birthday I received a new, purple, 1978 Schwinn boys single-speed coaster-brake bike. I installed a mechanical speedo/odo, a horn, and a headlight. That bike and I shared many great times and adventures before I quit riding it around 10 years old or so. I wish now I had kept up with bicycling. Though I biked occasionally between then and now, it wasn't until 25 years later that I rediscovered the joy of bicycling by way of these forums and my interest in EV's.

 

[Reid Welch]

Got a picture of that bike? If not, maybe on the net.
Nice story.

How about your first bike rides?

I remember mine, and how!

To retell properly I really ought to go back to the scene
and take some pictures. Thought I was gonna dieeeee.

 

[xyster]

Got a picture of that bike? If not, maybe on the net.

A cursory search revealed nada. Probably one of my parental units has slides of it -- you recall that photo presentation substrate we used pre-Powerpoint? :lol:

Nice story.
How about your first bike rides?

I'd have to spend some time fishing through my long-term memory module to reel-in a good one.

 

[Reid Welch]

I cannot possibly forget my first ride.
It was the first true terror ever met and dealt with.

Have made my little nostalgia essay into a pome.
Zee it at der pottery panel. Or not.

Ahflaschindernose

 

[swbluto]

I wish I could remember mine. Not considering my Three-wheels when I was a wee lad, I remember it being a small coaster-bike(Without gears! OMG). Don't remember much more than that. That was around 5(Which was officially around 16 years ago ).

 

[Link]

I certainly don't. Oldest bike I remember was a crap something-or-other from the thrift store. The parts were so rusty and jacked up you couldn't do past about 20mph.

I've had my S-40 for a few years now, and I consider it my first "real" bike. :wink:

 

[marvingalaxy]

My first had training wheels and solid tires. Now that I think of it, that is a bit odd. My first real bike was a metallic flake purple one-speed with a metallic purple banana seat. It may have been a Murray. Next was a red 10-speed that I believe was from AMF. I still own a blue metallic flake gitane 12-speed that served me well for many years until I stopped riding about 10 years ago. I now have a big-box store generic aluminum MTB with full suspension and front disk brakes that hopefully will get a battery and controller to go along with my x5304. If it goes anything like my previous bikes I'll own it for about 20 years and it will get lots of new parts. I've already replaced the seat and seat post. I'm too tall to fit average bikes comfortably so I needed a new post and got a gel seat to reduce future visits to the urologist and proctologist. In 20 years I'll be old enough to probably want an electric trike but hopefully batteries will be good enough to smoke tires so I won't feel old.

 

[snowcrow]

Mine was a red "Murray" bike when they were still in business. 20" wheels and reverse pedal brakes. Those were the days, when the bike was solid steel and could jump off the side of the house with causing it any damage. I remember the fond times of trying jumps that were way to high and actually hitting my head on those safety pads on the front handle bars or falling off and the pad on the bottom bar saved my, err, reproductive areas, from damage.

Yes, those were the days....

Mine was a red & white "Murray" also, from the 60's. That bike weighed a ton !! Got it for 8th or 9th birthday I think ? I washed & waxed it as if it were a car. Being from a family of 8 kids, a new bike was a very rare thing!

All the guys I hung around with would go hang out at Hill St., otherwise known as "The Bleeding Tar", for the large number of road rash victims it claimed each year

Every weekend we would get together and raced down that hill, jamming on the reverse pedal brakes, to see who could make the longest skid mark

The loser, usaully the guy with some skin missing, would buy the nickel pop's for everyone at the end of afternoon.

Yes, those were the days.... now just a memory :|

Blessings, Snow Crow

 

[mvadventure]

Somewhere in our family archives is a picture of my Dad teaching me to ride my first bike, a 26" something or other from a pawn shop. This is an old picture, I was 6 which makes it almost 60 years ago and also means I have no idea of what brand it was. Bike riding wasn't much fun because I was simply too small or the bike was too big but we kept that bike 'till I grew into it. Many followed after that including one from Western Auto that I would have to replace front wheel bearings in every month as the weight of 120 newspapers would wear them rapidly. When the newspaper job ended I bought a "English Racer". This was a skinny tired three speed bike with rim brakes that would go fast but was far too fragile. Money saved bought a very fancy slightly used Schwinn with front suspension, a tank, full fenders, built in headlight and a horn. Less than three weeks after buying it was stolen from my front porch and I still miss it.

When I was a little parents were glad kids had bikes because bikes were transportation, rain or shine, snow or sleet. My Mother didn't drive and my Dad worked for the Army and was gone a lot. If I wanted to go anywhere it was on my bike and a 40 mile ride on a single speed coaster brake bike was virtually nothing. Even today people comment on the size of my calf muscles and ask if I lift weights or played professional football. They are simply the result of riding bikes as a kid and working hard as an adult but riding bikes is what started it all.

Pedaling however gets old and the thrill of my first motorcycle which went fast and had no pedals is maintained by my ebike many, many years later.

Mike

 

[Drunkskunk]

My first was an Evil Kenivel bike. Got to love the 70's It was red white and blue, and the coolest thing ever.

 

[dogman dan]

My first bike was a schwinn 24" . Paper route money bought a banana seat and apehangers for it. But the memorable bike was in middle school. Some french name I never heard of before or since. Can't remember the brand now. It had aluminum frame, ten speeds, and 28" , yup, 28" wheels. I spent the summer of 72 riding that thing all over Santa Fe New Mexico, before it got ruined. Santa Fe that is. Got to riding it towards the ski area daily after a noontime chickwatch at the plaza. When I returned to Las Cruces in the fall my Gym teacher wanted to know WTF I'd been doing all summer. That bike turned me from a pud to a stud in three months.

 

[wakataka]

I"m sure I must have had a smaller bike with training wheels to start with, but the first bike I remember was my Western Flyer. It was similar to this one, with a built in headlight and a really cool "gas tank" thing on the top bar.

It was nearly indestructable and probably weighed almost as much as I did at the time. I remember my friends dog ran out in front of me once when we were racing down the street. The bike did an endo on concrete. I was a bloody mess but the dog and the bike were pretty much unscathed.

After handing this bike down to my younger brother, I saved birthday and paper route money for a year or two and bought a brand new, electric blue, Schwinn Stingray with a 3 speed Strummey-Archer rear hub and "hand brakes". I was so proud of that bike and the wheelies I could do on it. It was stolen once while my friend and I were playing in the bottom of a creek some distance away. We saw the thieves riding away on our bikes but we were too far away to get to them. My faithful dog Muggs somehow figured out what was happening and disappeared over the creek bank in pursuit. When we topped the bank, we saw one bike lying on the ground with the thief hobbling off across the school yard, and Muggs in hot pursuit of the other bike thief still on my bike. She caught up with him and began biting his ankles. He dropped the bike and ran off into the woods. Muggs was the smartest dog I've ever known.

 

[dogman dan]

Good dog! :lol: