My first bikes

downfader

Following on from the thraed about what got you into cycling it made me think of what my first bikes were.

They were in no way anything like the Marin, or the Kona Jake I picked up today, they were a lot more simple and dead cheap.

The first was a single speed white bmx when I was 8. This thing was amazing. We used to make the usual ramps on the estate and do little jumps. I even had a matching white helmet and face guard.

I grew out of that soon and by about 12-13 I wanted a new bike. Money was tight and my parents saved to get me a Raleigh Scorpion. I think it was 15 or 21 speed, frame was really solid and it lasted years. I rode it until I was in my 20s and my mother decided to give it to my uncle. :roll:

Anyway, what was your first "steed"? And was your mother as cruel?

unclemalc

My first bicycle was a maroon Raleigh 'sit-up-and-beg', with a Sturmey-Archer 3 speed.
I used to do my own version of SCR on it where I pretended I was a fighter pilot 'bouncing' other cyclists.... hey - I was only a kid.
I used it on paper rounds, long rides out of Pompey into the countryside, to work during school holidays, everything. After one spill too many I painted the name "The Clutching Hand" on it (It was a nickname given to a type of old aeroplane that like to kill its pilots by crashing often...).

I kept that bike going all through college, even after leaving it out all winter in the garden at my digs in the first year. I had to virtually empty a tin of 3-in-1 into the drum over a week to free the gears.

I refitted it with new bits, bars and brakes and continued to use it into post-college life here in wonderful Wolver'ampton, where I eventually killed it going over a pothole. I threw it into a council skip at the local dump.
:shock:
Never could stand that colour....

Crapaud

downfader wrote:

... Anyway, what was your first "steed"? And was your mother as cruel?

My first ride was on my cousin's Beaver.*

It was a second hand, single speed, BSA girl's bike. Unfortunately, it was at that sensitive age *cough* puberty *cough* when everyone was becoming aware of the differences between the sexes and putting labels to all of these 'new' body-parts, and thus my Beaver was the cause of much hilarity. Comments such as:

"He's got a beaver!" "He's gone on his beaver." "He's riding his cousin's beaver." etc.**

...were commonplace. It's a wonder I didn't take up ballet dancing to avoid the embarrassment.

I've no idea if my mother was directly responsible for this travesty, but if anyone can come up with a worse first bike for a growing lad, I'll send them a packet of Cadbury's Mini-rolls.

*Page 8, no. 240.(because I know you'd want proof of its existance)

**You know the sketch. You're probably making your own up by now - see if I care.