What bikes have you owned

biondino

1. Small blue bike. Was very fond of it but no absolutely nothing about it.

2. Grifter! It was brilliant. Full stop.

3. My memory is a bit confused here. I am sure I had a bike post-grifter but god knows what it might have been.

4. Motobecane 10-speed (I think) racing bike. I painted the saddle pink, but didn't realise it was water-soluble paint... I have absolutely no idea what happened to this bike. Perhaps I traded it in when I got number 5?

5. Holdsworth 10-speed, which is still in my shed. Must have had it 20 years now. Nice bike, even if it did almost cripple me when the freehub failed.

6. Trek 1200. Bought in 2005 when I decided to up my cycling. Was thinking of getting a steel tourer and then had a test ride on a Trek 1000. Couldn't go back.

7. Focus Cayo Expert 2008. A luxury - I'm never going to race - but it's lovely. I love riding it. It's even got a few upgrades now.

8. Bob Jackson Vigorelli fixed wheel. Not actually yet bought but am leaning towards going for it

tardington

Biondino

1) Was it perhaps a Raleigh Bluebird? Shiny navy-ish blue. It may have had stabilisers? My famuly had one (four of us learned to cycle on it) it finally died because we used it as a bmx bike!

2) I was 'given' a girls Raleigh Amber after that. Thanks mum and dad!

tardington

You know, when I think about it, it was fixed wheel! I was SO ahead of the game!

The Chingford Skinhead

I suppose "real bikes" rules out the light blue trike with massive integrated bucket at the back

Can't recall any other kids bikes but did have some. As a teen had an assortment of frankenstein flat bar bikes made from hand me down bikes or from dumps :oops: including the odd Raleigh

My personal favourite at about 15 was getting my brother's Raleigh Arena 10 speed racer. Loved that bike. I handed it down again when I went off to do a degree

Then the bikeless wilderness years

Then a second hand Raleigh Pioneer City bike - a real pig iron express. It was too big, was made of scaffold poles so weighed a ton and the brakes may have given me a stopping distance of 100m

Ridgeback Velocity hybrid - which I still have and love. It's seen some abuse but takes it all

Ribble Winter Trainer - but doesn't have space for mudguards so not much of a :!: winter bikie! Only had a few months and it's about to see some action. I got it as part of my mid-life crisis in a hollow attempt to replace the void left by the memory of that Raleigh Arena

nicklouse

The Chingford Skinhead wrote:

My personal favourite at about 15 was getting my brother's Raleigh Arena 10 speed racer. Loved that bike. I handed it down again when I went off to do a degree

I had one of those in the early '80's
it ended up with cyclo cross knobbly tyres and Cow Horn bars and got very muddy and jumped:

The Chingford Skinhead

nicklouse wrote:

The Chingford Skinhead wrote:

My personal favourite at about 15 was getting my brother's Raleigh Arena 10 speed racer. Loved that bike. I handed it down again when I went off to do a degree

I had one of those in the early '80's
it ended up with cyclo cross knobbly tyres and Cow Horn bars and got very muddy and jumped:

Mine was early 80's too. Good god, cow horn bars - I had a frankenstein bike with monster cowhorn bars - I'd completely forgot. Thanks for flooding that memory back - it wa a complete b :!: :?: er to steer

I should have added that the ribble was a hand me down as well from a mate at work The Velocity is my only bought new bike - but I'm having another go at getting my employer to see sense and go for cycle to work so....fingers crossed

greg66_tri_v2.0

So no one had a Raleigh Chopper? Wow.

In my day they were the biz, although you had to be one of the "edgy" kids with slightly undesireable parents who had slightly undesireable values to be on one.

By the time I was old enough to have even the remotest of chances (none in truth), I was happily on my racer.

I did want a Chipper though.

iain_j

1. Raleigh Budgie. Still to this day my favourite bike.

2. Something orange. Did countless miles around the block.

3. Something yellow, except for around the head-tube where the chain lock chipped away all the paint. Did countless miles around the park and back and some 5-mile expeditions.

4. British Eagle Tundra. Silver (or grey). Countless miles to university and back, and too many miles through the middle of nowhere. I'm lucky I always made it back in one piece.

5. Giant OCR4 (2003). First "expensive" bike - got it discounted at the end of the 2003 to replace the British Eagle which had served me admirably. Many many hundreds and thousands of miles of touring and commuting. Still waiting for me to put it back together following a bump last summer.

6. Claud Butler Dalesman (2007). Bought with compo money following an earlier bump on the Giant - the bike was fine, I took all the impact. Saved it "for best" for a long time, for touring, then drafted it in for commuting when the Giant was taken out of action last year. Needs some TLC now.

2tired2ride

1) 16" wheel blue bike
2) 20" wheel white MTB
3) 24" wheel Raleigh MTB with front sus
4) Dimondback skindog BMX
5) Blue 26" MTB with front sus
6) Fuji Track bike
7) Giant Acid 2 MTB
8) Mission reefer 26" trials bike
9) United recruite BMX
10)Boardman Team hybrid 08
11)Boardman Team road 09
12)Puch Touring bike (1970's ish??)

Jamey

When I was a kid, I had a red and yellow Raleigh burner, like this:



After that, my first geared bike was a cheap-as-chips Probike hybridy-style thing and then a big gap until I decided to start commuting by bike. The first commuter was a Specialized Crossroads hybrid which has now been donated to a mate to encourage him to commute by bike too.

Current bike is a Specialized Tricross Sport Triple 2008 and I love it.

TopSpin

I had various bikes that I have no memory of till I was about 11 and got what would now be a townie hybrid type. Think it was a Townsend.

Then briefly in college had some no name bike that a fellow student gave me for nothing & I used for about 4 months.

Nothing then for a good while till one bank holiday when the weather was nice I bought a Giant Boulder mountain bike on a whim. Used that for a few months till I left the country so it went in storage. Briefly used it again a few years later. Then 2007 started commuting on it. Finally it got stolen a few weeks ago.

Overlapping I got the Specialized Dolce Comp road bike. First and only racing type bike. Still have it, use it mainly at weekends.

Few weeks ago I got a Giant Bowery to use for commuting.

If I had the room would like to add another mountain bike or perhaps the Tricross and maybe a carbon fibre road bike.

e999sam

Raleigh Olympus
Viking tandem
Armstrong Moth
Paramount
Claud Butler Track bike
Mercian
Peugeot
Raleigh track bike
Peugeot vitus 979
Olympic cycles track bike
Raleigh 531c
Raleigh 531c
Raleigh 531c
Holdsworth
Raleigh mountain bike
Ribble Audax
Kuota Kebel
Casati.

Lots of Raleigh's because I lived in Nottingham.

homercles

OK, casting my mind back...

1) Raleigh Small Rider (purple) - started with stablisers, progressed, had my most serious crash (to date, touchwood) on this not long after (hurtling down the hill that led to the back of our house)

2) Raleigh Stryker (black) - seem to recall that this eventually died as a result of a game called 'Stuntman' where we would ride our bikes towards objects, drops, etc and then jump off at the last second. The bike died on one such.

3) Raleigh Grifter (metallic red) - my Grandad found it secondhand and it replaced the dead Stryker. Someone had picked all the foam pads apart so was very scruffy.

4) Falcon 'BMX Cruiser' with 24" wheels (chrome) - main memory of this is of racing around Putney Common, coming off and smacking my teeth on the floor, breaking one (for the second time)

5) Unspecified American 'ATB' (white with grey 'smoke' effect) - that's ATB rather than MTB. It was crap, weighed about 3 tons and the forks broke one day (completely out of nowhere) while riding along a flat road.

6) Marin Palisades Trail (1991, classic grey zolatone with neon yellow forks) - my first serious bike, loved it with all my heart. Stolen from outside Holdsworths bike shop in Putney after 32 days. Gutted.

7) Marin Eldridge Grade (1992, black zolatone with red forks) - loved this possibly even more than the Palisades. Stolen after 9 days. Even more gutted.

8 ) Fusion 0150 (1992, purple) - bought on the cheap from a shop that was shutting down. Nice enough bike but was never a Marin, hence never really that bothered about it. My one and only Suntour gruppo. I left it locked up on the bike rack at my old flat when I moved - might even still be there!

9) Marin Nail Trail SE (2005, see signature) - Love this, need to get out on it more really but I'm all about the road these days.

10) Condor Italia (2008, see signature) - my first roadie, a loyal servant and day-to-day steed for my 24 mile round trip commute. C2W too so a snip at around £650 in total!

Up next: a Spec Tricross Singlecross (2009) - the poor old Italia is getting hammered by the commute and needs some protection.

Cunobelin

I still have my Raleigh Wayfarer from the late 60's along with others including my first Saracen TuffTrax, and the first Recumbent I bought in 1978.

It is simply a case of I cannot bear to get rid of them, all the bikes (and trikes) have a history and still work perfectly fo their roles. For instance you cannot beat a Pashley Delibike for shopping!

Edited ... and the Wayfarer gets a review in this month's mag!

DiggingDeeper

DDD I thought this thread had no potential, but having to cast my mind back has been very enjoyable.....................:

A turgid list of bikes follows with some comment about a few: (I really was an SCR boy even in them days!"

[Greenhorn days]

[1] Green trike with single front brake on a rod - 2 wheeled coners...wooooooowww, used to commute to playgroup on that puppy! up prestbury hill
[2] Sister's hand me down red/yellow pixie bike, solid tyres and a solider saddle :shock:
scraped knee, but that baby got me on 2 wheels

[Wearing longer trouser days]

[3]Raleigh Chipper - the small version of a Tommahawk, which was the small version of a Chopper. Used to commute to woodworking class on wednesday evening 3 miles across town age 9 - local bigger lad took me (2 years up in school) who was bored sh1tless waiting for me.
[4] Raleigh Hustler - 3 speed sturmey archer racer [Big League]. 1st night with new shiney bike, arrived on Wed evening at aforementioned bigger boy's house to go woodwroking : the Geezer couldn't keep up. We agreed to go seperately after that but didn't tell our parents.

Oh Yes...................scalped big style (all that spinning on the chipper.....massive)

[Shaving days and beyond]

[5] Strange bendy cross bar Dawes single speed ugly machine. God knows where my parents got this from. Several years commuting to school up the 1 in 4 hill. I must have been fit cos I bet I couldn't do it know.

[6] 10 speed Peugeot racer - 6th form & college
[7] Hybrid passed onto brother - make ???????
[8] 2nd hand 10 speed racer given onto boss
[9] Gary Fisher MTB - still got - hard tail, did the Alps on that one (just)
[10] Xtra cheap MTB off Ebay - donated to brother (just rubbish)
[11] Hybrid - part commuter - some Harrow affair never seen anyone else riding one
[12] Trek 5200 Carbon racer
[13] Ribble winter trainer - the current commuter

Gregg66 - I didn't have a Chopper but I was the driver of one. The council built our neighbourhood a local city park thing and the triangular path was used by us kids to race our bikes on. Me and my mate took on all comers on his chopper. I rode and he fended the attackers off from the back. Fast tight corners 2 up on a chopper made for some interesting handling :shock: It was fun but the bike was sh1t.

[Next]

Quintana Roo with drop bars not that noncy aero stuff..........................

stuaff

Hmmm....
1.Some red thing when I was about eight. No idea what make it was.
2. A Peugeot something or other after that...age of 12 or so. Touring/town styled thing, looked a bit dull, rode nice though. Silver, three speed I think.
3. There was some kind of racer after that, until I grew into no.4/got it off my father who kept using it. I think it was black, memory hazy about it.
4. An electric blue Peugeot racer, had that till 2000 or so. Went like stink, braked, er, badly, rock-hard ride and downtube shifters. Stopped riding for a few years (went to uni, never brought it, for one thing), had it serviced to do my commute..then it got uneconomic to fix.
5. Cheap-but-decent hybrid. Did about 7k miles on that in seven years, nearly all commuting, moved on to 7 (it needed ££££ servicing, didn't cost that in the first place).
6. '04 Dahon Jetstream XP, late '07. The little beauty that reawakened the joy of cycling for pleasure and exhaustion. Leisure mileage has since gone from zero to 20-40 a week (which will increase). Also introduced a never-ending stream of bike bits shopping (SRAM DualDrive, Ergon grips, computer, SPDs..), servicing (as opposed to repairs!)...and ridiculously frequent chain drops (shortly to be terminated, hopefully).
7. '04 Dahon Cadenza, mid '08. New(ish) commute bike & deputy weekend rocket ship.

cjcp

Raleigh Striker

A BMX - American AMF or something or other - possibly the first bike I ever upgraded by putting Mag wheels and mushroom grips on it

Acquired my father's Hampton (?) Lightning road bike when I was about 15 - 10 spd - huge deal for me that

Raleigh Ascender - a hybrid - served me through Uni and a two week tour around Belgium and Holland.

Specialized Rockhopper (hardtail) - first commuting bike. Bought it while the good wife was on holiday so it would be too late to object by the time she was back. Took it for an 18 mile weekend ride when I bought it. Which felt like 100 miles at the time.

Tifosi CK4 - first road I bought myself. Loved it.

Scott CR1 Pro - great bike.

An 7005 "Shimano" decal-ed frame. Took the decals off because they were a nasty orange colour and been meaning to build it up for around two years. :? This year, this year...

Unbranded 7005 alu frame I built up for commuting. Bought it after the frame above, but somehow managed to build this up first. Think it was because this is for a 1 1/8" steerer and I saw a great deal on Reynolds forks, so the frame was bought so I could ride the forks.

mtb.boy

1) Bluebird (Blue)
2) Black heap of steel borrowed from my neighbor - (had to pedal it backwards to brake)
3) Raleigh Burner (Silver)
4) Falcon Fat Trax MTB (Black with splatters of luminous green)
5) Raleigh Road bike (gift from friend)
6) Trek 3900 (white and grey)
7) Dave Mirra 540 BMX (Dary Grey)
8) Kona Kula Supreme, custom (White and Mint Green)

Favorite - Raleigh Burner

Bassjunkieuk

My earliest cycling memories are still vividly burned into my memory..........

The first 2 or 3 bikes I (and my brother) had where lovely folders from Hell-fords........the polar opposite of cool and purchased on the misguided belief that having a bike that can fold *might* encourage my parents to take them in the car when we go to parks. It never really happened. Queue lots of pi$$ taking, name calling etc. This still didn't stop me trying to take mine "off-road" which was usually along the grassy verge when out with my dad as he walked the family dog :-)

My first "proper" MTB was one of those lovely £99.99, fluorescent orange Apollo Kaos bikes........I thought it was the bees-knees at the time, 10 gears and a top tube! This was a HUGE upgrade over the previous run of folders!

Unfortunately that bike was stolen by some local to$$pot so it got replaced with a slightly better Apollo MTB, this time with 15 gears :-) I spent many hours riding around the neighbour hood on this bike, regularly clocking up 10 miles a day on it when I had it over one of the summer holidays when I was about 11 or 12, around the same time that I got into athletics and I also believe what helped build up my leg muscles :-) That bike took even more abuse over the following years as me and my high school mate tried to learn how to do tricks, so I spent many hours throwing it down stairs and trying to wheelie and do endo's at the local skaters hang out (by the Fairfiled Halls in Croydon!)

It all went a bit quiet for a few years and then I got a Apollo Abyss MTB after writing off my car and not being able to afford to get myself on the wife's car insurance. As she could drive the bike was just a commuter. This one ended up being exhanged after the BB fell apart (my awesome power!) and Halfords couldn't shift it after having it in for 6 weeks! Got the next year version which was just as sh!te but is still going.........just!

I then bagged a Raleigh road bike off of Freecycle from a lovely gent over in Greenwich (who also donated a couple of kids bikes when the wife arrived with them in tow to collect it!). This was my first road bike and was used as my commuter when I started working up in town. After the first few rides I was sold on the whole drop-bars and higher gear ratios. It was used for commuting duties for about 9 months and even the London Bikeathon! The guy from Evans referred to it as a "classic" when I got them to check the brakes at the tent at the end :-) Was eventually replaced as I could justify that a newer bike would be safer and more reliable to the wife. Still have it in the shed and hope to cannibalise it for a winter SS at some point!

I'm currently on my beloved Giant SCR 3.0. My first expensive bike and I'm utterly loving it :-) It's already seen it's fair share of upgrades and new bits and bobs including BB, cassette, chain and wheelset! I'm sure it's going to see even more money lavished on it until I find a way to finance a new bike, at which point it will turn into my winter bike!

I'd say this is my favourite bike so far, narrowly beating the Raleigh roadie it replaced as it just feels so much better and runs a lot nicer!

marchant

1) Raleigh Chopper-style bike (Chipper?)
2) My brother's racer (anonymous manufacturer, was blue though :? )

3) The motorbike years

4) Raleigh Aztec (currently having the slowest singlespeed conversion in history)
5) Saracen Tufftrax
6) GT Aggressor 3.0 (RIP )
7) GT Zum (08 edition with carbon forks)

Colzer1

1) Raleigh Burner BMX
2) Raleigh Chopper
3) Raleigh Team Banana Road bike
3) Ammoco Road bike
4) Raleigh Maverick MTB
5) Kone Fire Mountain (1990)
6) Marin Rocky Ridge (one of the first produced)
7) Trek 1400 road bike
8) Trek 8000 MTB
9) Daewoo MTB (for commuting which is now a single speed)
10) Diamond Back Carbon fibre hardtail (1997)
11) Diamond Back full suspension (1998)
12) Specialized Rock hopper pro disc (current bike)
13) GT BMX
14) unbranded steel single speed road bike (my commuting steed)
15) Pace RC 303 hardtail (current bike)
16) Barracuda hard core hardtail

Colzer1

1) Raleigh Burner BMX
2) Raleigh Chopper
3) Raleigh Team Banana Road bike
3) Ammoco Road bike
4) Raleigh Maverick MTB
5) Kone Fire Mountain (1990)
6) Marin Palisade trail
7) Marin Rocky Ridge (one of the first produced)
8) GT BMX
9) Trek 1400 road bike
10) Trek 8000 MTB
11) Daewoo MTB (for commuting which is now a single speed)
12) Diamond Back Carbon fibre hardtail (1997)
13) Diamond Back full suspension (1998)
14) Barracuda hard core hardtail
15) Specialized Rock hopper pro disc (current bike)
16) unbranded steel single speed road bike (my commuting steed)
17) Pace RC 303 hardtail (current bike)

owenlars

1 A small Triang bike which was red with with very small wheels and bulbous tyres looked a bit like one of those mini motorbikes (this was in 1959!) and it hung about in the garage at my parents until about 1990 and was used by my kids and my sister's kids
2 A blue Raleigh with 24" wheels and those funny wire brakes you see on Indian bikes (About 1960)
3 A Sun Mist 26" with 5 speed derailleur and flat bars (parents thought drops were bad for you) 1965-78
4 My first road bike! a Peugot with 5 speed at at the back but two chainrings and...drop handlebars (I had it from 1978ish till about 1988 when I part exchanged it for another Peugot road bike)
5 Peugot road bike which I can't really remember until 1998 when I part exchanged it for a Dawes Galaxy
6 Aforementioned Galaxy which I still use for bad weather commuting and training rides
7 Thorm Audax Mk3 bought in 2007
8 Enigma Eclipse bought in July 2008

prawny

1. Fixed gear Bobcat solid rubber tyres - the brakes worked with 1 front block pressing down onto the top of the tyre! :shock:

2. White bmx with cheqered flag pattern tube and bar pads - I thought I was the don until my cousin came up from london and did some endo's on it

3. Peugeot 3 speed racer - little wheels for kiddies ( i was about 8) it was great proper fast, It was all about gears when I was a kid and people couldn't believe I could beat an 18 sp MTB on a 3 sp.

4. Fist MTB pile of cack from makro - no name my 'rents picked the size so I was 9-10 on a 19" frame 26" wheels hmmm I never grew into that one.

5. Raleigh team edition MTB - 21" fram (come on!) unsurprisingly had a big crash on that one broker collarbone 5 stiches in one elbow glued chin, concussion - no helmet (didn;t die tho hmm)

6. GT Outpost - Yes! First proper MTB the right size and everything loved that bike until the year after when...

7. GT Tequesta - Made me a tart it was metallic royal blue with yellow decals so had to buy; Yellow grips, pedals, DCD,crud guards, brake pads etc etc. Loved that bike, only sold it at christmas because it had been abused for so long it would have cost a fortune to fix.

8. Saracen Dirttrax Disc - My current MTB, it's a bit on a lump cant afford to replace it tho so it's going on a diet this year and I'll replace the frame last. It handles ok but a bit crashy over the bumps.

9. Boardman Road Comp - First proper roadie, bought because of you lot! love it though haven't had much chance to ride it with illness weather and now the front shifter is broken and hellfords don't keep stock! Booo! :evil:

I think the tequesta was my fave, I think i'm going steel again with my next MTB unless I can afford FS hmmmm.

fnb1

what bikes,

well my first was a 20 inch wheeled thing that I cannot remember much about except that is was white and that it handled better after I snapped the frame jumping it and my Dad had it welded back together (albeit a couple of inches shorter, after that,

26 inch wheeled Elswick tourer looking thing,

Carlton Criterium

1983 Flying Scott 531sl (one of the very last built by D Rattray of Alexandra Parade for those in the know) Track bike, custom spec by me and handbuilt to order, still have her and in regular use. A true collectors item.

1984 Joe Waugh 531c road bike, Royce Chain set (still on its orginal sealed cartidge BB), Suntour Superb Pro gears, Mavic hubs and CX18 rims, with a spare set of GP4s also on Mavic Hubs, again still in regular use.

After that a bit of a gap till M-Trax Ti mountain bike circa 1996. still in regular use.

thenGiant OCR, circa 2002 (now my winter steed)

and last but not least Focus Cayo Pro, from last year.

that covers about 35 years of cycling, 8 bikes, 5 of them in regular use and near orginal condition/equipment if not on them at least availble to restore them to orginal specs (with a little patina of age of course for my older ladies)