When did you learn and what have you ridden??

shouldbeinbed · October 2009

4-5 on a red and white Universal, next a purple puch, a blue & gold whirlwind -my first one with drop bars and gears, a grifter, a couple of raleigh tourer types, then sadly as a student a BSO when my tourer got nicked. Since then a couple of roadies until I couldnt do drop anymore, a birdy red, a birdy blue ,2 x claud butler legends -one stripped down, re-geared and made into a nippy flat bar and the latest addition is a cannondale street ultra (sick of deraillures).

the Claud Butler is in bits in the shed and the blue birdy is having a well earned rest ready for a major bout of TLC and new bits after christmas is out of the way. and I'm complying with the b2w regs by riding the cannondale pretty much exclusively at the mo.

geoff_ss · November 2009

I had what was then called a Fairy cycle (wouldn't get away with that these days!) which my dad painted as new bikes were unobtainable during and just after the war. Then, when dad remarried after my mother died my new step mother bought me a Philips bike (rod brakes etc) - I would have been about 7.

I eventually got a Norman 'racing' bike with a 3 speed hub gear and drop handlebars. That served me for many years. I used to cycle from Welwyn Garden City to Hatfield Tech on it for night school with my brief case strapped over the top tube. Wouldn't fancy that now but in 1958 there was little evening traffic. When I left WGC I sold the bike to a guy in my digs for 10 bob and that was the last of pedal cycling whilst I motor cycled and sailed.

In the 70s my wife and I bought a couple of bikes to get fit for sailing (a Viking and a Falcon). We caught the cycling bug after a tour of Normandy. After that -

Various Mercian single bikes.
A Sun Wasp tandem
soon replaced by a s/h Jack Taylor tandem
eventually replaced by a custom built Derek Wilkins tandem
now a Cannondale touring tandem.
Bob Jackson trike
Higgins 2 wheel drive trike
Mercian ATB
Derek Wilkins 653 Audax bike
Kinesis Racelight T2

A lot of the above still clutter the garage plus my wife's bikes and trike

Geoff

Mister W · November 2009

You guys can remember all your bikes??? :shock:

I can barely remember all my cars!

Anyway... back to the question...

I learnt when i was about 4. My dad was fed up with me wearing out stabilisers so one day he took them off and refused to put them back on. After a couple of weeks of getting left out of games down the street because I had no bike I decided I should learn to ride it. All I can remember is that it was yellow and had solid rubber tyres.

Next was a dark green bike with big fat balloon tyres followed by an old dark blue bike with rod brakes. It goes a bit hazy from there until a blue road bike (can't remember the make) in my teens. I remember it had brake lever extensions you could pull from the tops. That was sold to a friend at uni and replaced with a Falcon MTB. An "accident" caused by my ex wrote that off so it was replaced by a Giant Rock SE. I also bought a Giant TCR2 at about the same time. The Giant Rock was nicked and the insurance company bought me a Giant Boulder, which is still in use as my station bike. Then I sold the TCR2 and bought an Argon 18 Radon. I also have an On-One Pompino and a Planet-X Kaffenback.

Mister W · November 2009

Oh, I forgot the Tandem. A Fuji Absolute. A cracking tandem for not a lot of money but my stoker turned out to be an evil bitch from hell.

Pross · November 2009

Learnt to ride at about 4 or 5, my older sister had just taken her stablisers off so there was no way I was going to use them! Since that I had several unbranded or Raleigh kids bikes, a nameless 5 speed "racer" and some bike with a curved top tub that I had built up from a rusty heap - the design was about 25 years ahead of its time

I then bought what I thought was a proper racing bike out of my first pay packet at 16 - a Raleigh Banana team replica, unfortunately it was a bottom of the range (cro mo?) version but I loved it at the time and actually did my first race on it before chucking some cross tyres and doing a few cross races. I then bought a second hand Vitus 979 which is still in my parents garage and again converted for cross followed by a Ribble 653 that I had built and still ride and built up a cheapy training bike from a second hand frame that I've hardly ridden. Also got a 20 year old mountain bike I bought of a club mate who won it in one of the early MTB races. Just ordered myself a Scott CR1 so the others may not get much of a look in anymore once it arrives

pneumatic · November 2009

Learned at age 6
Elswick Hopper 1968 (crashed it into a fence and wrote it off)
Moulton Mini 1970 (my Dad had been an engineer at one time and like the idea of it)
Raleigh Sports DL22 1975 (coffee brown, of course! It got knicked on a tour of the West Country)
Falcon 5 speed 1978 (Orange, of course! It got abandoned in my parents' garage and run over)
:oops: THE DARK AGES (Cars, beer and curry)
Marin Larkspur hybrid 1999 (Silver, traded it for a painting of puffins)
Dawes Super Galaxy 2003 (Rainbow Red, still in regular use)
Specialized Roubaix Elite 2006 (Silver, still making me smile)

mingmong · November 2009

Learnt between the age of 4 and 6 - cannot remember!

First bike : 'The Mayflower' :oops: :oops:
Followed by: Boxer, Grifter and Winner.
Then came the roady era: Raleigh 531 main tubes. I loved this bike until I bent the down tube by running into a bus :oops:
UNI
RELOCATION TO MANCHESTER
New Alu roady frame built up with non-descript parts.
Mtb: Kona fixed fork odity
Mtb: Raleight Special Products - Still got this. 16 years old, owes me nothing. (only frame original now though)
FOUND MY WAY HOME
Mtb: Kona Kikapu Deluxe - uprated
WIP: 456 (waiting for my tax back)

andy162 · November 2009

I would've been about 4 when the stabilisers were jettisoned. The bike was a little red folding job. Had a hinge in the middle & my first stunts included riding round in ever decreasing circles with the hinge undone. An articulated bike!

Then....Raleigh Boxer
Raleigh Burner
Firebird Freestyler... CW's, Zed rims, Ace!
Falcon 10spd. At that age the more gears you had the faster a bike went. Simple. Ratios...PAH!
Raleigh 501...maybe an Eclipse.
Raleigh Elix...531, Shim Exage bits...biopace!
Raleigh Dyna tech...Ultegra tackle...pink!
Eddy Merckx....SLX tubing, Chorus Ergo. Wish I still had it.
Trek US Postal. Full DA...the carbon revolution has begun.
Focus Cayo
Scott Addict R1...SRAM Red.
Raleigh Services des Courses,753,SR groupset...lovely.
Ribble Winter/Audax.

+ the mountain bikes too. First of which was a Raleigh Mustang. 23" frame??!! & it weighed the same as a Ford Transit(laden).

mingmong · November 2009

MingMong wrote:

Learnt between the age of 4 and 6 - cannot remember!

First bike : 'The Mayflower' :oops: :oops:
Followed by: Boxer, Grifter and Winner.

<insert> Team Murray Bmx (with Cruiser Brake!) </insert>

Then came the roady era: Raleigh 531 main tubes. I loved this bike until I bent the down tube by running into a bus :oops:
UNI
RELOCATION TO MANCHESTER
New Alu roady frame built up with non-descript parts.
Mtb: Kona fixed fork odity
Mtb: Raleight Special Products - Still got this. 16 years old, owes me nothing. (only frame original now though)
FOUND MY WAY HOME
Mtb: Kona Kikapu Deluxe - uprated
WIP: 456 (waiting for my tax back)

fungus_the_muffin_man · November 2009

I was about 6/7 and my first bike was a raleigh tomahawk my grandad had found lying around the docks where he worked in Salford

After that I had a grifter and a crap bmx out of a cataloge. I'd hinted at a mongoose and left the page open every day, but ended up with this crap thing. I was sooooo dissapointed

My first road bike was a peugeot round about 1988 this is it actually

After that I didn't have another bike till the early 90's when I bought my mates carrera mtb off him to commute to work.

which leads me up to the GT avalanche mtb I bought last year and the Trek 1.5 and Bianchi 928 mono q I have now.

That old peugeot is a thing of beauty though. I'd love to get hold of one and do a re fit myself

hammerite · November 2009

I think I was around 4/5. I learnt on a red bike with no name, but fixed gear, solid tyres and a front brake.

From there.....

Blue and white BMX (Apollo or Townsend I think)
Raleigh Lizard - bright green madness
Peugeot MTB, can't remember the name, but it was the dogs danglies!
Peugeot road bike - my sister bought for me for uni, £15 second hand.
Peugeot Kaiman - hand me down from Dad.

Then went about 4 years without a bike, when I got a Scott Yecora about 6 years ago, which I still have and this led to......

Trek Pilot (my first proper road bike that I wanted just to ride, the Peugeot was just used to get me to uni and around town)
Giant Bowery
Wilier Izoard

volvine · November 2009

Raleigh Strika (indestructable threw mine from the top of Rochdale town steps to the bottom not a scratch).
second hand racer (wish i had kept going so i wasn't playing catch up now lol)
Raleigh Burner bmx with skyway 2's
Diamond back bmx
Mongoose bmx (had to get one after watching E.T).
cheap green mountain bike with lizards's painted on it
Kona mountain bike
carara mountain bike
Trek Madone.

current bikes

sudholz · November 2009

Good thread!

Learnt on a Taiwanese BSO (Chopper with fake suspension and back-pedal brake) aged 5 or 6 and managed to drag my dad through a hedge in the process. Discovered love of bike maintenance when attempting to disassemble/understand said 'suspension'.

After that:

The learning thing is interesting though (and topical hereabouts!). I think most of my learning has been calibration through crashing or nearly crashing.

-Hedge incident above -Taking delivery of Viscount and wiping out on gravel at end of road 1st corner -Learning just how far a bike -the Viscount again- will lean over on a 1:4 descent (with panniers attached) touring in Ireland -Learning how to hold a line in a bunch whilst being annihilated (again) in handicap races on the old outdoor track at Paddington Rec (RIP) -Learning that some accidents really are completely random/unavoidable in the crash with car that wrote off the Viscount and put me in bed for 2 weeks with ruptured kidney -Recently I have been learning how to get big air on the pump track at Redbridge from my son on a rented MTB. Needless to say as I've got older I've tried to go steadier with the 'learning'. It hurts too much.

S

hammerite · November 2009

volvine wrote:

cheap green mountain bike with lizards's painted on it

That'll be the Raleigh Lizard, I had one of those, and loved it at the time

Steve_b77 · November 2009

I learned to ride at about 4 or 5 without stablisers on a little raleigh kids bike thing red adn yellow with plastic wheels and solid tyres.

From that my bikes went a bit like this:

Bigger Raleigh kids bike with no stablisers

Raleigh Boxxer
10sp Raleigh Road Bike when I was about 10
Raleigh Mustang MTB
Raleigh Outback MTB (bit of a theme here) up until about 19 when I lost interest and found women/beer/cars.

Then about 6 years ago:
GT Aggressor XC2.0 for a year
Followed by another sabatical of about 2 years - working away from home

Then in 2006:

GT Aggressor XC 2.0 (there's another theme here)
Specalized Pitch
Specialized Allez Int'l
Carrera Kraken frame I built up for a blast round the woods bike after I sold the Aggressor.
Cove Handjob
Nicolai Helius CC
Boardman Hybrid Comp
Soon to arrive Raleigh Airlite U6 Race (Back to the origianl theme)

The last 4 I own @ the moment 8)

pneumatic · November 2009

Steve_b77 wrote:

Cove Handjob

:shock: :shock:

In Aberdeenshire, that would take place in a public toilet!

Steve_b77 · November 2009

pneumatic wrote:

Steve_b77 wrote:

Cove Handjob

:shock: :shock:

In Aberdeenshire, that would take place in a public toilet!

Just as well mines bright metallic orange then

Tim jenkins · February 2010

I'm a bit late joining in with this but here's my list anyway.

Bikes I no longer have
- little red bike with white solid tyres and stabilisers
- slightly bigger bike with real tyres, lost the stabilisers at about 5 or 6
- Raleigh Commanche
- Raleigh Jeep (brown sit up and beg)
- Raleigh Arena GTX
- Raleigh Record Sprint (someone nicked this, I was distraught)
- 1970's Hugh Porter 531 road bike
- 1980's Pinarello with Columbus SLX
- Dawes Discovery 501

Bikes I still have
- Dawes One Down - absolutely fantastic bike, go anywhere carry almost anything and cheaper than a Thorn!
- Colnago Technos with Daytona 10 speed - a piece of art in my opinion.

Ash_ · March 2010

I missed my chance to add to this first time around, but seeing as someone else has revived the thread, I thought I'd add mine:

Some red thing with stabilisers that was actually fixed (or may just have had a broken freewheel)
Barbican BMX
Raleigh 'Racer' 10
Townsend Rambler
Carlton 531 Track Bike
Claud Butler 531*
Holdsworth 531
Bob Jackson 531
Peugeot Columbus SL
Claud Butler Aluminium
John Fern 531 track bike*
Webster 531 Designer Select
Some 531 Lo Pro TT thing*
Mountain Tamers MTB
John Fern 531 Cyclo Cross*
Falcon 531 Track Bike
Look KG271*
Graham Weigh 653*
Hinde Energy MTB
Kona Unit MTB*
Dolan Track Bike*
Colnago CLX
Merida Carbon Team MTB*
Raleigh U700 cyclo cross
B-Twin Sport 2.0*
Bob Jackson 753*
Colnago C50
Colnago Extreme C*
Magellan MTB*
Kinesis Crosslight 5T*
Brand X alu / carbon*
BMC Streetfire SSX*

*ones I still own.

triggmiester · March 2010

I was 4 years old

My first bike that I learnt on was a Raleigh Chipper (the younger brother to the Chopper)
Then a Raleigh Milk Race Special Racing Bike
Then a Raleight Mustang Mountain Bike

Fast Forward a few years

A Muddy Fox Mountain Bike
An Apollo Mountain (style) bike - truly awful a present :-(
Then a GT Outpost - Still got
and now a Cannondale F5 Disc

Cressers · March 2010

A Raliegh Golden Arrow when I was five years old. I'd just had a series of eye operations and was the subject of an ongoing battle to get me into the 'normal' rather than the 'special' school system. I hated riding it at first, spiraliing round in long, wobbly, counterclockwise spirals, falling off in the centre, getting myself covered in grass stains or dog turds or skinning my palms. But I managed to learn to ride, and it was one of the arguments used to justify my admittance to the 'normal' school.

Ben6899 · March 2010

I was about 4/5 years old when I learned to ride a bike.

That was on a my first bike, a little Raleigh Bullet. I endoed on that and broke my nose whilst Time Trialling at my grandparents' bungalow

.

Then from there:

BMX that my older cousin built for me. Diamondback frame I believe.
Raleigh Racing bike (white one with friction shifters) that my Nan bought me.
Al Carter Trail MTB with full Deore LX gruppo. My parents bought me that for Christmas when I was 14/15 and it's a cracker.
Peugeot Prologue with entry level Shimano groupset, which I bought for £50
Felt Z35 as in my sig and "Your bikes"
Peugeot Custom again as shown on this forum.

I still have all these bikes - maybe not the Bullet I'd have to check with my parents - and the Peugeot frame/forks.

I've nearly finished my Giant 980c Cadex Veloce build and I also have a Sports Chalet special $200 Diamondback MTB which resides in Newport Beach for when I'm over there. Oh and my brother's Carrera Bugaboo MTB with Deore XT/LX mix, which I take out now and then.

Bunneh · March 2010

Started out riding a plastic ambulance at the age of 4, I went some distance on that! Then my first bike came along, a green thing which looked great when I was a kid, looking at it now in photos it was a bit scratty. I eventually got a Raleigh Burner at the age of 9 (1985) and that was a cool bike! My Grandparents were never too keen on me cycling but still got the bikes for me as it was meant to help my asthma, which it did.

The first mountain bike appeared in around 1990 when I got a some random cheap model from a local bike emporium; that got stolen by scroats in my area

Next up was a Claud Butler in around 1993 and it was lighter than a light thing. I sold that to a work colleague then got myself a Diamond Back Sorrento (1995). My love of cycling arose and I started offroading. Sadly that got stolen, again by scroats who I hope died a painful death due to a drug overdose from the proceeds. That gave me the insurance cash to go out and buy myself a GT Rebound, my first 'proper' bike. It had RockShok 5 suspension forks, an Alivio groupset and was a lovely bright blue. I hacked that machine into the ground, I upgraded the groupset to mostly LX or XT, resprayed the forks to make them look funky (red right stanction and yellow left stanction), looked freakin' awesome. I loved that bike; sadly mental health issues took over and I had to quit biking until I was well again.

A couple years back I got a basic, silver framed bike out of a home shopping catalogue. Alivio groupset, cheap but very responsive forks and upgraded that into a little monster. LX wheels, LX chainset/mechs and brakes. Frame is exceptionally sound, the components made it into a beast!

My Dad rang me up one afternoon and said he had an old Ribble road machine if I wanted it, claimed it was owned by some former British champion (how true that was I don't know). Full Campag groupset, wheels, weighing around 20lbs. I love that bike, even if it does kinda need some work. It runs well, puts up with my upper body strength much better than the MTB does and goes like a duck through a plane engine - NEEEEEEEEOWBZZZZZZZZZZ!

Posted an image of it before, but here it is again...

Cressers · March 2010

Can you count a four wheeled toy as a first ride? In which case I was given a pedal car with a plastic body (a bit like an early Ford Cortina) for my third birthday. I got in and pedaled away, and being a mole-eyed kid drove into a concrete gate post as my parents watched aghast, smashing the body. My dad, an expert woodworker, made a replacement body out of plywood and fixed the imitation grille and lights to it, it lasted for many a year until I outgrew it, being strong enough for me to 'drive' my sister around while she held on to the boot.

These days They'd have the social workers in...

MadammeMarie · March 2010

All my early bikes were "hand me downs" from my older cousins. My first bike was a Raleigh, had stabilizers, and my cousins told me how to ride them w/o them. They had great patience!

The fist time I actually bought a bike was a Graziella Flashdance!

Try googling that one! Ha!

Slapshot · March 2010

raleigh Commando - punctured within 12 minutes.....
various grifters
Kuwahara BMX - broke the frame in a couple of hours
Kuwahara BMX - broke the headstock off
mongoose BMX x 3 - broke them all
raleigh 10sp racer - broke my face!!
cheapo Emmelle MTB
Alpinestars MTB
Speci MTB

with any luck a Cannondale CAAD 9 / Shimy 105 in the next couple of weeks

knumpcy · September 2010

Woodchip wrote:

Just for a little fun and no-one is allowed to insult anyone, when did people first learn to ride a bike?

I was exceedingly late and never learnt until I was about 12. First bike was a 10 speed Raleigh road bike (which I swapped my BMX scooter for, still not sure who got the better deal).

Since then I've had a Townsend, a Saracen, a Nishiki Kodiak, a Spesh Rockhopper and a Commencal Meta 4.x (all MTBs) and now got a Scott Speedster.

I first learned @ 5, I hopped on a cousins bike and road down our hill. Since then I have ridden:

Old Eagle
Puch Pathfinder
Hutch Pro Racer
Trek/Self Built
Raleigh International 2004/Campy Centaur
Jamis/Self-built
GT Tequesta Hybrid self-built

Wilkston · September 2010

Hi - first post for me but i like the thread so here's my bike-ography........learned to ride when i was about 5 or six (1976) and have had the following bikes in order:

Raleigh striker (silver, wicked bike!!!)
Some big red shopper type thing with spring carriers front and back, not good for carrying bread! Chrissie pres - i LOVED this bike!!!!
Raleigh Arena 5 speed, swapped for a Tange Exploder BMX with yellow Skyway Tuff2 wheels but the frame broke so had to persuade mum and dad for a Huffy Pro-Thunder frame in chrome - very cool in the early 80s!
Raleigh Pulsar racer

Bit of a gap, then my first grown up bikes bought by myself,
Peugeot Ventoux racer (1988)- nicked from work, b*stards
Raleigh something or other MTB (1989)with Biopace chainrings traded for below
Townsend MTB (1990)- got nicked from work, b*stards AGAIN!!!!!
Trek 830 (1990)
Trek8000 (1991)
Kona Kiluea (1996) - traded in for the Specialized
Specialized FSR Comp (2002) - sold for peanuts and i still regret flogging it!!!!!
And finally the bike i still have, a Kona Kula (2006) "with upgrades" and without doubt the best bike i've owned.............looking for my next bike now i really fancy a On-One Scandal 29er!!!!!

Ben6899 · September 2010

We’ve had a similar thread before, but here’s my rundown…

I learned when I was about 4 and my first bike was a little Raleigh Bullet, which had a ‘target’ adornment on the handlebars. That bike was great and the one on which I cut my teeth in terms of crashing… my front tyre jammed between two paving slabs outside my grandma’s house and I went over the handlebars. Nose break #1 @6yrs.

Raleigh Bullet
Diamondback BMX which I built with my older cousin (he used to race BMXs and knew/knows his stuff)
Raleigh racing bike (bought by my Nana – a white one with downtube shifters, I don’t recall the name)
Al Carter Trail (a lovely rigid ‘MTB’ with Deore LX Groupset)
Peugeot Prologue (£50 off my dad's mate - this reignited my love for cycling)

Then just add the bikes in my signature…

By the way, nose break #2 came on the football field and REALLY hurt!

sampras38 · September 2010

I love these threads..

Started very young on a budgie bike (remember those with the big fat tyres)?

Then a mini chopper called a Tomahawk.

Then went to a Raleigh Grifter, to a Raleigh Arena road bike, then a Peugoet Pure Gold racer, then a road bike we built with a 531 frame. Then at 16 a mountain bike, then another one from Halfords (Carerra). Had that for years and then Trek 1.2 road bike and finally Scott CR1 Pro. Still use the Trek for winter and turbo.

When did you learn and what have you ridden??

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