Your first bike

EKE_38BPM

Daz555 wrote:

I still remember the day 25-odd years ago when some theiving scum walked up to me, pushed me to the floor and rode off with my beloved Raleigh Super Burner. I was devastated.

Super Burner, where are you now?



Sniff.......

Still a good looking bike.

My first thoughts were Princess too. Could have been a Lotus Esprit though. Wedge was the shape of the 70s.

msmancunia

EKE_38BPM wrote:

Daz555 wrote:

I still remember the day 25-odd years ago when some theiving scum walked up to me, pushed me to the floor and rode off with my beloved Raleigh Super Burner. I was devastated.

Super Burner, where are you now?



Sniff.......

Still a good looking bike.

My first thoughts were Princess too. Could have been a Lotus Esprit though. Wedge was the shape of the 70s.

My Uncle Geoff driving a Lotus Esprit?! No, it was a maroon Princess.

He also had a poached egg car (a yellow Maxi) that he squeezed me, my brother, my cousin, my auntie, my mum, and him in, and took us to Blackpool illuminations. It broke down three times on the way home.

Twostage

msmancunia wrote:

No, it was a maroon Princess.

I'd guessed mustard colour.

secretsam

Utterly horrid Raleigh Arena, bought second hand by step dad and probably crashed prior to purchase, cos front wheel seemed at an odd angle relative to frame and handling was not great

Still, rode it for a good few years!!!!

First decent bike was an Orbit Gold Medal, in about 1984/5 - started a long-standing problem of "which size" as I am 5'9" but have stumpy ickle legs...

jonny_trousers

Lots of hand-me-downs from my brother.

The first bike that was bought, first-hand, just for me was a Laser Custom, the cheapest of cheap 'racers'. It was absolute garbage and began to fall apart on me on the day it was given to me. I tried to find a picture of one on Google and there's nothing, which doesn't surprise me as they all, no doubt, collapsed into a pile of rust by the end of the 70s.

veronese68

I think my first new bike that was bought for me was a black Falcon 10speed racer. I remember it had a 25" frame so I must have been in my teens by then. If I ever see one like it on Ebay I'll buy it as mine got nicked.

Flyingbogey

mudcow007 wrote:

I think mine was a Raleigh StreetWolf, complete with missile sound effects

for the uninitiated heres a pic



oh just rememebered whn i had out grown my street wolf i had a sheexy lime green and pink Townsend mountain bike which got nicked

You excellent man. I had forgotten all about this bike. I am feeling 10yrs old again. Never had it but saw it featured on a Sat morning programme and dreamed of owning one. I had the tommohawk but I was thinking of this.

Blonde Cyclist

I had a bright pink Raleigh bike of some description which saw me through the whole "learning to ride without stabilisers" period. Then for my tenth birthday I got a metallic red Thompson mountain bike (a boys one!). It still fits me now...

EKE_38BPM

Blonde Cyclist wrote:

I had a bright pink Raleigh bike of some description which saw me through the whole "learning to ride without stabilisers" period. Then for my tenth birthday I got a metallic red Thompson mountain bike (a boys one!). It still fits me now...

What??!!??You are the same size now as you were when you were ten?

You were either a big ten year old or are very small now.

sophidog

at the age of 6 in the mid-1950's i was given a very second-hand bike painted black and with no transfers, sorry decals, on. it got nicked from the lobby, a passage between two terraced houses, but the scally got caught! Apparently it was valued at 5 shillings, 25p to the younger generation, when naughty boy appeared in court. At abouth 14, 1964, i got a second-hand Hetchins which had started life chromed but the forks were going quite badly; I didn't realise at the time that i was riding a 'classic' and when its Benelux derailleur got tangled in the back wheel I passed it on to a mate who promptly rubbed it down and painted it orange. How i wish it was in my garage now...............

Hoopdriver

Like Chris Hoy my first bike was a girl's model, a clunky green-and-cream Eisenhower-era Schwinn with whitewall tyres my parents bought for me second-hand around 1964 when I was six. They were afraid I might rack myself on the top bar of a boy's bike while I learning to ride. I couldn't have cared less that it was a girls model, I had a bike...

Blonde Cyclist

EKE_38BPM wrote:

Blonde Cyclist wrote:

I had a bright pink Raleigh bike of some description which saw me through the whole "learning to ride without stabilisers" period. Then for my tenth birthday I got a metallic red Thompson mountain bike (a boys one!). It still fits me now...

What??!!??You are the same size now as you were when you were ten?

You were either a big ten year old or are very small now.

I don't think I'm much taller now (I'm only 5ft4), probably only a few inches taller than when I was 10, throw in the fact that it was a bit on the big side when I got it and yup, it still fits!

EKE_38BPM

Blonde Cyclist wrote:

EKE_38BPM wrote:

Blonde Cyclist wrote:

I had a bright pink Raleigh bike of some description which saw me through the whole "learning to ride without stabilisers" period. Then for my tenth birthday I got a metallic red Thompson mountain bike (a boys one!). It still fits me now...

What??!!??You are the same size now as you were when you were ten?

You were either a big ten year old or are very small now.

I don't think I'm much taller now (I'm only 5ft4), probably only a few inches taller than when I was 10, throw in the fact that it was a bit on the big side when I got it and yup, it still fits!

5'4"? I vaguely remember that height.
I think a video of me as an adult riding the bike I had as a ten year old would go viral on YouTube, it would be so funny.
Edit: Maybe not, Raleigh Choppers weren't that small.
As an aside, I'll never forget my growth spurt. I grew about an inch a month for about six months. It hurt and none of my clothes fit!

veronese68

EKE_38BPM wrote:

5'4"? I vaguely remember that height.
I think a video of me as an adult riding the bike I had as a ten year old would go viral on YouTube, it would be so funny.
Edit: Maybe not, Raleigh Choppers weren't that small.
As an aside, I'll never forget my growth spurt. I grew about an inch a month for about six months. It hurt and none of my clothes fit!

My son has been doing that. He's now a smidgen under 6', he'll be taller than me within 2 months. He can ride my bikes. He's only 13, help!

Blonde Cyclist

Veronese68 wrote:

EKE_38BPM wrote:

5'4"? I vaguely remember that height.
I think a video of me as an adult riding the bike I had as a ten year old would go viral on YouTube, it would be so funny.
Edit: Maybe not, Raleigh Choppers weren't that small.
As an aside, I'll never forget my growth spurt. I grew about an inch a month for about six months. It hurt and none of my clothes fit!

My son has been doing that. He's now a smidgen under 6', he'll be taller than me within 2 months. He can ride my bikes. He's only 13, help!

That's what all three of my brothers did. I reckon they stole all my tallness...

PS If you don't remember 5ft4, it's the height where people hide things from you on the top shelf, like your phone, then ring it and laugh as you jump to try and reach it...

EKE_38BPM

Veronese68 wrote:

EKE_38BPM wrote:

5'4"? I vaguely remember that height.
I think a video of me as an adult riding the bike I had as a ten year old would go viral on YouTube, it would be so funny.
Edit: Maybe not, Raleigh Choppers weren't that small.
As an aside, I'll never forget my growth spurt. I grew about an inch a month for about six months. It hurt and none of my clothes fit!

My son has been doing that. He's now a smidgen under 6', he'll be taller than me within 2 months. He can ride my bikes. He's only 13, help!

If I remember correctly, you're not exactly in the Rick Chasey or CafeWanda height stakes, so you were always bound to have a tall child. There is nothing you can do apart from not feed him, but be careful trying that. If he's anything like I was (and still am), he'll fight you for a cornflake if he's hungry, and he's always hungry, right?

I've just realised why Rick no longer lives in Holland. The Dutch are amongst the tallest, if not the tallest, nation in the world. If he was still there, he would always be accidentally trod on.

veronese68

EKE_38BPM wrote:

If I remember correctly, you're not exactly in the Rick Chasey or CafeWanda height stakes, so you were always bound to have a tall child. There is nothing you can do apart from not feed him, but be careful trying that. If he's anything like I was (and still am), he'll fight you for a cornflake if he's hungry, and he's always hungry, right?.

Exactly. We need a bigger fridge.
Back on topic his sister always gets his hand me downs. I made the mistake of girlifying one of them by stripping it, repainting and stickering it. She now expects this to be done to every bike.

EKE_38BPM

Veronese68 wrote:

EKE_38BPM wrote:

If I remember correctly, you're not exactly in the Rick Chasey or CafeWanda height stakes, so you were always bound to have a tall child. There is nothing you can do apart from not feed him, but be careful trying that. If he's anything like I was (and still am), he'll fight you for a cornflake if he's hungry, and he's always hungry, right?.

Exactly. We need a bigger fridge.
Back on topic his sister always gets his hand me downs. I made the mistake of girlifying one of them by stripping it, repainting and stickering it. She now expects this to be done to every bike.

I would suggest good healty foods like porridge to fill him up. It won't work, but at least you will know he's eaten something good for him rather than just huge amounts of toast with an astonishing array of toppings and copious amounts of cereal.
After breakfast, just don't get between him and food. Its safer that way.

BC, I don't think your brothers stole your tallness, they probably just muscled you out of the way of the fridge and you didn't get you full share of nutrition.

roger_merriman

Veronese68 wrote:

EKE_38BPM wrote:

5'4"? I vaguely remember that height.
I think a video of me as an adult riding the bike I had as a ten year old would go viral on YouTube, it would be so funny.
Edit: Maybe not, Raleigh Choppers weren't that small.
As an aside, I'll never forget my growth spurt. I grew about an inch a month for about six months. It hurt and none of my clothes fit!

My son has been doing that. He's now a smidgen under 6', he'll be taller than me within 2 months. He can ride my bikes. He's only 13, help!

heh! my dad who is fair bit taller and broader than me any way. was over 6ft at 12. I have a horrible feeling the school still made him wear shorts....

Twostage

Very first bike... (I've a feeling those trousers could be hand-me-downs)

Trike by twostage, on Flickr