Rollfast

It was a Schwinn, what model I don't remember, won it in a radio contest around 1980, it was medium blue. Bent the front wheel twice, broke a lot of cables without trying, Mom and I went to a bicycle junkyard a few times and built up Schwinn and Huffy cruisers after that. The bike was cool but I wasn't meant for derailleurs, and I knew that after having a couple go 'automatic'. Owned a five speed when I was younger as well.

kaos joe

Root beer brown Schwinn Varsity. 41 pounds IIRC. I rode it into a parked car at high speed; the steel rim was totally undamaged even though the tire instantly exploded. Not a pinch flat-exploded. The top and down tubes were bent.

My father worked for Grumman Aerospace, and he took it to work and handed it off to my (faux) Uncle Bob, who had worked his way from machinist to the front office. He took it to his old plant and put it into some sort of massive hydraulic jig used to bend aircraft parts, and he pulled it straight. It was still rolling along 20 years later when Dad gave it to a friend of his.

It's probably still out there.

GuessWhoCycling

It was a 1977(?) World Sport. Poor man's version of a Schwinn Varsity for what I was told.

John E

Since I had always been kind of a "special needs child" in physical coordination, I did not learn to ride a bicycle until age 12. I started with a 2-speed Schwinn "middleweight" with the usual cantilever frame, 26 x 1.75" tires, and a normal-low gearshift that resembled a handbrake lever. A few months later I requested a "10-speed" or "racing bike" for Christmas, and my father bought my brother and me a pair of 21" bottom-of-the-line Bianchi Corsas, with 26 x 1-1/4" Pirelli Stella whitewall tires, Huret derailleurs, steel Universal sidepull brakes, tensioned leather saddles, cottered steel cranks, and Ambrosio bars. Gearing was a nice half-step, 52-47 / 13-16-19-23-26, providing 9 different ratios at about a 10% progression.

Now, 55 years later, what do I ride? See signature -- a fat-tired Schwinn and a Bianchi road bike.