strangdang

My first bike was in 1956, a 16” wheeled, solid tires, fixed gear with no additional brakes. In red of course. With a fixed gear when your feet came off the pedals the pedals would keep going around and smack you good.

LeftyS7

New '56 Raleigh three speed

livedarklions

Either the colors in that photo have faded some, or you grew up in the beigest/brownest place on earth.

jskash

My first bike was a late 60s Schwinn Varsity 10 speed. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the bike.

cp256

Mine was a red AMF Roadmaster Junior.

It wasn't long before I was racing other kids in the neighborhood.

Can't post a picture because I have only been a member here for seven years so far.

Chinghis

I'm not sure of the year, but it was a red, single-speed Schwinn Speedster, with a coaster brake. All the cool kids had Sting-Rays with banana seats, etc., but I got this dorky huge bike with big wheels. I then learned that the bigger tires were more efficient and probably faster than the cool kids' bikes.

restlessswind

It was July 5 1974. (My grandpa observed me the day before riding a toddler bike after I removed the training wheels). I received a new Kmart All-Pro. It was a 20" high rise, red fade to white. The banana seat was metallic sparkle red bolsters with white surround trim. Single speed coaster. I LOVED it!!! A week later, he bought me another for my house. It was the same model, but was so slightly different. I always liked the first one best for some aesthetic reason. I had those bikes from when I was 6 and eventually turned them into wannabe BMX bikes. I eventually inherited my grandpa's K-mart 10 speed about 4 years later, but my dad bought me a yellow Schwinn Stingray from the police auction, and I liked that bike so much better than the 10 speed (or the others'). It lasted until it was stolen a couple of years later, and then back to the 10 speed. After that, my dad bought me a new Shogun 10 speed in 1981. That was my last bike until I bought my own as an adult.

Mark Ainsworth

I had that bike for years. At one point it got outfitted with a banana seat and high-rise handlebars. Shortly after the upgrade, it got stolen when I as at the local mall. My mom came and drove around the parking lot. The bike was in someone's pickup truck (meaning an adult was involved in the heist. My mother was disgusted. She did not call the police though. I think because she did not want the bike to become evidence and unavailable) We just took it back.

clongwill

I got my first bike for my seventh birthday. It was a used 24", older, balloon tire, no name that my Dad painted bright orange. There was nothing special about it, except it was greatest toy that I had. We lived in the country on a dirt road with little traffic and I soon was riding it everyday after school. In a couple of years, my younger brother was old enough to ride, so he got it. We shared for a while, but you knew that wasn't going to work. Alas, I cannot find a photo.

So, my next bike was another old thing, a step-up at 26", that we found in the garage when we bought the house. Balloon tires, faded dark blue paint, chrome that was mostly rust, and handlebars about two feet wide. Dad somehow made it rideable. I went on to paint it yellow and it became "old yeller". Hey, I was a kid!

Then, my cousin gave me his old Raleigh when I was about 14, a Sturmey Archer 3 speed. I was one of the first of my friends to have a multi speed bike. I eventually took it to college and it was stolen out of my fraternity house.

A couple of years later, I started my Peugeot collection. That first metalic blue, UO8 I rode endlessly. It almost became part of me; I felt so comfortable on it. A bearing cup in the front hub is now cracked and waiting for repair.

You know, I just realized that I've never had a "new" bike. But the ones I've had have all been good to me.

bwilli88 

I learned to ride my cousins bike, a balloon tired step thru Schwinn that was way to big, it was blue with white stripes. It was so big the front of the seat hit me in the middle of my back. The first one just for me was a Sears 3 speed to deliver newspapers, complete with dual baskets on the back. Both my older brother and I had one. The first one I bought was a 20" Sears singlespeed stingray. I modded it to a long fork BMX with the front fork from the 27" 3 speed and some 20" knobbies.

obrentharris 

J.C. Higgins lightweight.
Bought by my dad from a "junk shop," the bike flippers of that era. Nicely repainted in red and white. With brand new Uniroyal "chain-link" tires. I look pretty nonchalant in the photo but I loved that bike!
Yes I rode it barefoot.

Brent

Crosis

My first bike was a Columbia single speed kids bike with coaster brakes and a banana seat.

drlogik 

Aside from my tricycle and a red flyer with training wheels, my first "real" bike was a blue Schwinn Stingray 2-speed with slicks. I really, really wish I still had that Stingray.

woodcraft

Royce Union 3 speed, about 1964. Had to save up money 'til I was 10.

The brakes were crap- impossible to skid, but I put a lot of miles on that thing.

Clearly remember the first time that I made it up the steep hill that we lived on, without stopping- mailman to the max!

Like this but black:

August West

Black and White Schwinn Typhoon. Single speed, rear coaster brake only, built like a tank and survived a lot of abuse. Loved that bike and put a lot miles on it without any issues. I don't even remember getting any punctures. Actually learned to ride on a kind of junker hand me down but other than being red I have no idea what kind of bike it was.

Then the Stingray came out and I wanted one of those more than anything in the world. Unfortunately, as much as I begged and pleaded with my father to let me get on there was no way in hell he would even consider it. He was ultra conservative and the Stingray was way too radical.

Cougrrcj

Bike, not Trike would have been the '50s-era 24-inch balloon-tired Montgomery Ward 'Western Flyer' step through 'girls bike' that my folks bought used for my older sister in ~1960. The story is that she made it down the driveway and crashed into the garbage cans at the street.
After a few years of riding that behemoth, I'd surreptitiously 'steal' my dad's J.C. Higgins (Austrian-built for Sears) Puch three-speed by the time I was 10 or so... So they bought me a Sears three-speed for my 12th birthday, 1970. I rode that year 'round in Cleveland until the frame broke due to rust-through in early 1974, when I bought my first 10-speed -- an all-steel '74 Fuji Special Tourer.

guachi

Had to use the internet to find it but it was a 1980 Schwinn Phantom Scrambler in blue with yellow Mag wheels.

kingsting

Love a Violet Varsity!

I have a couple over the top customs...

Milton Keynes

My first bike was a Western Flyer banana seat bike with a frame similar to the bike in post #6 . It also had the chrome fenders, but they eventually got taken off. I rode the heck out of that bike until my parents had gotten a Schwinn 10-speed somewhere and I started riding that.