RaleighSport

What was the bike that set you on the path you're on now? If someone asked me that, normally my answer would be my beloved Raleigh Sports frankenbike. Then I was thinking about it, I love sleeper road bikes a nice bike with no markings and performs great.. I have to blame my Sekai 2700 Grand Tour Deluxe for that one and here she is.


What's yours?

puchfinnland

So lets define this before we get replys....
Bikes that we dreamed of having when we were just getting into cycles?
or
our first dream bike we owned and loved

I was facinated by the PUCH factory in Graz when I was 13, I knew I wanted one back then.but I could not afford a super record encrusted bike, let alone a shimano 600 equiped bike!

RaleighSport

The first bike you loved AND OWNED that put you on the path you're on now.
Thanks for asking for clarity, I can see that would have gone south quick.

Baroudeur

This one :



...unfortunately, it was far too small for me. I sold it to a fellow who said he had one as a kid.

puchfinnland

ok- the bike I had I built up..

RaleighSport

Oh and tell us why

RobbieTunes

Her name was Denise. Black hair. Tall. Right out of Seger's "Night Moves."

Otherwise, a white lugged Free Spirit, '76 Bicentennial edition.

I learned what a smooth, tuned, quiet ride with decent components could do.

plodderslusk

I have a misspent youth doing odd jobs and smoking odd substances. One job I had was working at the warehouse of the Norwegian Peugeot importer as a driver. I bought a layover, a 79 or 80 Py 10 Le for less than
half retail. That was my first real quality roadbike. Binda straps and team kit, I had some nice rides before other less healthy priorities made me sell it.

sloar 

My hutch trickstar got me into high end bikes.

Drillium Dude 

Hah - it wasn't even a bike, but a component group: Campy 50th Anniversary gruppo.

While stationed in London in 1994, I was riding a Gios Compact with Ofmega components. I saw an ad for a 50th gruppo and realized that it was basically Super Record, which I'd lusted after since I was in my teens. I contacted the seller, got a bit of history about it, and in the process learned it had been a take-off set which had come off his 1983 Colnago Nuovo Mexico. I tore down the Gios, put the 50th Anniversary components on it and rode it for a number of months.

Within 6 months, the seller also offered up the Colnago frame/fork and I put the bike back together exactly as it had been way back in 1983. It's been through a few different incarnations since then and is still the first vintage bike I've owned and the longest-serving bike of any I've ever owned.

Here's what she looks like today:



DD

seedsbelize 

"Points all her own; sitting way up high, way up firm and high".

Hard to say really. Been biking all my life. The one that made me appreciate a quality ride was an 87 Schwinn Prelude. And I just scored another one a week ago.

Barrettscv 

Not true love, but certainly a long running on & off & on again affair from 1975 to 2009. I'm the original owner.

clubman 

1971-72 Orbea "OCI" with Zeus Alpha group, a half step crank and narrow range freewheel. I fell in love with it and cycling (again) because I could smoke my buddies on their Alpine geared UO-8's and Grand Prix's as we raced through suburban teen life. What a blast.

Vonruden

No pics, my older brothers 1970's yellow Coppi. I have been searching for a 59 -60cm...never see em in larger sizes.

auchencrow

It was my grey and blue '73 Record. It got me riding again after a many-year hiatus.

coolkat

'85 Roadmaster. As crappy as they come, but it still opened my eyes to how fun and fast road bikes were. The furthest I had ridden was about 10 miles on on Magna dual suspension bike, but I somehow rode 25 miles the day I got the Roadmaster. It now has a milk crate on the back, and the brakes still don't work, but it's the perfect beater.

rhm

My first several bikes were not great, but they were good enough to allow me to form an idea of the Perfect One. Ever since then I have been in search of the Perfect One, also known as The One. That's why I have so dang many bicycles. And no matter how many I have, I am confident the next one I build will be The One.

auchencrow

Most of us just accumulate bikes according to the common, everyday N+1 rule, but I have to give it to RHM for hearkening to a higher calling, the venerated "N+The One" rule.

wahoonc

First bike was a "curb special" as in my dad found it on the curb somewhere on trash day, repainted and tuned up it became my first bike, been rolling ever since. Probably my favorite bike was the one I saved and saved for a Bob Jackson semi-custom Super Tourist back in 1976. Had the bike about 9 months before it got stolen out of a locked garage, didn't have the money to replace it so rode something else. I don't know if I would want another one or not, have plenty of good rides now, and my tastes have changed some since then.

Aaron

Gary Fountain

I had been riding some nice Italian bikes for a number of years and loved them all before I saw this frame in the local bike shop. It was about 3 years before I could actually buy it. I would ride past the bikeshop at night on my way home from work and admire it through the window. It disappeared one day - sold. About a year later it reappeared in the bikeshop and only displayed very light indication of being built-up. As it turned out, it was built-up but never ridden. It was unwanted so back to the bikeshop it went fortunately for me. This long distance relationship had to come to an end (me outside the bikeshop and it on the inside), it was time I made an honest bike out of that frame. I consider myself its first (and last) true owner.

Barrettscv 

Yes, It's easy to love an Italian, and stalking a Cinelli is admirable.

bradtx

RS, I guess I'm a gigolo as not even my 'milestone' bikes were loved more than some others. I think that if I were forced to have only one bicycle from the harem I now have, it's the '98 Trek 7000ZX.

Brad

degan

A ~1978 Kobe Cobra. Its been through about a million configurations, originally a 12 speed, its been as high as a 24 speed and low as a fixie (actually, it was questions pertaining to the bike which led me to this forum, luckily it didn't take long to figure out my idea to cut off the derailleur hanger wasn't a good one.) Its been weight weenied, toured on, and competed in one triathlon. I had crappy kids bikes growing up and for a long time bikes didn't interest me at all. I saw it at a thrift store for $40 and thought, why not?

As found.

After rattlecan repaint.

My first tour.

northbend 

It would be the Bruce Gordon. I've owned it for many years but still expresses the ideal of what I like in a bike.

old's'cool

That would be my 1976 Empire Professional, my first bike with alloy parts everywhere they count. I outgrew the frame after a couple of years and my Dad kindly horsetraded for cash so I could buy my next bike, the 78 Moto GJ that I still have.
Out of nostalgia for my old Empire, I acquired an identical stablemate a few years ago, only 1 size larger frame, which is now undergoing full restoration (paint was pretty far gone in some areas):



The bike I really wanted, but couldn't afford, was the Raleigh Gran Sport, which I saw either in a catalogue or magazine, I can't remember which. As you can see, the Empire offered some similarities, including medium blue paint, & Randonneur handlebars. Happily, I now have Lagoon Blue Gran Sport to call my own as well. Here is a link to a recent photo shoot I did on my GS.