TheEnthusiast

I would love to hear how and when you received your first 10 speed. What kind of bike was it? You still have it?

leicanthrope

I honestly wish I could remember more about it. Some sort of a early-mid 1980's Walmart-tier bike that my parents got me when I was in junior high. Royal blue with yellow lettering and trim. Probably a Huffy, but I don't remember for certain. Distinctly remember the foam grips. No idea what happened to that thing.

Wulf

1968 I wanted my firest 10 speed. I used my Bar Mitzvah money and bought a purple Mercier low end bike for $79. I rode it home and the wingnuts holding the rear wheels slipped. Ouch, my first blemmish. I did my first long ride on it in 1971; Palo Alto to San Francisco and back. Up via El Camino and back via US 1.

Michael Angelo 

I was 14 years old when I got my Armstrong 10 speed.

oddjob2

This topic pops up once a year.

I guess I started early, because by 1972, the LeJeune was bike number 6, a step up from my Schwinn Collegiate. I bought the LeJeune below in NYC, paid for by caddying.

In the rebuild queue currently. As photographed in 2010.

Bianchigirll 

I think I was 15 or so back in.... Well lets say a few years ago. It was one of those '70s Bike Boom Royce Unions pearl white with cottered crank, I think and Eagle rd and Thunderbird fd. It was my first taste of freedom and some days I rode it from morning till dark.

My first "real" bike was also my first new bike, my beloved '87 Bianchi Sport SX. A friend of ours at the time had rekindled my love of cycling and after an small auto accident I had the extra money to buy myself a nice a bike. Again I rode it all the time commuting, often lunchtime rides with my friend, weekly training races. After I upgraded the following year the Sport SX got reconfigure for almost anything, drop bar cross, flat bar 'cross/commuter, a triple 'sport tourer' (but only for a few weeks). A great bike indeed Tahge ChroMo main frame and fork Suntour Alpha 5000....

Here she is after her last refit in the winter of '11, late last winter when cleaning her off for the upcoming I discovered one of the stay caps had broken and the other very close. RIP old friend




You would be surprised how hard it is to find a pic of one of these old beast (the bike OK). I didn't go around holding mine aloft much but I think this is the same model I had.



Here is a link to the Pedal Pusher site I gleaned the pic from, it is a pretty hilarious review of the bike.

non-fixie 

April 30, 2009. Bought this Sprey at a flea market for € 20. Finding out what it was, what was wrong with it and how to fix it is what got me into this forum. Bought a second bike for parts, a third just because it was a Carlton, etc.

Phil_gretz

Spring of 1972, I received my C.Itoh 10-speed. It had a strange lugged headtube where the tube and lugs were a smooth single piece, if that makes sense. Steel rims, cottered cranks, and Cherry centerpull brakes, but with a SunTour Honor derailleur (the only highlight). My friends and I rode everywhere...

repechage

My prize Schwinn got stolen when I was 8. I was advised I would have to buy the next one myself.
I was a few months shy of 10 when I bought my first new bike.
First road bike was when I was 12, saved for 30+ months to purchase it.
Reynolds 531 throughout, Nervex Pro lugs, Campagnolo derailleurs and hubs, TA cranks, 3ttt bars and stem, Ideale saddle.
Sold it when I was 14 to buy a better fitting bike for racing. Still have that one.
No gifts.

The Golden Boy 

My first 10 speed was a curvy tubed Ross some time in the late 70s early 80s.

I think back to what an absolutely awful child I was. I was horrified at what my Dad had bought. Embarrassed to no end. But I rode it.

My memory is that it looked like this:

Matariki

Bought a Schwinn Varsity in 1970. It was stolen in 1971. Bought a Peugeot U08 in 72 and from that sprung the addiction.

DLP

Heh, I got my first semi-respectable road bike in 2004 (I was 20), but didn't do anything with it for YEARS. It was/is a 1971 Schwinn Super Sport.

Here it was when I came back to it after leaving it at my parents' house while I was out finishing college, getting married, starting a career, having a family, etc.:



And here after I cleaned it up some in 2011.



It's currently in fixie form. And it's for sale locally. But if I don't get the price I want, I might just go ahead with a full-blown build in 2014. Something about your first bike, huh?

dck

1961, a Schwinn Varsity

rootboy 

I guess it was 62 or so. I wanted a Schwinn. But my parents got me a Huffy for Christmas. I remember being a bit disappointed. Silly, really.
I rode the heck out of that bike.

DowneasTTer

It was June 3rd, 1972. We, my new wife and I, used some of our wedding cash to purchase two red Astra 10 speeds from Park's Hardware in Orono, Maine. We were both students @ U of Maine at the time. Within two weeks my wife fell off her bike and broke her collarbone. However, that is not the end of the story as we are still married and still ride…. Living the good life on compact 10's.

koolerb

For my 14th birthday a neighbor and family friend gave me an old, brown, Vista Cruiser complete with comfort bars and a comfort saddle. Wasn't the slickest looking ride in town, but I went everywhere on that thing.

Murray Missile 

16th birthday, September 1971. My folks and I were visiting my big brother in Minneapolis. I mentioned I was saving my yard mowing money to buy a 10 speed. He asked me how much I had and told me he would match it. He took me to Wheel Goods on Hennepin Avenue, they had a metallic red Raleigh Grand Prix in my frame size and it was marked down just enough I could get it. It's long gone but I have many fond memories of that bike and the places it took me. There is a b&w picture of me on it in the back of my senior yearbook, everybody associated me with that bike I was on it so much. I finally got a car and ended up trading the bike for a Holley carburetor, what happened to it after that I have no clue.

wrk101

1970+/-, age 14, yellow Schwinn Continental. Prior to that, I just had knockoff Sting Ray style bikes. My very first bike was an old cruiser style. Then when the Sting Ray style explosion arrived, I added butterfly handlebars and a banana seat.

My Continental got stolen the first week of my sophomore year of college. I never missed it.

Euphonium

I bought my first 10 speed while in high school in 1967. It was an Austrian made Sears branded bike that I spent at most $50 for new. Four years later I purchased a Schwinn Varsity that was much more expensive and a huge disappointment compared to the light Sears bike.

likebike23

It was 1984, I was 14 years old. My dad came home one day from a local department store with a black Ross Gran Tour. I ended up trading with a friend for it, so I don't own it anymore, but I still have the owner's manual in my toolbox. It actually was a nice entry level bike with a 4130 lugged frame, Shimano Z series group, and rigida 27" double walled and eyeleted rims with mallard quick release hubs.

RubberLegs

I think it was about 1975, White, Coast-2-Coast brand, lugged steel, chrome rims, chrome crankset, Suntour running gear, beat it to death on my paper route, LaCrosse Tribune. That is ME on the beast, far left, about to head out on a 75 mile, overnight expedition with my brother and a friend. Up to Sparta, and down the Sparta/Elroy Trail, Wis.

CardiacKid

When I was in 6th grade in 1968, my parents bought me a Schwinn Collegiate and my brother a Varsity. It was the greatest gift I have ever received. I rode the heck out of that bike. When I outgrew the Collegiate, I inherited the Varsity. When I moved from Dallas to Austin for College, I began to think I was really out of shape but I sucked it up and continued to use it as my primary mode of transportation. It wasn't until I graduated that I realized a 40 lb. bike was not really designed for the Hill Country.

spdntrxi

late 80's Nishiki Prestige… threw on bullhorns and TT'd to work everyday.. soon afterwards I got a Bianchi Giro off a friend of mine… then a new Kestrel 200SC.. been carbon ever since.

JohnDThompson 

Mine was around 1973. A bike-boom Japanese built "Araya" with SunTour derailleurs, Maxy crank, QR front wheel, stem shifters. Got my start wrenching over the next few months as I converted the rear wheel to QR, moved the shifters to the down tube, changed the Gearing on the crank, etc. My next bike, a couple years later, was a bare frame: Takara, I forget the model, chrome socks front and rear. Built it up with SunTour again, Mighty Comp crank, etc. Next was a Trek 700 frame I built up. Got it at a discount because I was working at a bike shop by then. Then I quit the bike shop and started at Trek, where I worked for six years.

repechage

Schwinn was the aspirational brand for almost all back then. Good quality, sound marketing, great tag lines. Problem was Schwinn was essentially "fair traded" and dealers made little mark up, so they were expensive and many parents would not, could not stomach paying the price. "Boy I like my Schwinn bike, Schwinn is the finest Bike" .