vandalarchitect

Here's one for nostalgia's sake. What was your first bike. If you're like me there might be a few "first" bikes to point out.

My first kid bike? Some steel framed BMX (probably) frankenbike my dad pieced together from spare parts in the junk. It was brown, singlespeed, had cottered cranks (but I didn't know there was anything different at the time, and a coaster brake I could lock up the rear wheel with for some sweet skids in my gravel driveway.

My first bike with my own money? A red, Magna Vermillion. I bought from a big box-like store that ended in Mart. I wanted a better bike for my paper route. It had 18 speeds, maybe 21, with grip shifters and terrible components. I think its still collecting dust/rust at my parent's place.


My first bike as an adult? A red Raleigh M-40 MTB (though I think on the warning labels it cautions not to use it on rough terrain). I bought it when I went to college and didn't have a car to drive. It didn't see much use as I would get rides from roommates or walk most places, but found plenty of single-track a few years later when I started mountain biking with one of my English professors. I still have it but haven't gotten it out to tune up and ride this year. Sometimes I wonder if it will hold together as I know it isn't the best of quality bikes, but it keeps going.

mkeller234

My very first bike:
Bought from Sears, it came with a plain all white frame and I was able to spec GREEN tires! It wore a Cleveland Indians bumper sticker on the top tube.

My teenage bike:
An entry level Giant mountain bike

My first bike, purchased by me as an adult:
1979 Coppertone Schwinn Suburan with Shimano Positron and FFS

Puget Pounder

Some kind of Mongoose BMX bike. My first road bike that I bought was a Specialized Sirrus a couple years ago. I have since sold it and am very sad. I do love my current bikes though.

Dean7

My VERY first bike was a huffy BMX bike. First road bike was a Trek 1000 (loved the hell out of that thing but the chainstay snapped on me!).

frantik

I think my first bike was some He-Man kids bike..

ftwelder

I had three older sisters in the house when I was growing up. My dad bought them nice European bikes which I trashed riding through the foot-hills. I had a stingray with a Bendix 2-speed. I broke the frame twice and learned to braze doing frequent frame repairs.

I think I may have had a used Paramount at some point also..

YoKev

Strawberry Shortcake pink bike with flower basket. A hand-me-down from my cousins. It's rough being the only make cousin in the family!

WNG

My first 2-wheeler was a red girl's bike with solid rubber tires. It was my cousin's old bike. I first rode it with its training wheels. One day, I quietly took off the training wheels and rolled it up a hill in her neighborhood (Melrose, MA). I jumped on and barreled down the hill and crashed into the intersection. An oncoming truck blared its horn and scared the crap out of me. The bike was given to me following their visit the next year. By then I learned to ride by borrowing a friend's bike. I rode the rear wheel off that thing.

Being a girl's step-through frame, my aunt/uncle bought me a proper boys bike. It was the best present a kid could get...a banana seated Shimano 3-speed w/ a bad-@ss stick shifter on the top tube! It was my prized possession. My family wasn't that well off, while my uncle graduated from MIT. They were always very generous to me. I eventually broke the Shimano hub. A replacement was installed with the help of my mother. She laced the wheel! I eventually out-grew the bike and it became my younger brother's ride.

My mother had pity on me and bought me a department store 10-speed that I chose. 27" chrome rims, Shimano steel high flange hubs, steel center pulls, turkey levers, cottered steel crank, and Shimano Eagle derailleurs and stem shifter. I thought I was pimping.
My classmates had better Peugeots, Fujis. I spent a lot of time at a Peugeot bike shop, ended up buying a new set of MAFAC Racers, a Japanese brandless aluminum stem, Suntour VGT RD, SR drop bars, for my craptastic dep't store ride. I was gifted a pair of Normandy hub-ed wheels off a Peugeot, plus Lyotard pedals. The pedals got some Christophe toe clips, the wheels got new Mavic Module 27" rims instead of the steel Rigida's. I went cotterless with a Shimano 600 EX crankset. Lastly, it got a gold Winner 5-spd 13-19t freewheel. I rode it for several years, even finished one NYC 5-boro bike tour on it. It finally snapped its fork at the steerer, and ended its riding days. It got me through Junior HS, and freshman year of HS.

Sophomore year I paid for a Nashbar sport touring frame via mail order. I transferred all the components to it. Added an Avocet Racing II and I was back on the road again. I still own this bike. It has changed a bit over the years though.

auchencrow

My FIRST bike? - An Iver Johnson, c. 1900.

Whit51 

First bike :1957 Columbia with 20" wheels, purchased new by my Dad. First decent road bike: Viscount purchased new in 1976 or 77. It took me 56 years to get to bike #5, but today, thanks in part to this forum, my bikes are many, varied and countless.

Michael Angelo 

My first bike was a used put together something or other my mom got for me at the LBS when I was about ten. Shortly there after I got An Armstrong 10 Speed for my 14th birthday.

OGR8

My first was a generic 3 speed, but, my second, in 1970, was a G LaPierre 10 speed that I used for way too long, kept going with all kinds of eclectic components, may have had 100,000 miles on it by the time it was retired, so to speak....

jeepr

1968-ish purple Schwinn Stingray. Forgot all about it till I saw this thread and remembered seeing it on Christmas morning.

cb400bill

My first bike was a used gold Schwinn Sting Ray single speed with a coaster brake. I rode that bike everywhere.

My first multi speed bike was a Kent 3 Speed. Looked like a Raleigh, but without the quality.

Mu first 10 speed bike was a Sekine. It was actually my brother's bike until he got a car.

big chainring 

Kids bike - 20" wheeled Schwinn (Bantam?)
1st 10 speed - Turin
1st Racing Bike - Motobecane Le Champion
1st Track Bike - Schwinn Paramount / with a cool Munich Olympics sticker on it.

making

69 Raleigh Chopper with 3 speed. Then I think I had a Huffy then a Fuji and then an Azuki(?).

rootboy 

WOW ...you ARE an old F**t Auchen !


My first bike was a Huffy ten speed.

tiger1964 

In 1960, a Hercules 26" wheel three speed for X-mas. Alas, I was four at the time, and by the summer the best I could do was to push off from the front porch and ride up and down the driveway, kicking at the pedals when they came within reach. A long time before I could legitimately ride it.

My parents were divorced and I guess my father did not know what size I was.

Glennfordx4

My first bike that I learned to ride on was some yellow POS with solid tires fixed gear, I remember hitting into chain link fences while learning to ride in the alley behind my house. Soon as I was able to ride it by myself I took it down Deadmans path in Fisher park (in Philly) I made it to the bottom where I hit a bunch of gravel around a storm drain and crashed hard I still wear a scare to prove it, the big kids from my neighborhood saw the whole thing and couldn't believe I made it to the bottom they helped carry me home to my mom.

After that mom bought me a new banana seat bike made in Poland ( Kent I think), I remember her cursing while she tried to put it together to the point she gave up (never did ride it) and my Grandmother bought me a used 20" bike that pedaled like a tank. At age 11 when we moved down to the Jersey shore I got a new Sears BMX with yellow Skyways, it was this bike that I started to hone my mechanic skills on, always fixing and upgrading it. After that bike I had learned how to build bikes and had many many more.

Glenn

auchencrow

Hey, it was used when my mom bought it for me.

steppinthefunk 

My first bike was sweet. It had a fake gas tank, star spoked wheels and a big soft bread loaf seat. It was probably the heaviest bike I have ever owned as well!

My first road bikes were cheap 10 speed hand me downs from my older brother and sister. I remember not being able to reach the ground while on the pedals so stopping required a sidewalk curb. Stoplights required room to ride in circles before the intersection until the light turned green.

fas2c

My first bike was a Sear Spyder 5 Big slick in the rear w/ a 5 speed. Had bunches of beach cruisers as living at the beach demanded that! A few mnt bikes too. I am getting more into road biking now so I have been trying to find one that fits. My Cannondale is the first that comes close still dialing it in as I build up a smaller steel frame just to see, but it will go to the wife as it will fit her better.

20grit

The first non-BSO was an early 90's Schwinn Moab. I still have it, though it has a stuck seat post and many other issues. I'd look a little ridiculous trying to ride it now as it's a 15" frame and I ride something like a 23" MTB frame these days. Prior to that were your standard hand-me-down bike shaped objects: huffys, and a murray or two.

KonAaron Snake 

To all the bikes I've loved before...

My first bike (not counting big wheels) was a Raleigh Burner BMX...red and black. I was an idiot and wanted a Huffy...like my friends had!

Second bike - a Lotus Odyssey tourer...it was a 60cm and ridiculously big for me, but I learned to love it anyway. I went on camping trips with it, I rode it to school, to work...all over. That's the bike I really learned to love cycling with.

Third bike - a Specialized Sirrus...this was when it was an entry level road bike. It was what I could afford, though I dreamed of the De Rosas and Merlins some of the local riders had.

velo-orange

First bike as a kid- A 20" Yellow Ross Polo bike. That thing exploded one day after launching it off a dirt jump at the 3rd street hills in my hometown.
First road bike I bought- 1986-ish Blue Motobecane Nomade. lost in the mirgrations between finishing high school and Life.
First mountain bike: 1991 Wicked fat chance. Still have it- It's now a singlespeed.

tom