Let's hear about your first bike.....

[3weight]

Mine was a black and yellow Huffy (fixed gear, of course!).
What was your first bike?

[Eden]

Classic little red tricycle of course!

[mimitabby]

ditto. I had a little red tricyle too. It could drive like a car, do K turns & U turns.
Of course I always signaled when I turned and parked it carefully.

My mother was learning to drive when I was 5 so I was usually in the car during her lessons with my terrified father.

[SouthernBelle]

Funny you should mention that, I was just thinking about that today. My first 2-wheeler came from Santa. I think I was 4 yo. It was red and blue and had training wheels. My cousin took me out on the road in front of my grandparents' without the training wheels to teach me how to ride. I ended up with a scraped knee, ruining my new that morning tights.

[aicabsolut]

Classic little red tricycle of course!


I totally forgot about that bike! Probably because I rode it inside the house and then progressed to using it as a scooter (stepping on the platform between the back wheels). Shiny dark red.

First 2 wheeler was my sister's old Schwinn. Fixed gear with foot brakes.

I refused to have training wheels. My first ride on a real bike was on my friend's pink bike with training wheels. The neighborhood boys laughed at me, and I refused to let my parents put any on my sister's old bike. And I demanded they teach me to ride asap.

[7rider]

I remember riding this blue thing - a Columbia or something, I don't remember. But it had upright handlebars, and I tied a rope from one grip to the other, and those were my "reigns" and I used those to steer the bike. Because, I didn't want a stinkin' ol' bike! :mad: I wanted a HORSE!!!

[CyclChyk]

Does a Big Wheel count as a bike? Aside from that, my first bike was a giant Rincon about 7 years ago............ I was 31.

[aicabsolut]

My bike is my horse until I can afford to have another one.

I gave up the bikes for oh, 20 years once I inherited my sister's pony. Pony > Schwinn.

[mimitabby]

I remember riding this blue thing - a Columbia or something, I don't remember. But it had upright handlebars, and I tied a rope from one grip to the other, and those were my "reigns" and I used those to steer the bike. Because, I didn't want a stinkin' ol' bike! :mad: I wanted a HORSE!!!
Regina, when i was a little kid, i didn't need a horse. I WAS a horse.
I had found a couple of sticks painted black, with only white primer on the bottom. They were my front legs!
I galloped all over the yard (my pasture) whinnying and trying to eat the grass.

[alpinerabbit]

I had learned how to ride a bike on one of the neighborhood kids' bikes. I think I learned it in an hour or so. I rememer feeling the movement all again before going to sleep (that happens with every new movement I have learned, like swimming in the sea for the first time) - then later on I had a red regular bike (no gears that I can think of). We moved to a house on a hill so it wasn't much fun.

We rode hobby horses with heads made of old socks all over the neighborhood playing cowboys and zorro. How embarrassing thinking back.

Later I used my mom's 5-speed but that was hellish up our hill (couldn't shift under pressure), and what a new dimension when the first mountain bikes came out - 18 speed! Wow!

[wannaduacentury]

I believe mine came from Santa appx age 4 and it was pink w/ a banana seat and training wheels of course. I later broke one of the training wheels and had to learn to ride it right. Later appx age 9 I got my red 3 speed which is at my mom's house now. Needs tires inflated, but ready to go. At my grandma's, my tricycle was purple and I loved riding it all over the old house. Lots of good memories of that :) Jennifer

[Aggie_Ama]

I probably had a tricycle. The first bike I remember having was a Strawberry Shortcake bike with a banana seat! I was a late bloomer and didn't learn to ride a bike until I was 8. I was convinced I would fall and break my leg! :D Once I learned to ride a bike my bike was so old, my Pawpaw bought me a new one.

[Trek420]

1st bike: Blue Schwinn Foot Brake Freewheel
2nd: Red Raleigh 3 speed with Brooks Saddle (if I only knew then)
3rd: Gitane Red 10 speed Road style bike, now we're talkin'
4th: Mercier Blue same as above with a coupla Campy bits
5th: The Trek 420 I'm named for
and so on....

[KnottedYet]

I had a red tricycle, which I rode obsessively everywhere until it was passed down to my brother (who also rode it everywhere). My first bike was a blue Schwinn with a sparkly banana seat and those big tall handlebars, coaster brake single speed. I had saved up for half of it and my parents paid the other half. It had training wheels, but not for long. I remember riding in a cow pasture a lot, and that the dried up cow-pies were smooth to ride on.

[xeney]

I never had a tricycle. My first bike was a red Schwinn Fair Lady Stingray, a single-speed with a banana seat, coaster brakes, and a sissy bar. Very much like this one (http://www.ann-arbor-bicycleshow.com/images/100.jpg) only mine was red.

I still think all bikes ought to be red.

[Maureen Valley]

My first real bike was a two toned blue J.C. Higgins from Sear's. I think I was nine. My Grandfather had it shipped to me from Chicago.....and it was a beauty. Sadly, it was stolen. That's what I get for leaving my toys in the front yard all night. It was a small town in the upper midwest, and we thought we were safe from such things.

Wrong.

[KayTee]

My 2-years-younger brother got a new Schwinn for his birthday at age 5. That was the first bike in the house. When my parents realized that I was riding the thing more often and better than he did, they got me a big old used, reconditioned, one speed, balloon-tired Roadmaster, metallic blue with a step-through frame, chrome fenders and a wire handlebar basket -- a girlie bike, of course, and it must've weighed 40 lbs. I rode that bike to school and everywhere until I was 12, when my brother got a brand new 3-speed English racer. Then I snuck around riding his bike whenever I could - changing gears was fun! Bike envy, I know, but my well meaning parents were very old school traditional, and girls had to be girlie while boys got to do the fun things (like riding bikes fast). My mother still thinks it's positively outlandish that her 54-yo daughter bombs around on ridiculously expensive "men's bikes" (w/top tubes), grinning like a fool, sweating like a horse and wearing skin-tight britches :D !

[Crankin]

I can't remember if I had a tricycle. But, my first bike, bought with really good intentions for my 7th birthday, was a very small German bike that probably cost my parents a fortune. I guess they didn't realize what an uncoordinated klutz I was! I was fine with the training wheels, but I could not learn how to ride without them. I do remember boys in the neighborhood making fun of my "teeny" bike. Also, it was different; i.e., not American. So, it got put away. Then, when I was 9, almost 10 my mom was determined to teach me to ride when we were at our cottage on the Cape. The cottage colony had 3-4 flat roads, so she rented me a purple Schwinn and i was riding in 3 days. I remember having absolutely no control and veering across the road, into a friend's car. The best part was she let me ride it back to the rental place (a mile!) with her following me in the car. I was hooked. They got me a blue Schwinn, with coaster brakes and a big blue rack on the back. I had that for a year and then I got a Raleigh 3 speed, with a Brooks saddle. I rode everywhere on it, up big hills and in cold weather. In 8th grade I got another Raleigh, in a bigger size. My riding stopped when I was 16 and moved to Florida; too hot and I got my license. My next bike was when I was 24 and a boyfriend bought me a mongrel 5 speed road bike at the Tempe Bike Shop when I was in grad school at ASU and first teaching. I used to ride it to class in the summer in a sundress! Then, my husband and I got 10 speed Univegas in the eighties. That was it until I got my first road bike in 2001.

[DebW]

I don't remember a tricycle, but I probably had one. I do remember the first two-wheeler with training wheels. My sister and I had to learn to ride without training wheels in the grassy back yard and do a figure-8 around 2 trees before we could ride on the sidewalk. The next bike I remember was a red coaster-brake Schwinn - mine was a boy's frame, my sister had a girl's frame. I did 20 mile rides on that single-speed bike. The next bike I bought myself at age 16. It was a green 27-lb Manufrance 10-speed for $109 (made in France of course), bought from the shop I would start working at the next year.



5th: The Trek 420 I'm named for


Some people name their bikes, some people get named by them...

[Bikingmomof3]

My first bike was purchased in July. A Giant Sedona. I had it for 3 weeks and sold it for a Trek 1000. :D

[aicabsolut]

I still think all bikes ought to be red.


Hahaha.. despite my tricycle, I think all bikes should be blue! The fixed gear Schwinn, my 2nd bike, a 3 speed Schwinn (with hand front brake and rear foot brake), and my mom's equally girly 3? or 5? speed cruiser were all blue. My dad's bike is blue-ish too..the old school Bianchi green (darker, more blue-green version of their current color)..I think his bike is from the 60s? So of course my road bike is blue :)

[uforgot]

The rule in our house was ONE tricycle and ONE bicycle. You could only have a bicycle when you were 12. I desperately wanted a real bicycle, so I began riding my oversized tricycle on two wheels. I just tipped it and balanced it and rode it just like a two wheeler. The only time the third wheel hit the ground was when I stopped. I could turn completely around at the end of the road on two wheels. Did I get my bike early? Are you kidding?!?!?!? Rules are rules....imagine all the kids in the neighborhood having real bicycles and when I'm 10 and 11 I'm still riding a tricycle, but even embarrassed I couldn't give up riding. The Christmas after my twelfth birthday I got a JC Higgins Sears bike. I kept that bike well into my 20s.

We have 8mm movies of my riding the tricycle. Looking at those now, I imagine the neighbors got a real kick out of the weird kid riding like a circus act.

[teawoman]

My dad and I used to go riding on the weekends. I remember he had a Raleigh. I had a green bike from somewhere like Canadian Tire. This was around grade 3 or 4. When I first was learning to ride it without training wheels, he used to run behind holding on to the ends of a belt slung around my waist. :D It had a piece of tape on the right side handlebar so I could remember which was the right side of the road. (I'm left handed, so I got confused :o) We rode on the roads too, all the way to the bike path along a golf course.

I coveted a bike with a banana seat and those upright curved handlebars with tassles on them, but my mother wouldn't let my dad get me one because she read the handling was dangerous.

[shootingstar]

A blue, one-speed that shared with 2 other sisters. I didn't learn to bike until I was 11 yrs. old. Did not have training wheels. I could barely touch my toe on the sidewalk. It was a bike meant for a short adult.

So I skipped the tricycle phase.

But we did have a red and blue tricycle for younger siblings.

[redrhodie]

My first 2 wheeler was a metallic blue stingray-style with a white banana seat and bar end streamers. I learned to ride it after what seemed like an eternity of trying to push myself off, not getting momentum, falling, then throwing the bike to the street in total frustration. I was so bad at first that the neighbors used to gather around and watch, all giving advice and encouragement, which was no help to me at all, and added to the incredible stress I felt.

Finally, my dad ran along side and pushed me, and off I went, the mystery of the whole thing was cracked. I still remember yelling "You can let go now!", looking back, and seeing him already half a block back, laughing. That was a good day! I felt like I won the tour de France.

[RoadBunner]

I remember riding this blue thing - a Columbia or something, I don't remember. But it had upright handlebars, and I tied a rope from one grip to the other, and those were my "reigns" and I used those to steer the bike. Because, I didn't want a stinkin' ol' bike! :mad: I wanted a HORSE!!!

The first bike that was all my own (not a tricycle shared with cousins or a red training wheeler-turned two wheeler shared with my sister) was a purple and white Huffy. I also put rope "reins" on it and pretended it was my horse (which is what I really coveted at that age).

[Zen]

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=16824&highlight=bike+Sears




.

[Triskeliongirl]

Wow, what an interesting question. I still remember that itty bitty first tricycle. What I remember about it that it was red, and can picture myself riding it on the sidewalk in front of my childhood home.

The next visual is the day my dad took the training wheels off my first two wheeled bike, also red. Again, an image of me riding it on that same sidewalk....

Then I remember my favorite bike in high school. I remember it being called an 'english racer' and it had 3 speeds. It was green with white trim.

Next, I remember the day they pulled my name out of the big rotating barrel on TV. I won a '10 speed' bike, red. It arrived in a big cardboard box and again I have an image of my dad assembling it for me in my living room shortly before he died. I road that bike all through college and even the beginning of graduate school. It was stolen U-locked to a pipe on the house I was renting an apartment in just outside of central square in cambridge.

I replaced that with my first touring bike. A univega nuevo sport from a funky bike shop just outside of harvard square that doesn't appear to be around anymore. I bought it with the intention to tour europe, but given I couldn't reach the brake levers that never happened. The bike shop put an itty bitty stem on, and those cheater levers, but I never felt confident enough on it to do that european tour. It was a mixte, so was the best version of wsd that existed then, and it was made of what was considered very light weight steel in its day. That was my bike for many years, although I ran more than cycled when my kids were young.

My husband replaced it with one of those dept. store huffy's. I promply gave it to my daughter and bought my first terry classic, the first adult bike I had that fit me. That was 2001. That bike was crashed so I got another 2001 terry steel classic, used. That was followed by a 2003 bike friday, which was stolen. That was replaced by my 2005 terry titanium isis, and last year I added a 2003 terry steel isis to my stable, retrofitted with s/s couplers for traveling.

[OakLeaf]

It was some black thing I kind of got from my mom when I was 7 or 8. It was way too big for me. My uncle taught me to ride. I did have tricycle(s), but I don't remember anything about them particularly.

I remember one day soon after I'd started riding, I rode straight into a bush at the end of our block. My friend told me the bush had "attracted" me, so I came home and related that to my parents.

My dad, always a stickler for language, said, "No, it dis-tracted you." To which I replied, "No, I went into it, so it must have a-ttracted me." :p

My first bike that was really mine was a green metalflake Stingray. And the first bike I bought for myself was a used Peugeot UO-8 (also green). I loved that bike, rode everywhere on it for 8 or 9 years until it was stolen :(

[Jolt]

1. Big Wheel
2. Red tricycle (like almost everyone else had as a kid)
3. Kent single-speed girls bike--first two-wheeler, scared the heck out of my dad while I was learning to ride it (had a little problem figuring out how to use the brakes!!)
4. Purple and pink Roadmaster ten-speed (delivered newspapers in my neighborhood on this one--I was nine or ten)
5. Current bike--Giant Nutra hybrid

[HillSlugger]

My first bike was an stingray-style bike with a banana seat. I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't learn to ride it until I was like 12. I wrecked while trying to learn at around 8 and I guess it took me a while to get back on! :o

[Aquila]

Oh, my, the memories!

I remember riding my trike in the backyard with my grandmother watching me. :)

I got a real bike when I was six, after spending WAY too much time bothering my big brother by climbing up on his purple Stingray (somehow I could get up and sit there with it held up by the kickstand). Mine was a blue girls' bike, which I rode for a few years until my brother got a brown ten speed; then I used the Stingray until I got a three speed.

I got a ten speed for college, until it got stolen, at which point I used my brothers' "new" silver ten speed. That bike had the BEST balance of any bike I've ever ridden. Unfortunately, when I went away to the Peace Corps, my mom "lent" it to the crazy neighbors who cannibalized it. (Why would anyone think they could take apart someone else's bike for parts?)

I got myself a Fuji ten speed when I got back from the Peace Corps, but barely rode it for nearly 20 years. Then a year of good riding and I got myself my Trek Pilot.

I feel bad for both my Fuji and Trek; I imagine them talking in the garage about having to put up with my slowness.

But you know how you see people driving around in their Miatas, all crazy, goofy smiles? That's how I look on my Trek.

[NbyNW]

I have memories of a red tricycle, and after that I shared a little orange bike with my brother. I don't remember a brand or markings, but I remember it had white handles and a white seat, and solid tires made of some kind of hard plastic. And since we were fond of tinkering with it I got my ring finger stuck in between the chain and the cog . . . my first trip to the emergency room! Good times . . .

My first "big girl" bike (because it had no training wheels, was not a hand-me-down from my brother, and it was mine mine mine) was a blue Schwinn Fair Lady, which was the girl's version of the Sting Ray. White banana seat with blue & yellow flowers, and fat rubber plat form pedals. My first lesson in leveraging my middle-childness. Even better times . . .

[dex]

But you know how you see people driving around in their Miatas, all crazy, goofy smiles? That's how I look on my Trek.

That's why I drive a Miata *and* ride a bike. :D

[Kristi]

My very first bike I've ever owned I got two years ago. It's my Giant Trance 3. I think she's beautiful. We didn't get along at first. I didn't take her out at all for almost a year after a big argument last spring that left me pretty bloody.

I rode lots of bikes as a kid, but never had one of my own. I treasure this bike. I can't imagine feeling the need to get a new one. I might replace pieces and parts, but I love the frame.

I've been back riding this spring and have ridden at least once a week for the past 2 months. It feels great!

[bmccasland]

bicycle = 2 wheels. It was blue, single speed, bought at the hardware store, or maybe a toy store in downtown - back when small towns had functional downtowns. I can't remember the brand name. BUT my stinking brother got to ride it home, as I was deamed "too little". :mad:

2nd bike, orange Schwinn 10-speed. Was my trusty steed for several years. Was stolen, along with 300 other bikes, from the bike racks in front of my college dorm one night. You'd think SOMEONE would have noticed a small moving truck loading up a whole bunch of bikes!

but I was dating a cyclist at the time, and he found me another, better 10-speed from the LBS, steel frame as I recall. Bike suffered several years of neglect when I didn't ride very much, but couldn't live with the thought of no bike. A bike mechanic friend took sympathy on it and did a lovely cleaning job, new saddle, new tires, and bike forgave me. I rode it on my first MS tour 4 years ago. And it's currently being ridden by a friend when I deemed her bike unsafe. So the bike has done 2 MS tours.

[Aggie_Ama]

I was thinking about those old bikes this weekend, all of my childhood ones were bought by my Pawpaw. He died May 4, 2003.

Anyway after the Strawberry Shortcake I had a purple and white Huffy BMX style. Then the coolest bike ever for a 9 year old, a Huffy Colorwave 10 speed. It was aqua and pale blue with a special saddle to match. They advertised the heck out of it on the afternoon shows and that was all I asked for for Christmas in 4th grade. It was stolen out of my drivewave right before Christmas the next year. :( My Pawpaw bought me a new mountain bike style purple but it was never the same as my Colorwaves. I had to wait a month for the new bike to learn my lesson by walking to school.

In college I had a Walmart Mountain bike before DH bought my Fuji in 2004. And now I have my Cannondale and a Scott Hardtail.

[pll]

My first bike was a vintage one (now I realize it), an old bottle green Monark I was given by one of my uncles. I rode that bike for at least 5 years to school -- when I started college, my brother started using and crashed it one too many times. I was able to find a picture of what the modern version (made in Peru) looks like:

http://www.monarkperu.com/images/productos/big/3.jpg

My bike also had the grey tires (faithfully replaced), but no front basket, was already very old when I got it in the late 1970s, and was not made in Peru (I thought it was Denmark, but I find a very similar logo in a Swedish company: http://www.monarkexercise.se/). It looked more like the one here:

http://www.bikespecialties.com/site/images/vintage/1945monark.jpg

[TxDoc]

First bike, wow, the memories... of course the classic tricycle as a little girl (it was yellow though, not red). My first real bicycle was my sister's used Bianchi that she had outgrown.

[Zen]

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb14/zencentury/BICYCLEpennyfarthing.jpg
I'm so old :o



.

[Spec&TrekGirl]

My first bike was a pile of rust that had been sitting in a neighbor's backyard for several years, left by whomever the previous renter of their house was. They gave it to us when I was 4 and I learned to ride it by 4 1/2.

I remember helping sand the rust off of much of the bike except for the handlebars which I was happy my parents replaced with the cool tall ones that went with the banana seat we got for it. The original seat was metal with a paper-thin amount of cotton covered with vinyl. The top tube was in two pieces that could be unscrewed and attached as a "girls" step-through.

I have no idea of the brand. But I remember all the work that went into getting it in working order and can still picture the fenders hanging from wires in the basement where my dad was spray painting them blue.

[Lifesgreat]

But it had upright handlebars, and I tied a rope from one grip to the other, and those were my "reigns" and I used those to steer the bike.

I remember trying to steer my first bike with a jump rope. Unfortunately, it did not work out well. . .


My first bike was pink and white with a tall sissy bar on the back, one speed, coaster brakes, a silver banana seat and a white woven basket.
I LOVED THAT BIKE!! It is long gone now :(

[tc1]

Little trike
Big red trike
Big red trike rode on 2 wheels alla time
Small red bike at age 5, probably borrowed
Big (way too big!) blue Schwinn steel single speed woman's bike
Purple fair lady sting-ray, which I was forbidden from for 3 months because of a badly broken arm (bike is still in pieces in the garage)
Steel "10 speed", think it was a Sekai, had for 1 month before it was stolen
24" Sears oversized 5 speed stingray
Schwinn orange crate-still got it and it's for sale
Skateboard (hey, I got around the college campus on it, it's like a bike)
Specialized Hard Rock mountain bike (still got it, not for sale)
24" cruiser (BMX type, Redline I think, it's for sale too)
Rodriguez adventure with flat bars, my latest love
I am trying hard to justify getting a full suspension MTB