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

[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! 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! 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! Once I learned to ride a bike my bike was so old, my Pawpaw bought me a new one.

[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 only mine was red.

I still think all bikes ought to be red.

[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....

[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.

[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! 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/showt...ght=bike+Sears




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[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.