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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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."

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

[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.