Your Very First Bike

[RolliePollie]

Before I had a two-wheeler, I had a Big Wheel. Does anyone else remember those? I LOVED that thing! Me and the neighborhood kids would race around like maniacs on our Big Wheels, crashing into each other like bumper cars as I recall. We had a cement driveway which was really good for drawing on with chalk, so we used to draw roads, freeways, gas stations and all sorts of stuff out there for our Big Wheels.

I love this thread! It's so fun to think back on all those great childhood memories! I just wish my parents had taken some pictures of me and my bicycles. I can remember them vividly, but alas, no pictures!

[rachelroo]

I had a lavender bike with a banana seat that had flowers on it. I remember somwhere on the bike it said puppy love, which is funny because I was deathly afraid of puppys and dogs as a child. I lived near a lake in Minnesota and rode around it most every day in the summer time. Maybe I was in puppy love with my lavender bike.

[ShubieGA]

I got a JC Higgins (Sears) blue girls bike when I was 4. Since my b-day is in the winter (in Chicago at the time), I rode it in the basement until there were some warm enough days to ride outside. 1st multi-speed was a Schwinn Varsity (70's green) in junior high - it weighed a ton, but I would ride it everywhere!

[Python]

I got my first bike for my Christmas when I was six years old. It was a Tri-Ang. It had a red frame and yellow mudguards. It had a wicker basket on the front. Curiously it only had a front brake. It also had solid tyres but I loved that bike. Sadly six months later I had an accident with it and my parents being overprotective (to which I rebelled in later years) threw it up in the attic and forbade me to ever go near it again

40 odd years later I'm back enjoying cycling even more than I did the first time

I've got an old photo of me on that bike somewhere. I'll have to dig it out and scan it sometime.

[wolfak]

I really wanted to share!

One Christmas, I got a trike, red, it was awesome and I loved it much. I recently found a picture of me unwrapping it, and now I know it was a second- or third- or eighth-hand trike. But I loved it.

Then there was the red kid's bike that my brother had, with white molded plastic seat.

Later on, the Huffy Street Dance girl's bike

Then the Huffy Mt. Storm that I saved forever for and purchased at my nearest Wal-Mart which in the day was an hour away. A week later, we had a terrible crash, which you could read about if you search my previous posts. I had that from '92 to '02. (6th grade to college! It didn't get ridden much and it started getting more crappy and was eventually impounded.

Now I have an '03 Diamondback Wildwood Deluxe, extremely pimped out for commuting, and a '07 Trek 1600 WSD, which is my weekend exercise.

I also just acquired a '76 Schwinn Varsity of original components and questionable shape. The top tube has a gentle curve, and none of the Schwinn literature shows that. The curve looks natural, but I need to give it more inspection. I'm trying to decide the best way to overhaul it.

[grey]

I got a pink Huffy for Christmas when I was six. The seat wasn't banana, it was this odd puffy sort of thing that was still long and had a handle on the back. I remember my dad running behind me down the sidewalk on the way to the park so I wouldn't fall after taking the training wheels off. I was going faster, faster, faster.... and then I realized I didn't hear Daddy's footsteps behind me anymore, which meant I was riding on my OWN and I started to look behind me to be sure and... crash!

The next one was a blue road bike of some kind, got that when I was 11 - I'm surprised I don't recall the make, because I rode it to death! I'd even retape the handlebars all the time.

When I was 15 I saved and saved and saved while babysitting and mowing lawns to get a Fuji Monterey, a hybrid, which I think was pretty darn new back then. It was silver and light green, 21 speed, I paid $350 for it. That bike got me through college, it was a wonderful commuting bike between classes and from my various living apartments to school. Then I left it at my parent's house for a few years, my dad had a cleaning frenzy, and without asking me, he threw it away. I still miss that bike. (if anyone happens to have one, let me know)

After college my BF (now hubby) bought me a full-suspension Gary Fisher, one of the first full suspension bikes out there. Anybody want it? It's for sale.

And Friday, I got my new 08 Fuji Team! I'm back to a dark blue and white road bike!

[ridenread]

The first bike a remember was purple, with a white banana seat with purple and pink flowers on the seat. It had purple tassels coming out of the handlebars. I thought that it was the most beautiful thing on earth when I was 5 years old.

I remember a 3 speed Schwinn when I was about 9 or 10 years old. It was blue and I thought I could fly on that thing. I remember riding up and down the road for hours at a time experimenting with my 3 speeds.

When I graduated from the eighth grade I got a bright orange ten speed from Sears. Several years ago, my mother rescued it, painted it and hung flower baskets all over it in her garden.