For a bit of holiday fun: your first bike.....

[betty swollocks]

Mine was a Rixe, a German make, because we lived in Germany at the time. I bought it with the 5 marks a week pocket money I got at the time, (I was 9) and over a period of months stuffed all these notes into a tobacco tin to save up for the lovely blue bike I'd seen in the Naafi. Occasionally I got all the notes out and put them into piles and counted them, like a pint-sized Scrooge. Strangely I don't remember the day I actually bought it, but I do remember many happy expeditions out on it with friends, to the woods, the swimming baths, to cubs' evenings and school. I polished it daily, swivelled the handlebars round, attached wing mirrors, put furry things round the hubs to keep them clean and stuck playing cards through the spokes for that clacking sound. Then we came back to the UK and it got lost in transit. I was distraught. Single speed, single back pedal brake, chaincase, rack, little plastic saddlebag dangling off the plastic saddle with a spanner in it: and with bottle dynamo which blew the front light bulb if you pedalled too fast. Googled 'Rixe' and the pic here is similar, but not exact:-

 

[marknotgeorge]

A purple Raleigh Tomahawk that I think was a hand-me-down from one of my cousins. My brother got my cousin's brother's Budgie.

 

[biggs682]

The earliest bike i remember is a Moulton Mini

 

[Dirk]

Tommy Godwin built a blue kids bike with caliper brakes for my 4th birthday in 1958.
My dad used to ride with him in Birmingham, post war.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

It was the mid 1950's and I was somewhere around five, a pinky purple step through frame, solid tires and one gear.

 

[13 rider]

First proper bike that was bought new with co-op stamps ( giving my age away) was a Raleigh Olympus .5 speed racer as we called them in those days

 

[13 rider]

Internet picture not my old bike

 

[mark st1]

Cut my teeth on one of these weapons...

 

[Milkfloat]

I cannot remember my first bike, it was a hand-me-down. I have a picture somewhere. This is the first I fell in love with. It died when the front forks snapped.

 

[subaqua]

Cut my teeth on one of these weapons...

Same here. Can't remember the colour. There are pics of mine ,when I was 5 ,bedecked in red white and blue streamers for the silver jubilee in 1977 . when I go to my dads next I will scan them in.

My brother had a chippy, also by Raleigh .

My next one was a chopper. But the 3 speed was broken and I did take it apart and fix it.

 

[Fnaar]

My first bike was pretty much identical to this, except all in yellow.
Solid tyres, one rod brake.

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

Raleigh Cheetah in yellow when I was 4.

 

[mark st1]

Same here. Can't remember the colour. There are pics of mine ,when I was 5 ,bedecked in red white and blue streamers for the silver jubilee in 1977 . when I go to my dads next I will scan them in.

My brother had a chippy, also by Raleigh .

My next one was a chopper. But the 3 speed was broken and I did take it apart and fix it.

Pretty sure mine was Blue defiantly had some sort of tassels on the end of the bars. And of course Spokey Dokeys, was then upgraded to a Grifter (hand me down from big bro) that had the red green blue gears seem to remember white being neutral lol. Got my first brand new bike for my 10th birthday which was a Peugeot bmx.

 

[mark st1]

And of course all bikes had to have three it's the law.....

 

[shouldbeinbed]

A Universal: red frame and white mudguards & accessories. I was over the moon that it had a little white saddlebag with a couple of multi size spanners in it and a puncture repair kit.

I still have the spanners somewhere in my bits box.

I was 5, it was early in 1974 and it came from Cedar Cycles near Cambridge.