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

[Mad Doug Biker]

NOT the first, but the first I was photographed with whilst on holiday in France in 1987 aged 5 (it was a campsite hire bike).

I learned what brakes were on that wee bike via a ditch or two!

What an ugly kid, eh?:

 

[hopless500]

NOT the first, but the first I was photographed with whilst on holiday in France in 1987 aged 5 (it was a campsite hire bike).

I learned what brakes were on that wee bike via a ditch or two!

What an ugly kid, eh?:

View attachment 126843

I was 21 in '87 and Coventry won the FA cup

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

As for my appearance, well, the sun was bright and all that, but I mainly blame the smoking (actually one of those cigarette shaped sweets)

Check out that perm (not me, my Mum behind):

 

[raleighnut]

Another one who started off with one of these.



I learnt to ride it on 2 wheels with the idler rear wheel up in the air.

Not that different to my present day transport.

trike 4

• raleighnut
• 19 Jan 2016

 

[Alex H]

My first 'proper' bike

 

[Dirk]

I was 21 in '87 and Coventry won the FA cup

Pah! I was 12 the year you were born and watched England win the World Cup.

 

[mark st1]

As for my appearance, well, the sun was bright and all that, but I mainly blame the smoking (actually one of those cigarette shaped sweets)

Check out that perm!! (not me, behind):

View attachment 126845

That whole picture just personifies the 80's. Good times

 

[perplexed]

Mine was a red Dido, with white tyres.

Incidentally, I put 'Dido bicycle' into google, and it was rather interesting what came up first on the list!

Suffice it to say I didn't click on it...

 

[Firestorm]

A Blue 18 in wheel Viking , it has a sloping double cross bar which i was mocked for it being a girls bike, although it was marketed as Unisex. Thar would have been about 1966
Next up was an Elswick hopper in green and gold (24 in wheels)
then a 2nd hand Sun racer with 5 gears ?

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

First 'proper' bike that I remember was a purple 'racer' (as we all called them then), with full-length steel mudguards, also in purple
Sturmey-Archer 3-speed
I think it was a Raleigh - may be wrong though
Can't find a picture, despite variously worded searches

My next was an Elswick Mistral, when I was about 13
That came from a shop that was at the back of Pontefract Castle, on BaileyGate (later to be a small ASDA, then an Indian restaurant, now a flooring supplier?)

Like this, found online;

 

[Jimidh]

A few years ago prior to the Etape Caledonia I found this in a window of a shop in Pitlochry.

A Raleigh Arena which was the first road bike I owned. I bought it when I was about 15 after saving up all my paper round money from the local Co-op department store when even small towns had one.

I had wanted it for ages and I remember going in one day to look at it and it had been reduced in the sale and I was just £10 short and running home and pleading with my parents to borrow the cash with a promise to pay them back.

Luckily they gave me the money and me and the Raleigh had many years of fun and adventures. It also served me as my commuter bike through my university days.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

View attachment 126885 A few years ago prior to the Etape Caledonia I found this in a window of a shop in Pitlochry.

A Raleigh Arena which was the first road bike I owned. I bought it when I was about 15 after saving up all my paper round money from the local Co-op department store when even small towns had one.

I saw one, that was in use, as a commuter, a while ago in Leeds!

 

[Jimidh]

Ff

I saw one, that was in use, as a commuter, a while ago in Leeds!
View attachment 126888

Wish I had kept mine but I gave it to a friend when I bought a replacement as I had no room in my flat for two bikes.

 

[13 rider]

View attachment 126885 A few years ago prior to the Etape Caledonia I found this in a window of a shop in Pitlochry.

A Raleigh Arena which was the first road bike I owned. I bought it when I was about 15 after saving up all my paper round money from the local Co-op department store when even small towns had one.

I had wanted it for ages and I remember going in one day to look at it and it had been reduced in the sale and I was just £10 short and running home and pleading with my parents to borrow the cash with a promise to pay them back.

Luckily they gave me the money and me and the Raleigh had many years of fun and adventures. It also served me as my commuter bike through my university days.

You must be about the same age as me I wanted an arena but my dad wouldn't buy it due to the his words the stupid mudguards .The Olympus had full mudguards .I must admit on raining days he was right

 

[Dave7]

My very first one was in (approximately) 1956 when I was aged 9. It was a real sit-up & beg bone shaker which was very rusty......so my Dad (he must have loved me) painted it bright yellow. I loved it and learned to ride "no-hands" on it
It was also the bike that I learned to run alongside and jump onto the saddle (like Roy Rogers & Trigger)..........only to miss and learn at the age of 10 to be careful with my b**ocks...........I still remember the pain.