Reminiscing.

[Mrs M]

I always wanted a Raleigh Chopper in Ultra Violet, never happened.
Waited and got a Halfords Cascade, ladies "racer" in metallic mint green, Christmas 1981. Sister had same bike.
Loved that bike and polished it after every ride, also spent all my pocket money on it and did all the maintenance.
I saw the same model recently on EBay for just under £20 but bidding had ended, brought back memories.

 

[Gasman]

I had a series of 'Rescue Bikes' until the age of 12 when I got a brand new 10 speed Raleigh Arena for Xmas. I rode it everywhere until I was hit by a speeding car on the way to a canoeing lesson. Bike was wrecked, I walked away with a scratched hand. With the insurance I bought my Biology teacher's Dawes Super Galaxy, a lovely bike which lasted until my University years when some b'st@rd stole it. Two subsequent bikes were also stolen and I was bikeless for a while until my wife bought me a 2nd hand Carlton Corsair about 1991. It was a good few years old when I got it but I'm still riding (most of) it along with the Challenge Mistral 'bent which was a 40th birthday present.

 

[Pumpkin the robot]

As a kid all my bikes were pulled out of a skip! I had a chopper that needed to be welded on the drop out as I was always taking poeple on the back of it. That was the first bike I helped to rebuild and we had it resprayed by a family friend.
My first new bike was actually just a frame and I still have it 25 years later!

 

[Vapin' Joe]

I was 13 before I got my first "Adult" bike. The frame was badged Minerva and it had been imported from Italy by the shop owner for his own use (Hence my lifelong preference for the front brake lever on the left). He sold it to me (Thanks dad) on the day he closed the business down. It was just a single speed sit up and beg, jet black and the most basic bike I've ever owned but I loved it and got more pleasure out of it than anything I've ever had since. The sudden realisation that the world was a smaller place than I'd thought and places that would take half a day faffing about walking or busing to could be reached in half an hour was so liberating.

I didn't keep it long as the bug bit and I wanted something like the clubmen I used to gaze in awe at rode, but I still have the fondest memories of that old heavyweight, my introduction to all things two wheeled.

 

[Sea of vapours]

I recall when I first got a car and 'retired' the bike that it seemed thoroughly liberating and exciting. Now, having returned to cycling in July, that feeling of liberation is back again and the car seems relatively mundane (admittedly, less so in the current wind and cool temperatures).

 

[Gravity Aided]

I've been back on the bicycle for some years, now, and still find the automobile mundane. But faster,and,in these temperatures, warmer. The car is transportation, the bicycle is a love affair on wheels

 

[Sea of vapours]

I've been back on the bicycle for some years, now, and still find the automobile mundane. But faster,and,in these temperatures, warmer. The car is transportation, the bicycle is a love affair on wheels

The interesting thing re cars being faster, though, is that it's only a factor of 2-3 on non-dual carriageway roads, (overall, in general, normal driving). I remember thinking, when I first had a car, that I'd get from A to B in no time at all and being rather disappointed that it was maybe 40% of bike times on most trips. As you say though, it's a love affair thing and my car is now consigned to 'transportation when absolutely necessary' status.

 

[steveindenmark]

I bought my first ever new bike when I joined the army and was posted to Hannover, Germany. It was a red road bike. 2 weeks later it was stolen and never recovered.

Its the only bike I have ever lost. I wonder if they would have stolen it had they realised I was a trained killer? :0)

 

[Globalti]

Another remiscence: I was brought up in a small chair making village called Chinnor in Oxfordshire where my dad was the village doctor. Almost every Sunday he used to get called out to patch up members of the local road club who invariably seemed to have a huge pile-up on a corner outside a pub called the Bird in Hand.

On another occasion when I was very young I was stooging around in the front garden when I heard a man bellowing in pain like a bull, getting closer and closer. Up the road came an elderly man on a bike, straining to climb the hill and letting out a horrible bellow with each slow turn of the pedals. It sounded as if he had got his testicle caught under the saddle and it really frightened me - I can still see and hear it over 50 years later.

On another occasion when I was about 14 I was riding back from my pal's house and it was raining so I had my head down. Suddenly to my shock I found myself lying on the boot of a parked car. I climbed off and rode away, hoping nobody had seen me.

Final reminiscence on bikes: when we moved to the village I was small enough to fit in a child seat and I remember my Mum taking me down to the shops on the back of her bike. The seat was made of steel strip and it flexed horribly and felt very insecure so I really hated the trips out.

 

[Levo-Lon]

Raleigh chopper here.in red I had a very battered purple one too..they got nicked from the school bike shed..
my raleigh racer got nicked from the swimming pool...
so I just slapped various poo parts to a naff frame and made do..that didnt get nicked but my puch maxi did lol pattern forming here..must be why I now have high security applied to everything and variouse people leveling devices close at hand around my property..bless em