My first bike, when I was about 8 or 9, was an Elswick Hopper with 3 speed rear hub and mudguards like steel girders. I loved that bike and had many, many hours of fun just riding it around the estate where I lived.
At the age of about 11 I had outgrown it, and my parents replaced it with a bright green racing bike. I cant remember the make (it might have been Townsend?) but this was the worst bike in the world as far as I was concerned. Why? with drop handlebars, the brakes were of course on the hoods but my hands were not quite big enough to comfortably operate them.
It had extension brake levers parallel to the bars (suicide levers?) but they were not very effective either.
And the gear change levers were down on the frame, which meant wobbling along and fumbling about trying to find a (non indexed) gear whilst praying that the chain was not going to fall off, or that an emergency stop was not going to be required for at least 20 seconds, because if it was there would be no way my hands could get back up onto the bars and grab a brake in less than about 20 seconds.
The bike itself was probably perfectly good, but operating it just scared me witless, so I didn't ride it much at all, and by the time I had grown into it, I was concentrating all my attention on getting a moped at 16.
It never ever let me down.
