Who was your first?

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anothersam

SMIDSMe
Location
Far East Sussex
<Clears throat> I mean what was your first. Bike, that is. I recently came across this sad receipt for my old Marin Sausalito – sad because it was later stolen. And I've never been to Sausalito.

To be clear, we're not talking inaugural rides here. What was your first bike as (what for convenient shorthand we'll call) a cyclist, rather than as a kid passing the usual milestone?

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Clicky. Because the damn videos keep disappearing on me.

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Note that the true customer details have been expunged for data protection purposes.
 

BoldonLad

Not part of the Elite
Location
South Tyneside
My first bicycle, as in bought myself (age 15), was a secondhand Dawes Clansman. I bought it by saving up the money I earned delivering Newspapers. Sadly, I do not appear to have any photographs, my paper-round money didn't run to a camera, and, 1962 was way before mobile phones.

I cannot remember how much I paid for it, but, it cannot have been much, I only earned £1.25/week, and I had to hand over 50p of that to my mother.

It replaced a Hercules bicycle, which was bought (new) for me at age 11, by my parents. That must have been a struggle, it cost a week of my father's earnings.
 

Sharky

Guru
Location
Kent
A Hill Special road/fixed bike when I was 10. Sadly also nicked a few years later when I left it outside Woolies unlocked.
 
My first was an old gas pipe built grandad bike. Think it might have been grandad's a long time ago. Sturmey Archer that didn't work. North Road handelbars and crap brakes. Fortunately a drunk driver (before the breathalyzer) knocked me off on Saturday afternoon right outside a bike shop.
A new pair of wheels and guards, SA gears, saddle, bars and brakes paid for in cash by the driver gave me a half decent bike. A bit heavy but I went all over on it. Even did early mtb type riding on it. Think I left it at home when I got married.
Driver even gave me £5 - a fortune in those days - as compensation and to pay for the bus home. Thought I came out in front on that one.
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
First 'proper' bike after my Chopper was a Coventry Eagle racer when I must have been 12 or 13. Bought myself a Raleigh Road Ace (531c, Shimano 600) when I was 16, and that's when I started club cycling.
 

Brandane

Legendary Member
Location
Costa Clyde
One of these, in July 1976. A Puch Alpine, brand new for £45 from Dales Cycles in Glasgow (incidentally they are still in existence in different premises, and have supplied me with 2 Specialized bikes in the last 10 years). I borrowed the cash from my parents to buy the Puch, then took a summer job (age 14) dispensing petrol at a local garage, pay was 20 pence per hour, but tips just about doubled that! Took me the whole summer holiday to pay the money back :laugh:. It was stolen 2 years later in Edinburgh, still my pride and joy :sad:. Recovered, but trashed, in a second hand shop about 6 months later. (Photo lifted from the net, not actual bike. But I did buy, restore, then sell an identical one from ebay a few years ago).

571720
 
One of these, in July 1976. A Puch Alpine, brand new for £45 from Dales Cycles in Glasgow (incidentally they are still in existence in different premises, and have supplied me with 2 Specialized bikes in the last 10 years). I borrowed the cash from my parents to buy the Puch, then took a summer job (age 14) dispensing petrol at a local garage, pay was 20 pence per hour, but tips just about doubled that! Took me the whole summer holiday to pay the money back :laugh:. It was stolen 2 years later in Edinburgh, still my pride and joy :sad:. Recovered, but trashed, in a second hand shop about 6 months later. (Photo lifted from the net, not actual bike. But I did buy, restore, then sell an identical one from ebay a few years ago).

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That's a nice 1-by, Mister ^_^

(There were loads of Puchs around in the 70s - I was too young to know what happened to the firm, or indeed if they were any good.)
 
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CanucksTraveller

Macho Business Donkey Wrestler
Location
Hertfordshire
Other than the Grifter, Burner, and a mini sized Raleigh racer, (they're all definitely "child" bikes and not what I think AnotherSam is asking), then the first bike I had where I'd say I was a "cyclist" was a Peugeot road bike. I think it might have been a Peugeot Elite or a Peugeot Etoile, I can't quite remember. It had been made in about 1984 I think, and it was second hand... the pic is taken about 1988.

I didn't buy my first brand new bike out of my own pocket until a Giant Peleton in 1996.

The Peugeot is on the right here: Please don't laugh at the new, inexperienced road cyclists, the bad tracksuit bottoms (it was winter), the trainers (we couldn't afford proper shoes and a spanky TdF team shirt was way more important anyway) and the big reflectors. We knew not what we did.

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Sterlo

Early Retirement Planning
My first real bike was a Raleigh, can't recall the exact one, though I do remember it was a metallic brown colour. I bought it for £120 brand new on interest free credit over 2 years (weird how you remember things like that) when I started on a YTS in 1981. Fantastic bike up to the point when it got nicked from work 2 years later :sad:
 
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