Your first bike ride

[User]

 

[Scotmitchy]

Maybe not my first bike ride ever, but, as the youngest of four children, I remember getting MY first bike, not a hand-me-down from a sibling.

It was a Puch, in blue and white, and I remember picking it up from an industrial estate - innocence of youth, it may well have been bought second hand there, but itw as new to me. And I cycled round and round and round the car park, happy as Larry. I was about 9 years old at the time.

 

[Archie_tect]

Ah, memories, I got a little blue and white, chunky 2 wheeler and my mum held the back as I wobbled down the street [must be 48 years ago!]

After years only being allowed to ride on our cul-de-sac, pretending to be buses stopping at lamp-posts to 'pick up passengers', I was allowed onto the road, which was a long hill up into the village ... we used to have free wheeling competitions to see how far we could get down the hill, over the railway bridge and left into our street... half a brick marked the furthest point until the day the council cleaned the gutters and nicked the brick.

Panicked my M+D the day I set off without telling them and rode from our house in Woodlesford to Castleford and back on my little two wheeler.

 

[Hardrock93]

There’s nothing like a wallow in nostalgia! My first bike, circa 1966, was an enormous and ancient battered thing in a hideous shade of maroon. Although I didn’t realise it at the time, my folks must have been pretty strapped for cash and this was all they could afford. It had a S-A three speed hub, and I recall that the changer took the form of a vertical lever mounted on the top tube (or crossbar, as we called it then). This monster was way too big for me, so much so that my dad bolted bits of wood to each side of the pedals so that my feet could touch.

As for learning to ride it, I couldn’t put it better than the OP. I have fond memories of my dad running behind the bike and hanging on to the saddle until, unknown to me, he let go and I cycled on to new adventures.

 

[XmisterIS]

My first experience was similar to the OP's, but less "picturesque", for want of a better word! (I know there's a word for it, but I can't think of it).

Anyway, I was given a bike for my birthday by my aunt when I was about 6, I remember riding along slowly on her driveway, with my mother holding the saddle. Then I started riding faster and faster, then I looked round and realised that my mother wasn't there, at which point I panicked, then all I remember is ground-sky-ground-sky-ground (etc), then I remember wiggling around in pain with blood coming out.

 

[danphoto]

Can't remember my first bike ride on my own, but I will never forget the day my dear mother got the front wheel of her Trusty Raleigh (pronounced "Rallig") down the groove in the road against a tram rail and ejected me from the child seat on the front.

Apart from the pain and the fact it was raining, my clearest memory is of being given major grief for bawling my head off whilst sat on the road instead of just picking myself up.

Next day I got grief again when she realised that I'd broken my arm as I landed, which in retrospect may well explain why I didn't pick myself up ...

 

[brockers]

I used to use my big brother's bike which had stabilisers on. Little did I know that Dad had taken them off the night before, as he was trying to training my brother to ride without them. The bike was outside the front door (no need to lock it up in those days), and I leapt on it and started pedalling furiously down the street, round the corner, and freewheeled down the hill at full speed. It was only when I got to the bottom of the hill, that I realised there were NO STABILISERS!

 

[Kirstie]

I think I must have been five years old. There were a few kids in the street and we all used to play on our bikes together. It must have been a co-ordinated effort by the parents as three of us learned to ride without stabilisers on the same day. My dad began by taking one stabiliser off, and after i had got the hang of that he removed the other one. He didn't hold the back of the saddle and push me off though. I was made to do it on my own, resting one foot on the kerb and then pushing off with it. I pretty much got it straight away. My bike was a raleigh gresham flyer and it was sometime in the 1970s...

 

[funnymummy]

I remember riding along slowly on her driveway, with my mother holding the saddle. Then I started riding faster and faster, then I looked round and realised that my mother wasn't there, at which point I panicked, then all I remember is ground-sky-ground-sky-ground (etc), then I remember wiggling around in pain with blood coming out.

Change driveway to cul de sac, mum to dad & that's my story too!

 

[Melonfish]

i had one of those metal trikes till i was 3 or 4 loved that thing and it went with us when i moved from benchill to warrington.
when i was about 6 my dad got me this two wheeler, one of those bikes with molded plastic on? it was a police motorbike
Sirens and everything, he pushed me around in the back without the stabilisers for a bit then i took it out on the extremely gravelly car park out behind the houses just by ours. within hours i was zooming up and down, that is until i hit a drain channel in the middle of the road (all leading to grids) my front wheel went in, i went over.
queue little me limping, crying, dragging my bike back to my front door where i promptly threw it down and said i didn't want to ride it anymore.
after a day or so i was back on it

 

[HLaB]

My first bike was a Raleigh Chippy, although the stabiliser stayed on until I inherited my brother's Raleigh Chopper, so that was my first proper ride.

 

[snorri]

I can't remember any of the youngsters having small two wheelers, we all just had to learn on adult sized bikes. This was easier if you had access to a ladies model, but boys using these risked being labelled a pansy. If you could only get a gents model your legs would not be sufficiently long to straddle the crossbar so you cycled with one leg through under the bar, the seat was something you could only aspire to.

 

[danphoto]

How come nobody's mentioned the wooden blocks on the pedals that went with having both saddle and bars as low as they'd go?

 

[Paulus]

My first proper ride would of been c1963. On my 6th birthday, my Dad turned up at the school gate with a blue 20inch single speed bike from the local Lbs. It was second/third hand, dark blue in colour, with rod brakes and was a 'Pilot'. Who made it i cannot recall. He took me to the local park, and after a couple of unsteady attempts away I went. I have never looked back.

 

[Night Train]

My first bike was very much like this.

It had a rod brake on the front and white, solid rubber tyres and stabilisers.
Dad took the stabilisers off one side at a time to help me balance until eventually I managed without.

I was still only allowed to ride to the corner of the street and come back though.

I never liked riding without the stabilisers, as I kept falling off and getting 'road rash' on my hands and my knees.

One of the things I remember was my brother offering to take me for a ride on the handlebars. What I didn't realise what the little 'stop' on the brake lever spring on the handlebars was in just the right place to pinch just where it hurts, and draw blood!

Thinking back, it was a fixed single speed!



My next bike was one of these.
It had 20" ballon tyres front and back and a three speed Sturmey Archer hub gear. My one was bright yellow, including the front forks but had chrome mudguards and chain guard.
I wanted a Raleigh Chopper really but this is what Dad came back with. I am really sorry that I showed how disappointed I was.

After that I got into bike building.
If I couldn't have the bike I wanted then I would make one (or seven in this case).
One of the first was this one from when I was about 11 years old.

The last was this one when I was about 14 years old.

I'm still at it with the Ratrike, it is like being back to stabilisers to stop me falling over.