your first bike?

[Davywalnuts]

My first bike, I think was a trike, white seat, yellow frame, no brakes, single speed and space on the back for a standing passagner I might crusie past aged 3 and so wished to pick up... Then something that was also again single fixed speed with stabilizors and funky tazzles that came out of the ends of the handle bars, this time in blue. I beleive however my first proper bike was a dark blue Raleigh Chopper! I was a speed machine on that baby! Gears, brakes, reflectors, okey dokies, oh, it was the dogs! And how I wish I still had it to sell on ebay to the highest bidder!

 

[ChrisKH]

Like Chris, a fixed wheel trike, then a really deeply shameful brown fixed two wheeler that was a bit too big for me. My first 'proper' bike, bought new for me was a Chopper. Gears! Front and rear brakes!! Tassels on the bar ends!!! It was one of the first lot, with the swept back handlebars, so great for doing wheelies and getting concussion.

 

[very-near]

I had a Chipper as my first bought bike for Christmas when I was either 6 or 7.

My parents were amazed when I got on and rode it straight away. What they didn't realise was I learned to ride my sisters bike a few months before.

Mine was a Raleigh, I think it was a birdy. It was a bit like a small chopper, my brother had one of those till I inherited it. Unfortunately it got nicked; I'm probably a bit over the top on bike security now but touch wood Ive never had a bike nicked since.

No it was a chipper, something like this:

with a bit more googling I realised it was the smaller one a Chippy:

So my first proper bike was the chopper.

 

[byegad]

A purple Dawes roadster SA 3 speed and hub dynamo at the front mudguards and a saddle bag as standard, it cost £19 19s 6d. Bought by my frugal parents as a 'present' for passing the 11 plus it saved them a fortune in bus fare to school and everywhere else as I rode every day for four years. By then I'd outgrown it and sold it for £5 to a mate. The £5 bought me a larger and really old bike, again with mudguards, 3 speed SA gears and a QR saddlebag. This I rode for another 3 years before I sold it for £5.
£20 plus replacement tyres and a new crank and chain wheel for the Dawes as the original failed at three years old, for seven years travel wasn't bad.

 

[Piemaster]

Up to the age of 16 I had:

Raleigh twenty (my mum's). No money to replace the Chopper, so it was this or nothing. Metallic brown with a white vinyl seat, not cool as an 11 year old....

I had a similar experience. I think my parents had deliberately 'misheard' me when I asked for a Chopper like my mates and got me a Shopper instead
I forgave them though as my dad obviously saw the embarassment factor and not being able to keep up with him when we first went out for a longer ride (he commuted to work as well) ended with a road bike for me .
Mates on Choppers left for dust.

 

[gbb]

My dad was in the services in the 60s and 70s, so we didnt see him, sometimes for almost a year on end (where's this going i hear you ask )...so we didnt really have bikes i remember as a kid. Mum obviously didnt realise kids need bikes
My first memorable one was about 1970 when i was in my eary teens. I found a wreck of a racer i think, skinny frame, large wheels and derailleurs.
Off came the bars, and we alternated between cowhorns and apehangers. As choppers were just in, i fitted a chopper seat for a whie and eventuallly we took it to a local blacksmith (ah, the pleasures of living in the countryside)...and got him to weld on some front fork extensions....real easy rider stye. Except it wasnt easy ...it was a bitch to steer. They didnt stay on long

God only knows what it looked like but it taught me a lot about bikes. As 13 or 14, i was able to strip and grease wheel hubs, freewheels, transplant bits from one bike to another...you had to do everything, there were no LBS's, no dad to turn to...and not much else to do anyway.

I used to ride like a maniac...35 to 40 years later, nothings changed really.

 

[Davidc]

First set of wheels

Me in 1955, aged 3. Not so much fixed wheel as fixed to the wheel!

My first 2 wheeled bike was a Hercules. I was 5, it was red and second hand and a bit big. No stabilisers. Took me about 10 minutes to find out how to ride it, but I hadn't found the brakes. I still have the scars now.

 

[runner]

great pic davidc...great memory...

 

[chris667]

A Raleigh, blue and red, chaincase, fixed gear. I was about 7 IIRC.
I was a lot more skilled as a kid than I am now - I used to ride that bike standing on the saddle!
Ran it into the ground, then was given a Pro cat Cheetah BMX. It was nicked.
Then onto a Halfords 5 speed road bike. Another one that was run into the ground.
Then an Emelle 12 speed that was miles too big for me, that put me off cycling, I didn't pedal at all between the ages of 12 and 20.
Age 21, fat and unfit, I bought my Puegeot Alpine. My first real bike that moved at the same time I did. I still use it most days, even though I now have several bikes. Brilliant.

 

[col]

Iv just remembered thinking about this. There used to be a second hand shop next to the ABC pictures called the X shop and thats where I got a second hand raleigh chopper, I was about 12 or 13 I think, Wish I still had that too.

 

[Brahan]

My first ever bike was a Raleigh Bobcat. I can't find a pic anywhere though. It was the only bike i ever had which was bought from new. It was all my brother's hand me downs from then on. He got a Raleigh Boxer a couple of years later which meant that I got his Strika. Now that was a bike! Pedal-back brakes and fake suspension. I would love my son to have one of those bikes, he would look cool.........

 

[tyred]

I learned on a fixed gear trike which was God only knows how old. My first bike was some cheap, minature version of the Raleigh Chopper which was passed down from a cousin. Unfortunately, my cousin was a girl and the bike was pink. I repainted it in dark blue

When I had outgrown that, I got another hand me down, this time a Raleigh Twenty folder. After I buckled the back rim, the original wheel with SA hub was replaced with a SS BMX wheel. I rode that bike for years. It wasn't exactly cool but I could leave all my friends on BMXs for dead. A very tough bike as well. I had an upright Raleigh for a while in my mid teens before getting a fairly cheap but new and shiny MTB for my 17th birthday. I rode it a lot for a while before I got a car, became lazy and the bike lay unused in the garage until last April when I started cycling it again.

And the Twenty? It also sat unused in the garage for a long time until I got nostalgic and restored it last October and I use it occasionally and will be taking part in the Northern Ireland Small Wheeler ride later this year.

Am I the only 29 yo to still ride the same bike I had when I was 9?

It is a 1971 Dublin built model. The serial number is in a different place from a Nottingham bike and the headbadge has "Notttingham" missing from the bottom of it.

My Twenty -
Before

And After: (I have since painted the pump to match the frame!)

 

[palinurus]

Wish I had a picture. Mine was a rusty, red, bicycle with fat solid tyres and a front rod brake. I have a vivid memory of the time I first rode it without being held up by the old man.

My first new bike was a Raleigh roller. It had curvy frame tubes, I think the top tube was formed from one fat tube and a couple of thinner ones- like the cantilever frames on beach cruisers, only this was no beach cruiser: front and rear racks, guards, white plastic saddle. I kept it really clean.

Rode that up to dunstable downs once- still a regular route (except now it doesn't take all day and I don't need to carry an old ice cream tub full of sandwiches to do it)