Your very first bike, purchased or built ?

[CAESAR AVGVSTVS]

I was around 11 years old (1978) when I found myself down the local dump with friends, looking for any bits to make my first bike. It wasn’t long before I had something that resembled a bike. Most weekends I was searching through the skips for better wheels or tyres, even unworn cotter pins came in handy. Thinking back, as much as I would have loved a brand new bike, the fun I had building my own frankinstine lookalike bikes, was memories I now treasure.
Am I alone or did some of you guys build your own? Do the youngsters of limited funds, still do this today?

 

[Jameshow]

My first bike was a wyedale from Liverpool built up from bits MA2 wheels, DT shivers, aero brakes.

Would love to find another one? Anybody got one!

My kids aren't into bikes so haven't built one however both boys have built PCs .....MWYW

 

[Illaveago]

This is mine. It is my Holdsworth Record which I bought in 1971 from Fred Baker Cycles in Bristol. I still have it but I have replaced the rear wheel which I buckled whilst racing to work when I was a teenager. I replaced the single steel chainring for an ally double clanger years later.

 

[postman]

i began cycling during my divorce.i was told by my legal man to stop doing overtime or i would be paying out vast sums of money for the next fourteen years and see nothing for it.so like having your arm cut off,i stopped.that was bad i had too much time on my hands and i thought too much.so a group of people told to take up cycling so i decided to buy a bike, a heavy Raleigh i found i enjoyed it and was quite good i decided to buy a better bike thats when fate took over.i went into Watson Cairns Briggate Leeds a well known motorcycle and bicycle store.With £300 in cash in my pocket.no staff came to see me so i walked out.i got home and used Yellow pages phonebook,Drakes Cycles Harehills,they were brilliant i shopped there for years.I bought a custard coloured Raleigh Triathalon 105 brakes and gearing a customer had it built but could not afford it.they offered me it i bit their hands off.i had it years till the paint faded badly.Next bike was from Spa Harrogate a Dawes Super Galaxy 25" frame,in between that a mountain bike from Drakes,a bike for work from drakes another giant Mountain bike from Cyclesense Tadcaster then finally 2010 with money from a lovely Aunty in her will the Spesh sectuer Elite.i still have it and i love it it never looks dated it was a great model and popular in 2010,let me get shut of this cancer and its coming out in celebration next year.

 

[slowmotion]

When I was about ten, my parents bought me a slightly battered second-hand Raleigh with a three speed hub and rod brakes. It had a scruffy leather saddle and a leather strap that wobbled round the hub to keep it shiny.

 

[HMS_Dave]

I thought i had an original boneshaker until i realised that my Grandad's mate gave me a rather rusty purple bike with very solid, non-pneumatic rubber tyres. I wish i knew what it was though and has long since gone.

 

[dicko]

I was twelve and we had been posted to RAF Germany. My father bought a men’s bike from a German shop it had a back pedal brake, a heavy frame, spanner to strip it all down, carrier, wheel lock and dynamo lights all as standard, it was a bit of a Panzer. We arrived from UK and as he had bought a new car (purchase tax free) I was given this huge bicycle. It was too big for me even with the saddle lowered but I survived and as most kids had one learnt to do the most awesome skids with the back wheel locked.

 

[Sharky]

Excluding my "childbikes", My first adult bike was a fixed gear Hill Special, that my dad got me for my 10th birthday. It was mostly a complete bike, but I do remember getting new brakes and red mudguards for it.

Sadly this was stolen a couple of years later and our neighbour donated his "sit up and beg" roadster. With help of my dad, stripped it down and replaced a lot of the kit with my dad's spares and turned it into a drop bar road bike.

 

[dicko]

Not my first bike but my first Trike, it came with a Brock and Bruin cycle license which the village copper checked regularly (the Police station was next door).

 

[Teamfixed]

A red Claud Butler 'Electron' about 1976

 

[postman]

We had something very similar but it came with a metal locker on the back must have cost a fortune for my parents.

 

[presta]

I had a kiddie trike something like this, followed by another trike with spokes & a chain, then two wheelers, with 20", and 24" wheels. I had my first adult sized bike with 27" wheels and a Huret 5 speed at the age of 10. They were all second hand, my first new one was a Carlton Continental, the first one I bought myself was a Raleigh Record, and then the last, and current one is a Dawes Horizon. (The Record is still rusting away in the garage, but all the previous ones are long gone.)

 

[cyberknight]

My 1st new bike i was about 10
( not my bike )

 

[CAESAR AVGVSTVS]

This is mine. It is my Holdsworth Record which I bought in 1971 from Fred Baker Cycles in Bristol. I still have it but I have replaced the rear wheel which I buckled whilst racing to work when I was a teenager. I replaced the single steel chainring for an ally double clanger years later.

That’s a super looking bike, that really does take me back 😍

 

[CAESAR AVGVSTVS]

My 1st new bike i was about 10
( not my bike )
View attachment 712740

The grifter was every boys dream machine after the Chopper if I remember 😎