Remember your first 3 bikes? Then post some photos & history

Re: Can you remember your first three bikes?

See? This is simple, but fun with no shouty shouty!
 
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Bike number 1: A Raleigh Budgie in pale blue, second hand - like this one:

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The decals were scratched so my dad carefully removed them and replaced them with some sticker replicas of a Deltic nameplate from the National Railway Museum in York which gave it its new name: Alycidon. Lovingly accessorised with a massive, red, square Eveready back light so I could always clearly see where I'd been. This was the lean, mean speed machine on which i was seated when I first magically heard my dad's voice receding into the distance and realised that I was riding without stabilisers, and immediately after that, also realised that just one brake felt somehow inadequate. A long seat like its big brother, the Chopper, meant that its carrying capacity was as many four year olds as dared climb aboard. I thought it was the absolute bees knees. With its centre of gravity so far aft, and its big, squashy back tyre, it was surprisingly easy to jump and comfortable to land on. But then, Matt Murphy - whose parents were pretty well off - brought in the Raleigh catalogue, and directed our attention to the Raleigh Burner in team colours which he assured us Father Christmas would be delivering to his house in the not too distant future. Which meant that my next bike was a...

Bike number 2: Kuwahara Laser in chrome with red crash pads and a red Aeroyal seat - hell yeah!

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This was an incredibly generous Christmas present from my uncle Paul, who I'd guess probably left his Quattro pulled up on the pavement outside the bike shop with its hazards on, popped in, and asked for the best BMX they had because he was in a hurry. I had literally no idea what I'd got. I hadn't even watched ET. I just liked the Japanese flag stickers that you could put on yourself and the slow tease of freeing it from its box on Christmas Day morning. I tamely pootled round on this awesome machine for a few years until my dad announced that I had outgrown it and it was time for me to have a "proper bike". The Kuwahara went to my cousin and then vanished into thin air, and my dad bought me a...

Bike number 3: miniature Viscount racer - 16 inch frame, 5 speeds, replica KP Crisps racing team livery; like a tiny version of this:

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I daringly added bright blue bar tape and a Selle Royal Pullman. We bought an aerodynamic water bottle for it, but couldn't figure out how to make it fit in the bike's tiny front triangle. This was the bike that made me realise that bikes are a mode of transport, not just a toy. My dad took me out to Shireoaks on the train and we did a loop through the countryside to Worksop, dad on his massive Carlton Corsair. I didn't know enough about the Kuwahara to brag about it, but I would go on about how awesome the Viscount was to anyone that would listen. When I started riding old bikes again, I came back to Viscounts and bought a blue and silver Aerospace Pro - that's it (and me) fourth from the left below in Sooper 8's picture from the first ever Death Fork Rally in 2013:

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Re: Can you remember your first three bikes?

Great stuff Goldie... top draw post..... :mrgreen:
 
Re: Can you remember your first three bikes?

My first bike when I was 6 was some little fat tyred thing with lethally sharp short mudguards that sliced open my leg from knee to crotch. Bled all over my dads Beetle on way to medical centre. 2nd bike I remember but not what it was. 3rd bike was a German version of a chopper they sold in the NAAFI (my dad was stationed in Berlin). A Grandezza. Think it was xmas 1972 I got that. Had to leave it behind when moved back to UK a few years later.

I learnt to pimp bikes at an early age!
 

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Re: Can you remember your first three bikes?

Now thats cool..... top of the accessorise list must be the 'GB' sticker in Germany :LOL:
 
Re: Can you remember your first three bikes?

Great thread!

My first proper bike was a no-brand, Littlewoods catalogue quality all-chrome BMX. I cannot remember any detail about this bike it was that special. The only thing I did to it was added some Mongoose pads......which I think someone gave me.

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Second bike......probably catalogue again.....Townsend 2000 in Rhubarb and Custard colour scheme. Wondered for ages in recent years what model this bike was (memory a bit dim about such a mediocre bike) and it was only recently I saw one chained up locally and recognised it instantly......then found a pic of one online.

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Then things got serious......mid-teens and parents decided it was time for a proper bike, having seemingly trying to put me off cycling for life!

1993 Marin Bear Valley - bought secondhand from Madgetts Cycles in Diss. Absolutely loved that bike......rode miles on it. Was a first taste of independence - with friends we rode to other friends houses (who lived miles away), we rode to Snetterton to watch the racing......and we spent more time than I care to remember over the local scrub land, making our own trails. Bike got ridden into the ground and eventually damaged so scrapped.......I learnt to drive and the biking tailed off.

Several years later I was reminiscing about my Bear Valley and came across this website - and ended up stumbling across one exactly like my old one at a car boot sale. £40 later and she was mine.....albeit a bit too small.

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Re: Can you remember your first three bikes?

Superb first photo.... this was what I was hoping for! :D
 
Re: Can you remember your first three bikes?

So, our Jim has spotted this thread on his phone during lunch (I still find the access our kids have is truly bizarre! He gets sent his homework via Google chrome!!!!) :shock: anyway, he’s asked if he can have his bikes posted…….

First pedal bike, from Halfords. This is his first day without stabilizers…pleased as punch he was too, I had to run after him to get him in for his tea!

Only photo of his 2nd bike, a Halfords “Trax” a sort of BMX-ish single speed, with seat post at the top of its limit… which lead us to the “Father & Son Claud Butler Restoration” and me turning to Retrobike for help (approval, pats on back etc etc) :)

And finally, the finished article, his 1969 Claud Butler Electron Super Five, which is now rapidly being out grown! Not to worry, because he’s already spent (with his own money) £40 on a 1976 CB Cavalier tourer and £20 on a 1994 CB Oracle MTB. To be sorted this winter….. :xmas-big-grin:
 

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Re: Can you remember your first three bikes?

I almost had a big red Chopper but this roguish looking cove made off with it.
 

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1st bike I remember which had the stabilisers off was some blue Raliegh with white tyres.

2nd bike an hand me down Puch. Had some weird cross-bar / top-tube going on.

3rd bike a Peugeot. Blue, chrome steel rims, obligatory Wienmans suicide brakes, Huret gears. Later on it had a custom paint job with any Airfix paint I could lay my hands on.
 
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