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

Just for fun.....

Can you remember your first three bikes? :?

Christmas 1974, got me a Raleigh shopper!!!!!! Sort of retro cool now, but at the time you may as well have called me Susan!
(My Dad said it would toughen me up) :cry:

Christmas 1979, phew, a Raleigh Arena, 19.5” with 26” wheels.. tiny bike that weighed a ton! (But I loved it) And my cousins all got Claud Butlers…… :mrgreen: (Yes, that’s where the obsession started)

1986, And I hadn’t ridden the Arena for a couple of years as I was now 18 and 6’1” so with my own money I bought my first proper bike, a massive 25” Raleigh Record Sprint for £50 from the Metropolitan Police Auctions. My first build, total strip down and rattle can re-spray, got me through University in some style… best accessory was two layers of foam pipe cladding on the top tube, not to protect it but as a “side saddle” to give girls a lift home from the pub…… you have no idea how many times that worked… oh happy days!

Ps. All photos nabbed from e-bay listings….. :xmas-big-grin:

Re: Can you remember your first three bikes?

I can't remember my first actual bike but my 2nd bike and first proper one was the same as Peachy's 2nd, a Raleigh Arena (in fact I think I had more than one) that served me well for a number of years, it ended up with cow horn handlebars and went through too many wheels as I grew up near a large wood that was pockmarked with bomb craters, this meant on good days I caught some awesome air (at good 4 or 5 inches at least) and on bad days some spectacular but painful tree induced sudden stops.

3rd was my first brand new bike which must have been around 1980 and was a bright red Puch Prima Super 12 bought for me for Christmas from Lenham cycles and much like the one below

Re: Can you remember your first three bikes?

Ah! only the posh kids had something from the continent round our way!

Re:

I think I was 5, my first proper bicycle (one with a chain driven rear wheel) was a Pavemaster. The 2nd a single speed Dawes, I don't recall the model but it had 20" wheels and had a green flam' frame with amber flam' mudguards - or was it the other way around.

I had a 3rd, and the 4th is below.

My first real hand made by craftsmen, work of the framebuilder's art, was a Roberts frameset (which I still have), a present for passing exams.

It took me a while to build.

Rk.

N.B all new.

Re:

Mine were all Raleigh bikes from Simpsons Cycles. A lovely family run bicycle shop, always amazing customer service.

Funnily enough after reading a few more posts it just came back to me that my dad built/repaired/welded some iffy light blue 20” wheeled shopper bike for me when i was around 5. He loved welding things. I was fascinated by the intense white light, danger of going blind and the mask i had to wear to watch him.

Re: Can you remember your first three bikes?

PeachyPM":218fw9mz said:

Ah! only the posh kids had something from the continent round our way!

Click to expand...

My mate had a Kalkhoff when I had my Arena, that was the height of exotica in my 10 year old mind, oh and the Puch was way too big for me but it was red and I was having it regardless of what my Dad and the bike shop owner said, I still remember the head shaking "but it's too big for you", "No it's not, I want that one", " We can get a smaller size in for January", No I want that one!!!"

roadking":218fw9mz said:

N.B all new.

Click to expand...

All new? now that's proper posh

Re: Can you remember your first three bikes?

First new bike would have been a Puch Mini-sprint. Earlier stuff is too vague and was second hand including the £5 road bike that was horrible to ride.

Re:

Of course I can.

Re: Can you remember your first three bikes?

legrandefromage":lia623nl said:

First new bike would have been a Puch Mini-sprint. Earlier stuff is too vague and was second hand including the £5 road bike that was horrible to ride.

Click to expand...

Puch Mini-sprint is way more cooler than chasing Choppers on a Raleigh Shopper :facepalm:

Re: Re:

The History Man":12hgj439 said:

Of course I can.

Click to expand...

Here we go, typical teacher… wants us to make proper sentences!
Ok, just for THM;
Hello Retrobikers, can you recall your first three bicycles? If so, would be so kind as to share with the attending online audience, possibly with accompanying photographs? It might allow for a little light-hearted ribbing, and possibly the odd tweaking of pride, all in the name of uplifting moral and general bonhomie, which some contributors to this wide and wonderful forum might appreciate.