what was your first bike?

[muted]

I think I paid $500 for it new in 1990? I do remember paying in $1 bills because as a kid I thought it would be cool to have a wad of money for a day or so.

[t-the-east]

Same as most, the first one I saved up for and paid for myself. Still got it. Pieced it out and built it myself at 14-15. Mongoose solution pro frame, redline flight cranks, Haro bars, S&M seat and post... I forget the rest of the "custom" parts

Always pictured giving it to my son... he just started riding it lately.


Had a PK ripper shortly after. Awesome bike too, but the Frame was so short....

[detrusor]

First bike was from the local hardware store.

First good bike was a cook bros. mini....started a string of great bikes, working in shops etc. parents told me it was a phase and didn't want to buy me that cook. Saved, got it and still ride as much as I can!

Only had 2 bikes that would have been worth something today. An original alloy Nomura and followed w a cromoly Nomura. Never seen another cro-mo one....

[MakersTeleMark]

[Tads]

[schindlerpiste]

The first bike that I bought for myself was a 1978ish Raleigh Grand Prix. Nice road bike for the ice coast

[mcski]

The one in the pic belonged to Robin Williams, but other than the fork is identical to my first ride. Like an idiot, i turned this classic into a klugey BMX mess

[ill-advised strategy]

haha...nice. I had a real similar GT performer.


1st "adulty" bike: Bridgestone MB-5
bought from future maggot 1wsguy back in the early 90s!

[Touring_Sedan]

Christmas 1984. The Grandparents got me this....

Free Spirit (Sears) FS200



Apparently they spent $94.21



I hope to pass it to my son in a couple of years.



I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same. I still ride with gold hoops and one gear.....

[basinbeater]

I love this fucking thread and I am drunk!
My first bike was some stupid spiderman thing with training wheels... But after the wheels came off and it was time for a bike, I got a diamondback cool streak... Dope.

[That was Pontus]

A 1998 GT Dyno VFR. Many years of juvenile mayhem were undertaken aboard those two wheels of red, black and chrome freedom. Best day I had with it was about 10 months ago though. I pulled down the remains down from the rafters of my parents garage, pilfered some parts from my brothers GT Interceptor (heh, his first bike) and handed it off to this Syrian kid who'd spent the last five years in a refugee camp in. I loved my first bike. He does too.

[HankScorpio]

Beyond shit department store bikes, my first 'real' mountain bike was a Cannondale F600, pretty sure I bought it in 1996. I remember seeing mountain bikes in some ski shops and just wanted one instantly. I was 14 and got a job bagging groceries all summer for $4.50/hr until I saved the $800 for the bike.

It had about 1-2 inches of Headshok travel and had a sweet matte blue paint job. Wish I still had it just for nostalgic purposes.

[wyeaster]

i don't remember but i remember riding my mom's big lady schwinn for the first time when i was maybe 8 when she sent me to the oakway mall to buy tampons. i tried to stop coming up to the stop sign but forgot it was handbrakes and had to bail out.

[gravitylover]

In 1974 @ 8 years old I got tired of riding heavy crappy bikes that I found so I asked for and saved up birthday and holiday gift money and went and bought my own bike. I needed something to ride to school and to just generally get around town with so I got a metallic brown Kent with a Shimano 3 speed twist shift, banana seat with dual rear baskets, rim brakes, ape hanger bars and heavy duty tires. I rode the ever lovin' shit out of that bike and finally snapped the frame into 3 pieces when I smashed a pothole in front of an open storm drain avoiding getting run over by a bus a few years later. That was a 4 mile walk home carrying a bunch of stuff and dragging the bike pieces with me.

At that point I was almost 11 and had a small bike repair biz going out of my parents garage so went through a string of well functioning beaters for a while until I got a nice Japanese road bike when I was 13 and put thousands of miles on it until I got a Honda 2 speed semi auto scooter in jr year of HS. The next real bike was a 1985 or so Diamonback Ascent that saw thousands of miles around Steamboat in the late 80's, Tahoe in 92-93 and then got smooshed when a trailer I was towing behind my Jeep jacknifed and flipped over on I80 in NV. Replaced it with a brand new 1994 GT something or other with a RS fork and rode that around the NY area, in a bunch of places between there and New Orleans then all over CO, UT and Santa Cruz then headed up to BC where it got stolen the day before I was supposed to go to Whistler. Again went through a series of beaters and the next nice bike was a 1995 or so Crestone Peaks full suspension rig that saw rough duty until 99 when I built up a kickass Fuji Suncrest that I promptly sold for more than I had into it and got a Jamis Dragon that's still in my collection hanging next to the 07 Enduro S Works that tried to replace it. That got retired when I went fat a few years ago but is still ready to go for a trail ride at any time.

[ill-advised strategy]

I have that exact frame now. It's my heavy hauler and winter commuter.

[Alaskan Rover]

Pretty much same as this bike. Yellow sparkly banana seat...the cool shifter...fattish, squarish tires. Not the fancy special edition model with the smaller Orange Krate-style front wheel, though.

Is the any greater freedom to a kid still YEARS away from a license, than a bike?

I think not, sir.

[Jong Lafitte]

Yeah buddy, same here. Mine was way cooler though, it had checkerboard pads that went well with my Vans.

Ha, funny, a buddy of mine in Lakewood had the exact same setup, including the shoes! Black and White, IIRC. I remember another neighborhood kid had one that had the red and white checkered pads. I had a bmx wannabe thing and wanted a BMX sooooo bad, for Christmas in like 83 or 84 I got a schwinn predator which years later sold so I could get a "10 speed" road bike.

[Sandbox]

oh man that was fun looking through! i had a lot of garage sale BMX bikes (kuwahara, mongoose) then for one Christmas i got a GT Arrowhead i believe it was, red in colour, no suspension. I also remember saving up i think $400 and buying a bright green Mongoose BMX from a local bike shop.... some good memories on those 2 bikes!

[babybear]

gary fisher hookooekoo was my first good bike

then my 2nd summer riding I got this fat chance yo eddy, which I still have and use as a grocery getter

[bagtagley]

My first was a BMX bike that a friend gave us. It was beat up and rusted and unrideable. The old man and I tore it down, sanded, primed and repainted the frame, soaked and cleaned the bearings, and polished and cleaned the parts. Painted it jet black, and put black and white checker pads on it. I loved that bike. I was totally crushed when it got stolen from a friend's house. I left it in the house, but he took it for a ride and didn't put it away. He owed me for a while after that.

First real bike was a Raleigh Technium Obsession. I saved forever for it. It was between that and a Giant. The guy talked me out of the Giant because it had a Suntour drivetrain, and he said they probably weren't going to last. Heh. I still have it. I turned it into a comfort cruiser for my old man. He used it a few times, and it's been sitting since. I'm grab it the next time I visit them, and turn it into a commuter.

Not mine, but it's basically identical to this one, BioPace and all.



http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=195375

[Eluder]

First bike I bought, well I paid half for, was a 1995 Raleigh M60. I sure thought it was pretty cool since it had an aluminum frame. Really nothing special until I saved up and bought one of these for it!


I blew that fork up every 10 rides, which prompted the purchase of this

I thought Tinker was the shit.

[powpig]

First bike (not trike) I had as a kid was a Montgomery Wards knockoff of a Schwinn Stingray.

First bike I bought for myself was a 1987 Jamis Dakota.

[Dantheman]

I blew that fork up every 10 rides, which prompted the purchase of this

I thought Tinker was the shit.

That stem is aero as fuck!

[Pegleg]

Schwinn Predator, got it around 1987 I think. Taco'd the front wheel over and over doing the trick where you do a big endo and turn the front wheel sideways, holding the left grip right up against the front of the seat. Looked cool at the time, was my favorite trick that I could actually pull off.

(Not my pic, but same bike in the same color. Mine had pegs front and back, though.)



Edit: pic of the trick I'm talking about here:

[Rontele]

Bridgestone MB-3