What was your first bike?

[skeeter]

My father didn't believe in training wheels.
And to think, today I only wear a helmet by choice not under doctors orders.

Mom wouldn't let me wear a helmet.

[Elderberry]

Mom wouldn't let me wear a helmet.

And I bet it broke your heart.

[skeeter]

And I bet it broke your heart.

What broke my heart were the times she tried to hit me with the car.

[Wingnut]

What broke my heart were the times she tried to hit me with the car.

Typical women drivers.  Never can hit a moving target. 

[truth_seeker]

I had several bikes, but one stands out. About my freshman year in HS, "10 speeds" became popular. My father paid me to do some heavy duty landscaping work, to earn money for a French brand named "Terrot," which had Huret derailleurs, and Wiedemann center-pull brakes.

It had decorative features beyond the typical American Schwinn Continental, of the day. Lugs, for instance.

[Wingnut]

This was very similar to my 1st road bike.  She was a lesser model of this one pictured.  Mine was a 1968 Green Raleigh 10 speed with the suicide shifters. Brown ass hatchet , green bar tape Gum walled tires. 

[Elderberry]

I got me a 10 speed in 1970, a Schwinn Varsity. I remember the salesman knew I was a doper because I paid for it all in 20's. My mom got a kick outta that. I talked her into my needing the bike so I didn't have to ride to school with crazy Tiger down the street.

[Smokin Joe]

My father didn't believe in training wheels.
And to think, today I only wear a helmet by choice not under doctors orders.

Training wheels are only there to give time to build muscles for those who haven't already and to teach them to pedal (something most do on a trike). At four, my 'baby' girl decided she wanted her training wheels off. I removed them for her, and went out on a job. In two days she was tearing around on that thing. When I got back in a week, she was ripping around the area like nobody's business, looking for things to make a ramp out of.

In my day? Helmets were for miners, construction workers, and soldiers. What do you need one of those for on a bicycle? (I have only rarely worn them on a motorcycle, either, usually in Canada where they were required by law.)

[Wingnut]

What do you need one of those for on a bicycle?

 

[Smokin Joe]

What/ A helmet? If you hit your head on a curb on a bicycle (20 MPH), the right helmet might save you from a nasty injury. At 60 MPH, your brain will slosh around inside your skull anyway, if your neck vertebrae don't just shatter.  Just like a hard hat will protect you if someone drops a small piece of scrap lumber from a floor or two up. But if they drop the whole beam....

[ConstitutionRose]

My father didn't believe in training wheels.
And to think, today I only wear a helmet by choice not under doctors orders.

We taught all the kids and grandkids to ride without training wheels.  Kids lean on them and don't learn to keep their balance.  Took the pedals off the bike and put them on a little incline and let them go down that incline until they learn to balance themselves.  Put the pedals back on and off they go.  It takes about an hour to teach them to ride that way. 

[Cripplecreek]

We didn't have all the paved bike paths either.

[Smokin Joe]

We didn't have all the paved bike paths either.

Mud, dirt, gravel, leaves when riding through the woods. Once in a while we got to ride on pavement for part of the the one mile trip to the bus stop before the weather got too bad in the fall or after it got nice enough in the spring.

[Cripplecreek]

Mud, dirt, gravel, leaves when riding through the woods. Once in a while we got to ride on pavement for part of the the one mile trip to the bus stop before the weather got too bad in the fall or after it got nice enough in the spring.

I grew up in a little town so riding in the street wasn't a big deal. We also went miles out of town too, sometimes by road and sometimes by the railroad bed or farm lanes and paths.

By the time I was a teenager it wasn't unusual for me to put 40 or 50 miles on a bike every day. We were even riding out to the woods with rifles slung across our backs to hunt amall game.

[Smokin Joe]

I grew up in a little town so riding in the street wasn't a big deal. We also went miles out of town too, sometimes by road and sometimes by the railroad bed or farm lanes and paths.

By the time I was a teenager it wasn't unusual for me to put 40 or 50 miles on a bike every day. We were even riding out to the woods with rifles slung across our backs to hunt amall game.

I mostly rode bicycle (10 speed by then) in college. In the Shenandoah Valley, some pretty good hills, and a mere 18 miles on a bike-a-thon was no sweat.  I probably rode ten miles a day, every day, and thought nothing of it.  Them I moved on to cars, then motorcycles, then 4WD...

[Gefn]

It was a pepto pink tricycle

I had to be about 3 or 4.

My first "big girls bike" was a blue schwinn. 3 speed, back breakes

[anubias]

Parents gave me a bike that looked much like this one except it had streamers coming out of the handle bars when I was four years old. 


It was so damned big that I could only ride it standing up as I couldn't reach the seat and had training wheels.  I truly hated that bike.

When I was almost six, the neighbor across the street took pity on me and gave me an ancient tiny bike that actually fit me.  I can remember it being the biggest thrill of my life when I jumped on it and road off down the street, actually sitting on the seat and no training wheels.  Ride it I did, all day and past dark.  The "stay out after dark and get the beating of your life" threat didn't deter me from ignoring the whistle and staying out way past dark on that ugly, rusty, beat-up, most beautiful bike in the world.

About a month later school was about to start.  My Dad came home with a stingray to ride to school.  She was a beaut.  As much as I loved that bike and many others over the years, I have never felt the thrill that I did the first time I took off on that rusty freebie the neighbor gave me.