So we've got lots and lot of pictures of everyones gorgeous bikes on here, plus Wild Bill's excellent "What was the first bike you ever road?" thread, but I think it's time we refressed just that little bit further into just how we got bitten by this particular bug right from the very start. Our very, very first bike. I'll start. And funnily enough, it wasn't a bike at all... I have it on good authority that it was eventually given a full custom paint job, in Supercar replica colours, courtesy of Southern Railway (my dad was a fireman back then, before "That bastard Beeching! (his words)), with Mike Mercury decals. I really don't remember, I drank a lot in those days.
Nice! Mine was a little wooden trike... I dont have any pictures, but my mum has a picture of the aftermath of my first ride... didnt go well, ended up face-planting onto the tarmac and turning my cherubic face into one enormous scab!
We lived in America for 12 months when I was four. I remember one of those classic american tricycles with a boot that looked like a breadbin. Can't find a piccy though? Like this, but smaller? http://is00.thegumtree.com/image/big/131452564.jpg
I don't remember my first set of wheels but the first one's i do remember ( and absolutely loved to bits ) was ... Raleigh Budgie
Dont remember what the bike was but went straight over the handlebars heading down a hill. Only four with my first stitches and half my cheek on the floor. I bet it wasn't made in China though
My main memory isn’t about a bike it was my E type peddle car that my old dad brought me as an unexpected treat when he took over his first business I must have been about four ish and the first thing I did was find out what would happen if I peddled as fast as I could into the corner of the wall, over and over again. So the story goes, my old man came home from work and was very upset, not mad, genuinely upset that he had spent what was probably a lot of money and within a day it was all dented and bashed in. I will have to ask my mum if she has any photos but it was very similar to the picture but in a light metallic blue. Next real memory was me being furious that my parents wouldn’t buy me a Raleigh Chipper because they said it wasn’t safe. My best mate (still to this day) Richard had one and I was so jealous.
Sweet jag David, you posey git. You were bloody born a flash bugger! Don't feel bad about Richards Chipper, they were bloody awful to ride, and everyone I knew that had one turned into designers and architects and the such. All people with little grasp of the idea of function over form, and, as a result of their experiences on Raleigh's death trap, no testicles.
Push bikes were a painful memory for me as I always got my brother's cast offs and he's quite a bit older than me so I was riding around in the late 70s / early 80s on kids bikes from the late 60s My first very masculine bike was called 'Mayflower' After that I got his Raleigh Commando...which sounds pretty butch but this one was shocking pink
Remember when we were chatting and I said that despite how close we got we still needed to have secrets from one another, Rich? Well.........
Unfortunately I dont have any pics of my childhood at all. But I remember my first bike, though cant remember the model. My dad (forget which one....lol) taught me to ride in about 10mins, the hard way, which is the norm? Anyhow, within hours I was 'doing none handed'....brill! Until I leant over to take a right hander.....they had just re surfaced the road with the dreaded stone chippings. That was my first taste of gravel rash. I painfully remember my mum picking / scrubbing chippings out of my face, head, arms, legs...... The same bike.....my brakes were worn out, as was all my shoes..lol. Asked my dad to fix them but he was busy...(going bowling) so down the road I went, then a car pulled out and I T boned it, I went flying over the bonnet and ate some more road. The driver of the car? Yep, you guessed....my dad.!! Lol.
Classic Blaggers there. Just learned to balance two wheeled then "hmmmm, wonder what would happen if I let go?" I reckon the HSE would hire Van Helsing to bump him off if they could, you know.
