What did you ride as a kid?

1speed

1speed

Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
Not sure if this has been a thread before or not, but I was having a conversation with a buddy I grew up with the other day and we were talking about the bikes we had as kids. I had a General Phantom that is still a legend among my friends from back home (we can't even mention it without echoing the name "Phantom-tom-tom-tom ...") I've looked everywhere for a picture of one online and can't find it anywhere. That's not surprising because it certainly wouldn't qualify as a classic - I think it was one of their mid-level consumer bikes (as opposed to the General Hustler, which my older brother had. You can find pictures of those everywhere.)

So what did you ride as a kid?
 
I was BMX kid and had several bikes...

1st - junk yard conversion done by Dad
2nd - can't recall the brand but it was a department store Mongoose knock off
3rd - used Mongoose which I customized over the years. Wish I still had it, friends parents sold it at garage sale when we were in high school.
4th - Haro Freestyler -- not really sure what happened to this one.

I still have my cousins 83 Torker 280x. He passed away from CF about 15 years ago and my aunt gave me the bike. Actually just bought a new axle the Tuff II's that are on it.
 
I first cannibalized my sisters' girls-framed 20-inch'ers into a pseudo BMX bikes. Then I rode:
- Mongoose
- Torker XL
- Redline PL20
- Redline RL20
- Redline RL20-II

I still have them all 'cept the Mongoose...
 
GREAT topic!!!

* a 70s banana seat special with a stick shift in the middle of the top tube. brown bike. hand-me-down. looked something like this.....http://www.mylifeasanobject.com/graphics/chopper.jpg
* Ross ten speed. silver. also hand-me-down. was way too big for me (looked like Moocher from Breaking Away) http://www.bobkestrut.com/2007/02/25/moocher/ scroll down to see photos of Moocher. btw @1speed - photo of Moocher today looks like your twin.
* around 11 or so got a Mongoose Californian. red. pretty sure this was the model... http://www.vintagemongoose.com/products/californian.php
* with paper-route money changed parts and got a Profile bmx frame. was pretty sweet ride. sold within last few years on this site.
* around 16 got Giant road bike. Giant was a new company at that point. had biopace chain ring. not sure what happened to that bike.
* first mountain bike was a Giant (probably around 1990). think I gave that one to my brother who rode it a few years in the 90's.
* soph year in college got a blue Bridgestone MB-4. blue with red accents. gave that away to someone here a few years ago.
 
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I had a Ross Pirhana 16" bmx style bike as my first bike. Road that thing everywhere all the time when I was young. Then I grew out of it, and got a Haro Dave Mirra 540 Air freestyle/bmx in 1998 or 99. I still have the Haro and the Ross is still at parents house.
 
1978 I had a Kia banana-seat bike when I was 8 or 9.
1984 GT Pro Performer - Still have it.
1985 Ross Mt. Hood Mountain Bike - sold it when I couldnt figure out how to fix the derailleurs.
1986 Hutch Trick Star - just sold it last month.
1995 GT Tequesta mountain bike.
 
This was my first ride. I got this on my 6th birthday. No idea what it was. Those training wheels lasted one week. Riding a bike, exploring the neighborhood and the woods was my favorite thing to do. Looking back, my parents had no idea where I was or how far away I was riding. Usually 3-4 miles from home. I'm guessing that would never fly these days? Especially for a 6 year old!...I was definitely raised a free-range kid.


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This was my second whip. I think it was called a Night Stalker? Got it when I was 8. Was really large for me at first. Had to slam the seat all the way down but I grew in to it eventually. I became much more adventurous with this bike and rode even farther from home, exploring all the parks, farms, railroad tracks, neighborhoods and private property in the area. This is probably when I developed my fear of dogs...I did a lot of tresspassing!

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we were poor as hell growing up living in Manhattan
my first bike was a Huffy Ranger at about 10, I clearly remember the plastic western themed fenders
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next was a Toys'R' Us green Murray right around the when the summer Olympics were held in LA
we moved to Fanwood in the summer of 82 and my brother and I took turns sharing the bike
this one is white, but the seat if vaguely recall being the same, these Murrays were nothing like the Serottas rebadged Murrays used in the Olympics
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Peugeot P-8 was my first "good" bike which I rode to HS on it, at just under $300 it was a lot of coins for us at the time
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I think my first bike that I remember was a Murry Racer? ?? in 2nd grade I got hit by a car and taco'd my rear wheel. tossed that and mom got me a used Haro master freestyle II. neon green with redline bars and white mags! no gyro :(
 
Sometime when I was 8 or 9, I was riding a banana seat bike at the local church doing figure 8's between some marks on the pavement when i caught a pedal and went face first, breaking my left front, adult, tooth clean off at the root. It was a miracle it grew back together until I knocked it out for good in 6th grade Rip that bike and tooth.

In 5th grade I was taking out of school one day because my brother was court ordered to go to rehab (not sure why I was taking out of school, but...) my parents and i had forgotten that I rode my bike in that day, a murray bmx bike IIRC, and upon returning the to the school the next day, the bike was completely stripped of everything not locked up and beat to shit, surely courtesy of the cheap apartment complex next to the school. My reward to cover up to an 10-11 year old that brother was bad was my dad took me to pick out the bike of my choice, which was an '87 Schwinn Predator. This isn't my picture but this was the model and colorway.

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In hindsight, my dad is on the cheap side and him buying this was a big deal. Considering my brother was actually bad for a few years to come, maybe this was a down payment considering 2 years latter I spent every Sunday for 18 months going to visit his ass in the clink. I'll never get that time back, NEVER.
One of my best memories on this bike was riding home one day from school and I wasn't strong enough to use the hand brakes (mainly because they didn't work, at all) I was coming down Woodland Rd and couldn't stop to turn into my development and went flying into the driveway on the corner. No exciting crash story but I remember mentally shitting my pants.

Other than that I have no memory of anything but this bike other than riding to skatespots until I got a Gary Fisher Rangitoto in 10 or 11th grade.
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I sold this bike in 1997 while at Kutztown to buy a GT Avalanche.

Oddly enough, the guy who bought it now cuts my in-law yard, so if I ever want it back, can probably find it there.
 
Don't remember my first bike but I do remember my favorite as a kid. I present to you The Huffy Vortex!
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Not my image... but I LOVED those sweet hubcaps when I was 8!
 
I rode and raced BMX until '93 when I switched to Trials. 2007 I started racing XC.
 
stb222 said:
... my dad took me to pick out the bike of my choice, which was an '87 Schwinn Predator. This isn't my picture but this was the model and colorway.

my87schwinnpfft2001_blowup.jpg
Click to expand...

I remember those -- wasn't that the bike that Elliot had in E.T.? I knew a few guys who had that -- I remember that little "foot stand" above the rear wheel. You know I find really strange now when I see these bikes? Those plastic pedals. How were there not more tragic injuries from those breaking while riding them? My bike had steel pedals and I damn near snapped them off a dozen times.
 
Only bike I had as a kid worth mentioning was my Mongoose Expert from the 80's which was my first new bike, bought at Marty's Cycle. Had a 3 speed bananna seat also that I remember that the steerer tube came loose while riding down a slight decline and I ended up with some good road rash with gravel in it.
 
1st bike - Schwinn Predator with Skyway Tuff Wheel IIs - stolen out of the backyard of my parents house
2nd bike - Haro FSX - Again stolen out of my parents backyard (you'd think I'd have learned the 1st time)
3rd bike - Haro Group 1 RS1 - had that bike until I went to college, when my father threw it out...very sore subject.

That Haro RS1 was basically my life growing up. Was on it pretty much every day and I raced it (when there was an ABA).
I still remember the parts list:
Group 1 RS1 frame
DK stem
Powerlight Powerbend bars
Zeronine pad set
Redline Flight cranks and sprocket
Tioga Comp III tires 2.125 front, 1.175 rear
Odyssey Pit Bull brakes

Man I miss that bike!!!!
 
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