Your First Bike Ever

a.s.

a.s.

Mr. Chainring
I was reading an article on NSMB, which reminded of my first bike ever. It was a used, gold colored, banana seat, jalopy that my grandfather bought from the local shop. The year was 1981 (I was 8) and I think he paid $15 for it. That's the bike I learned to ride on, and it looked exactly like this...
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First non-training wheels bike... honestly not sure... something from a dept store or Lionel-Kiddie City in an Atlanta suburb. Probably purchased at a discount because my mother worked there part time during the Christmas season. I remember I broke it when I was ~7 jumping it and my grandfather tried brazing it back together, but the alignment was off. That was replaced by something I don't really remember and was stolen from our apartment steps. Then a Murray that I had for a number of years and the move from GA to PA until I got a Schwinn Predator in 1982 from Guy's Bikes (the Murray then went back to Atlanta where it stayed at my grandparents' house so I'd have a bike during summer visits). The Predator I still have, although it's just a frame now.

I don't think I have any pictures of them. My parents weren't much into taking pictures while I was growing up and all we had was a little 110 compact camera.
 
When I was growing up in Staten Island my Mom worked at the mall at Sears in the toy department (yup lucky me!). I am about 90% sure my first bike was the blue one in this picture. Doing my google search someone has a sears catalog posted online that you can even flip the pages!



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Then a few years later I had some chrome looking used BMX mongoose that I bought with my own money at a yard sale for like $15. I can recall using my dad's yellow handle adjustable wrenches to put new knobby tires on it including using a flatbar as a tire lever and ripping a lot of tubes that way. I had some local friends that had much nicer BMX stuff they used to help me fix it and gave me their used parts because we didn't have a lot of money back then.

Man I rode that single speed bike everywhere including places I wasn't supposed to. Thinking back I did some really unsafe things riding that bike with no helmet, safety gear or even identification on me but at 12-14 years old who is thinking about that in the 1980s anyway.
 
The first day I rode w/o training wheels was memorable.
Not because it was the first day w/o training wheels, but what came about.

Perhaps 6 or 7 years old, I seem to remember a red Schwinn from Denville Cycle(?). Mid-rise handle bars, standard saddle.
Happily and safely riding with the training wheels off the ground, but they were there JIC.
Of course one does not listen to their parents about removing them, but when a friend's dad says that you don't need them,
well, triple dog dare.....

He takes them off, and we are a pack of 5 kids on a dirt road behind Lymons on rt 46.
A couple times back and forth, and I've gone pro. We are riding in a pack! (I have no idea about bike racing, and we weren't that close to each other)
But hell, I want my $2.

Then the horror - my friend goes down in front of me. I could turn, brake, bunny hop (ok, maybe not then, maybe not now either) but I don't do any of that.
I run her over. Like over her arm and face, the dirt imprint of a tire across her cheek.
Can't recall going down, or using my mad skills to stay upright.
Not even sure there was comprehension of what happened in that split second.
Inconceivable!

Being kids we were right back at it the next day. Neighbor kids were a bit older and had some sweet jumps.
Certainly ate some dirt over the next 50 years......
 
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I dont remember the brand or spec of the first one, but we all had BMX bikes with coaster brakes. Then I rode a friends bike with a freehub and rim brakes. I distinctly remember not being able to stop, spinning feverishly backwards, slamming into a curb coming off the seat and wailing my boy bits on the stem/top tube, realizing I never squeezed the brake lever.

I had a Kent mountain bike my dad bought from Kim's in New Brunswick, that was fun until it got stolen.

Then freshman year in high school he found me a Specialized Rockhopper, that I painted red with a black fork. Man I thought I was bad ass, would ride that thing EVERYWHERE. Not sure where that ended up after I got my car.
 
Do tricycles count? Me in 1983. I actually remember this day vividly. Back then our parents didn't really supervise us at all and pretty much let us be feral. the day I got this tricycle I went on my first solo long-distance ride. I rode around the block by myself. Didn't tell anyone where I was going, I just went. It's a pretty big block and the circumference is just under a mile. to a 4 year old it may as well be 50 miles. I think it took me around 3 hours and my parents weren't even that worried that they had no idea where I was for that long. Different times man...We were just talking about this at a family dinner recently.
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Huffy Ranger around 1980, despite working 6 days a week and a side gig of street peddling on the 7th, he still found time to teach me to ride in the lower east side of Manhattan. Those were the days of fresh puddles of blood in the park from the night before, and folks think NYC is terrible now...
The bike eventually made it to NJ in '82 where my mom would allow me to ride every where, just as long as we didn't miss dinner and if we went out again, before sunset. The little Huffy got lots of mileage for little tires.
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I can't remember what my first kids bike was, probably something handed down. The first new bike I ever owned was a Kmart coaster brake BMX, I think it's a Saint Tropez. I still own it although it needs yet another rebuilt. I broke almost everything on that bike. Cranks, stems, wheels, seats, whatever. I think I spent all my paper route money trying to keep it running.

Side note, I lived around the corner from Denville Cycle Center. They always had the coolest stuff from Redline, Mongoose, etc that I'm sure my annoying broke ass teenage self drooled over. I do recall beating Johnny-something on a new Redline at an ad-hoc Gardner Field distance jump contest. I wiped out a stem but won. 😉
 
extremedave said:
Side note, I lived around the corner from Denville Cycle Center. They always had the coolest stuff from Redline, Mongoose, etc that I'm sure my annoying broke ass teenage self drooled over. I do recall beating Johnny-something on a new Redline at an ad-hoc Gardner Field distance jump contest. I wiped out a stem but won. 😉
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Distance jump challenges... I have fond memories of doing those, although never in any official capacity. When I first moved to PA there were a few development sections of Bensalem that were incomplete and not under construction, but a lot of the land-clearing had been done. Specifically the "Dudley Court" area near Valley Elementary School. There would a few ad-hock jumps we used to hit. Always landing to flat, of course, because we didn't know any better... :shrug:
 
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