What was your first proper bike?

[Sweep]

Dawes Chic Alors. 26

Gotta ask.
What's that name mean/supposed to convey?

[Jdsk]

A certain je ne sais quoi?

Jonathan

[simonhill]

It's an exclamation of joy or happiness.

I assume it reflects a happy bike that the owner finds a joy to ride. A bit like a whooppee as you ride along.

Plus a mention of French may have allusion to the TdF, french cycling, etc.

[thirdcrank]

Dawes Chic Alors. 26

Gotta ask.
What's that name mean/supposed to convey?

My late mother spent most of her working life in the retail paint and wallpaper trade, when it existed separately. She used to go to all sorts of trade events and at one organised by Dulux she asked in a Q & A session why they kept changing the names of standard colours. The reply was on the lines of "It's a matter of nomenclature" and they moved on to the next person with a question. Daft names are thought to help with marketing.

[Nearholmer]

Made me remember this staged crash, my youngest bro, one of the several old roadsters (I think this was a dark red one that I rode for a while), which I photographed c1970.

[CyberKnight]

Like this!

I had the same one in that exact colour ! hub gear cable snapped so i was in top gear permanently

Yep. That was my experience! Got big legs out of it though

indeed , at my peak i had a 28 " waist and each upper thigh was about 26 "

[Halla]

I was about years when I had my first bike, a red sit up and beg, not sure what make.

I found an old black sit up and beg dumped by our back gate when I was about 11, no one said anything, but my Dad put blocks on the pedals and I rode it for a couple of years. I think my Dad had bought it second hand from somewhere.

My Mum ordered a new Elswick Hopper "proper" bike through some scheme to do with the Scouts, but they were all undersized and it never arrived.

I ended up (age 14) with a Vindec, which the dealer put a Sturmey Archer 4 speed hub on. I was not allowed dangly gears. The 4 speed hub was matched with a 3 speed changer. Made it interesting not knowing which top gear would be engaged. Vindecs did not seem to be in the same league as other makes. Did many miles on it though. Then age 16 motorbikes came along. It did not finish me cycling forever though, thank goodness.

[Dingdong]

Vindec, 4 speed. Very posh!

[foxyrider]

Vindec, 4 speed. Very posh!

My club in the late '70's, Northampton CC, was sponsored by Vindec (a part of the Brown Bros. empire), we didn't get bikes but we did get one free respray each year in the clubs metallic brown - they actually made a very good job of the paint.

Part of the sponsorship deal was 'personal appearances', promoting the Vindec brand at outlets including Tesco, Vindec - the first supermarket bikes. From my recollection, at that time they were akin to Emmelle and Universal.

[sussex cyclist]

Schwinn, don’t remember the model. 3-speed. It was a working bike - I spent 5 years delivering papers. Those were collapsable baskets, which I thought were pretty great. On days when the papers were fat with ads I still needed a heavy bag around my neck. To this day I detest courier bags because they remind of that damn thing half strangling me.

[Dingdong]

My best friend at school, one Xmas received from Santa a brand new Raleigh Arena in electric blue. I was instantly jealous as I'd never seen a racing bike (with 5 gears!) in the flesh before. I still have a bit of a soft spot, for vintage Raleighs.

[Dingdong]

Like this!

[Dingdong]

Ah, those shortie aluminium mudguards, which did absolutely nothing at all to protect!

[drossall]

I remember the Raleigh Arena. Never owned one. Raleigh at that time seemed an odd company. They had all that heritage, but they kept getting new management, which would alternately switch them to a strategy of producing quality bikes in line with the brand, and then back to stuff you could get in a garden centre, and then back again.

[Norman H]

My first decent bike was an Olmo which I bought from a school friend. It was metallic emerald green and had concealed gear and brake cables, originally five speed but later converted to fixed. My only income in those days was from a paper round and eventually I saved enough to order a bespoke frame from Wally Green in Hendon. The WG was built up using mostly second hand parts. I still have the Olmo frame but sadly the WG was written off in a crash.