What was your first proper bike?

[foxyrider]

My first new bike was a 'Mobo Cross', an Italian 'Chopper' alike thing in lime green aluminium frame with a 5sp derraileur set up - i wanted a Chopper but the Mobo was cheaper and better - i always beat the Raleigh riders when we raced! I'm guessing that would've been @ 1972/3.

By the age of 13, 1976, i wanted a drop handlebar bike and duly had a gas pipe, white and red, five speed Falcon racer purchased for me using my savings, all £24 of it. Cottered chainset, 27x1.25 wheels, Huret rear mech, cheapo Weinmann brakes, plastic saddle etc, etc. It quickly lost the decals and within weeks my pocket money had purchased a replacement Nervar 52/42 cottered double chainset - that summer i started my racing career on said machine. By the following year i needed something bigger and my parents coughed for a handbuilt REW Reynolds (the shoe people) 'racing' frame, the old Falcon frame was eventually sold on for more than i paid for the whole bike, having picked up a respray to metallic brown (our club colours) along the way!

[PT1029]

I don't understand this. Is it a distinction between frames and tubing? Thanks.

Reynolds: Aluminium:
https://www.reynoldstechnology.biz/mate ... um/a-7005/

Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds_ ... #Aluminium

Wikipedia is correct for the 21st century. Back in 1991 Reynolds (and 99.99% of everyone else!) only did steel.

[Jdsk]

Thankyou

Jonathan

[foxychick]

... your frame would not have been Aluminium as Reynolds never built in Aluminium but steel.

I don't understand this. Is it a distinction between frames and tubing? Thanks.

Reynolds: Aluminium:
https://www.reynoldstechnology.biz/mate ... um/a-7005/

Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds_ ... #Aluminium

Jonathan

Do not think that Reynolds did Aluminium tubing in 1991 but stand to be corrected by someone with superior knowledge on here.

[willcee]

A Raleigh GranSport in Flamboyant ruby red, as a prize for getting my 11+ in 63, 21'' frame swallow saddle 5sp campagnolo gran sport steel cottered crank 27's steel rims 29 quidish Father who could well afford it, business man, a JP, 2 cars, cashed in some elusive war bonds i heard him tell a chum of his one evening girning about the cost of a young chaps bike, last one he bought his dad pre war was likely a 5er it was hanging in the garage again Raleigh, moss green all steel, red with rust..it did thousands of miles several owners in our lot, and never had much bother with it, never in my memory had a bracket, quite a few tyres rode it fixed in later years. broke an axle while fixed20 miles from home...phoned mother who let me and my L plates drive it home... loved it.. will

[TheBomber]

This is a great posting as the only thing we like more than talking about ourselves, is taking about our bikes.

My first real one was a Falcon my father had bought second hand which was presumably too small for him as my brother had it and repainted it with rattle cans. Once I was big enough the frame was treated to a proper respray by F W Evans - cue exciting trip up to The Cut (two trips presumably) and the choice of colour: a deep emerald green. Despite the assurances of The 531 sticker my brother had had to remove, the assistant pointed out that the stays had seams so definitely not all 531 as claimed. A polite letter to Falcon got me a new set of their decals, though I kept the original metal head badge. With the assistance of Richard’s Bicycle Book it was all rebuilt with its Campag hubs, Weinman concave rims and centre pull brakes, Huret gears and a Maxi (?) alloy chainset. Loved it.

[robc02]

BSA Gold Crest - secondhand (very) as a Christmas present around 1968 - 1970.

It had 27 inch wheels and Cyclo Benelux 5 speed (of which only 4 could be selected!). Judging by the brake levers it must have originally been fitted with drops but had straights by the time I got it - much to my disgust at the time. It came with a Carradice Nelson Longflap which I still have and is in regular use.

Looking back I owe a lot to that bike. It started my journey as an amateur bike mechanic, caused me to go to my local libraries to find out as much about bikes as I could, and generally accelerated my early interest in engineering.

[gbnz]

An Emmelle Clipper GT 12, 12 speed "racer/tourer, 1986? Only binned in 2004. Paintwork still immaculate, solid steel wheels, solid steel handlebars, in-destructible far weighed a ton, with incredibly hopeless deraileurs & single pivot caliper brakes.

Still regret "binning" it. A year prior ever accessing the internet, hadn't realized that so many parts can be researched & purchased online, it'd have made a superb "leave at station" bike (Nb. As would two other road frames since, stripped, but binned )

[Chris56]

Falcon Mountain Track, followed shortly by a Raleigh Activator 2. Looking back it was an awful bike but atbthe time it earned me maximum kudos with my friends! Like many Activators in the early 90s it was eventually stolen

[al_yrpal]

For passing the 11+, a racer with a Rivetts 21" frame, silver with redlined lugs. A very pretty bike.

Al

[Rod Goodfellow]

November 1952, a Raleigh Lenton Sports with SA FM 4speed hub 14 quid from Halfords formmy 14th birthday.Stolen from school bike shed 7 months later and sold my model railway to add to the insurance payout to replace it with a Super Lenton.Then I started learning about proper bikes in Henry Holmes Cycles.

[rmurphy195]

A 10-speed Raleigh sports, couldn't wait to save up and buy it when I first started work back in '66. Bees knees it was, double-clanger, 10-speed, read with green mudguards. Went everywhere - to work, around the lanes at weekends - even cycled from Brum to Hayes (Middx) on it one hot day. Suffered a bit of a bump which bent the frame and forks, Billy Yates built the bits into a very nice Falcon frame for me. Didn't realise how bad the brakes were until I got a bike with alloy rims many years later (Originals were chromed steel).

[drossall]

I think I've told this story before but...

I had a Norman of England at age maybe eight. I thought that was huge but, of course, I outgrew it. So my first full-size bike was when I took over Dad's Raleigh All-Steel Bicycle. For those who don't know, being All Steel was a serious marketing thing, because it conveyed reliability and strength. Must have dated from the forties I'd think. Had those rod brakes.

I rode that until a teacher spotted me on the way to (senior) school. I was braking by putting my feet down, because the brakes were never that good, even after I spent hours stripping them down and replaced some parts. The way he told it, I nearly hit his car. I don't recall ever being that worried, because I knew how to manage the bike. Anyway, he was a friend of Dad's, and apparently had a quiet word.

That resulted in a second-hand, white Falcon 5-speed that was the first bike I used for long rides, early club runs, and so on, and is probably the proper answer to the question that started this thread. I still have the head badge.

[Pebble]

It was a Vindec
and doing some searching on the internet I think it was a 10 speed Speedwing (90% sure)

I was always jealous of my mates who all seemed to have raleighs, their bikes all seemed better with better paint and more gadgets, my bike was always ridiculed - however mine was the lightest and I could beat all of them in a race (and that is obviously far more important although I didn't think that then)

I lent it to a very drunk mate one night and he crashed it into a car - think it just got thrown into a skip or a river - I didn't care I'd given up cycling by then

Next bike was the one I have now which is nearly 33 year old.

[Dingdong]

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