Do you remember your first bicycle?

During my childhood in Brooklyn, bicycles were one of those luxuries that you did not even bother to wish for. Most of the other kids on the block were in the same boat, so no big deal.
But Jane across the street was one of those kids that nobody liked, and her family was comfortable. She had a bowling ball with her name on it, her own ice skates, and she had a bike.
One day, my dad saw her lording her bike over me. Not unusual for her to do that, but dad hadn't seen it before. Well, that hit dads pride. He left the house and came back in a while with a beautiful new Ross bike for me. That was the best day of my life, to that point. That was a great bike, that I rode practically until my wedding day.

 
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Thais thread has really touched a chord in a lot of us. I haven't been able to stop the memories from flooding back ever since I read it earlier this afternoon. I haven't seen my old bike for over 45 years, but I've been on the net, trying to find a photo of one close to it. Probably one buried somewhere in my mom's papers or old photo albums.

Wow... Nice post, bigwheelzip. That's yet another great story. There have been a lot of them on here so far. What a beautiful bike!!! Good for your dad.

I rode mine from the time I received it all through high school, and even after I had my drivers license and owned my own car. I would sometimes ride to a neighboring town about 15 miles away, and back... 30 miles round trip. That bike kept me in great shape. When I went in the Navy, I put it in a storage shed while I was away, and it was still there when I got out of the navy... I cleaned it up and rode it even then... Even though I had a car and a motorcycle by then.

My mom talked me into giving it to one of our cousins whose boy needed a bike, and I lost track of it after that.

Best Regards, Les
 
Mine was a repulsively ugly--I mean UUUGLEEE---much-abused, rusty, bent, & dented critter. Rode it everywhere, 'cause that's what I had. One summer day when I was eleven, I pedaled to the bank on the town square to cash my paycheck (12 cents per hour, less de ducks). As I came out, I was just in time to see some guy in a suit back his Packard into Ol' Rusty. Lotsa clash & clatter and discorporation of various non-essential spare parts. The driver, with what seemed like half the small town watching him crush that kid's bike, was horrified. Offered money; I declined. He upped his offer a couple of times before I could get a word in edgewise. I finally managed to convince him that it looked that bad before he hit it and I wasn't going to take his money. When I got home and told my grandmother about it, she laughed and told me she was glad that I would never be a politician. Took me years to figure that one out.
 
Yeah, I remember it well. It was a Schwinn 16" or so girls bike. I guess Mom and Dad didn't want me to rack myself. The bike was light blue and said "Debbie" on the chain guard. I rode it a long time till my buddies started pointing out the fact that it was a girls bike. After that, I had many built out of junk piles that my friends and I had around. Good days for sure.
Peace,
Gordon
 
Hey Zip, I think I saw that same smile in a post
of yours with a more recent two-wheeler!
Good stuff.

Hand me down 26 inch Schwinn near identical to this.
bischtor4.jpg
 
The brand of my first few bicycles I had depended on what part you were looking at, same as our lawn mowers. The first one that all the parts left the same factory at the same time was my Columbia Newsboy I used on the paper route. Definitely not built for speed, but not fragile either, weighed more than the linemen on our peewee football team. Front basket and two saddlebag baskets on the rear filled with papers was handled with ease. One speeds rule!
 
My First bicycle

Quick Background...... When I was 10 y/o I came down with Polio,1955. Wound up in a hospital for one year, Worked me very hard. Came close to being in an iron lung but never had to be in one, but almost. Long story short, my right leg was totally useless. No muscle left. When I got out of the hospital it was wheel chair and crutches. My Doctor told my parents it might be possible for me to ride a bike. No one ever thought that would be possible. How would I get on? How in Gods name would I get off? I herd about the bike and got so extremely excited but knew it would never happen. My Dad was a very hard working man who shouveled red hot nuts and bolts in a hardware factory. Yep! 4 hrs a day, the other 4 hours he ran the huge machines that formed the bolts. 120 degrees was common in those days in the factory. Big hardware for construction. I could barely pick one of the bolts up. Money was very tight. I had 3 sisters so a big family had a difficult time financially. My Dad was a strong disiplinarian. A drill sargent in the army for several years. No BS kind of guy. Well....one day he came home with a new Bike for me. Oh my God, it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in My life. It was a Schwinn Phantom. The cadillac of bikes at the time. White wall tires, beautiful chrome wheels and fenders, black and red trim, and the coolest thing I had ever seen... it had chrome CRASH BARS on the back. That was to protect my leg "IF" I should ever fall off. LOL! Also had shock absorbers up front. The crash bars and shocks made it look like a motor cycle. My Dad spared no expense. I bet it was 2 weeks wages to buy it. My Dad showed and taught me how to get on it from the crutches. We had a spot in the attached garage it was like my landing deck. A Platform where my crutches were kept. I did it. My maiden voyage. All the neighbors were out watching. (A typical old fashioned neighborhood where every one know each other). I WAS KING !!! From that day on I rode it every day for hours. After about one year my cousin came over with his parents, and him and I went out riding bikes. He used my sisters bike and we were playing "chicken". Which one turned the handle bars first. Well....we collided. Holy _ _ _ _! I broke the polio leg. He left me in the parking lot of a gas station laying on the ground, (those days gas stations were closed on Sundays). Here comes my Dad, I could hear the tires squealing. I thought he was going to kill me. BUT NO!!! He picked me up and took me to the hospital. X-rays, cast, no more bike. My parents were very scared because their was a chance it would not heal because the circulation was bad in the leg. After 5 weeks the day came when they would take the cast off to x-ray it and see if it was healing or not. WELLA!!! It was 90% healed. They did not put another cast on. It was back to the wheel chair and crutches. Here comes the best part. In another six weeks, I stopped using the crutches and started to walk without them for short distances. 3 months more....no crutches. Back on that bike and rode it till I got my permit and started to drive my Dads 1958 Rocket 98 Oldsmobile. Its amazing I'm still alive !!! LOL! A few months ago I looked up on the internet the Schwinn Phantom. HOLY COW! Its a collectors item selling from $1500 to $2000 dollars. I sold it when I bought my first car for $35. When I saw a picture of it on the internet I'd be lying if I said my eyes didn't well up. All of you that entered a story about your first bike as a kid, THANK YOU. Beautiful stories from great gun owners.
 
Paul:

Thank you for sharing your story. My older half-sister had polio, and had braces all of her life...she has since passed. Wonderful times that we have lived through. And a tribute to many of our parents, who although they might not have been well off, made sure that many of us had bikes. Some touching narratives here.

Best Regards, Les
 
I barely remember my first bike. It was red, a 20-incher I imagine. My pop taught me to ride in our gravel driveway. At that time, my dad was commuting about 8 or 9 miles to work on his 3-speed Hercules.

Fast forward a couple of years. I must have been riding that red no-name, but I just don't recall it, although I did gain some proficiency.

I do remember the day my father brought home a new Raleigh, and passed that Hercules on to me. Not too much later, we moved into town, into a neighborhood where the rich kids rode Raleighs, the not-so-rich rode Dunelts and Robin Hoods, and the less fortunate labored on single-speed Schwinns and J.C. Whitneys. My Hercules ruled the neighborhood.

Technically, the Hercules was no better than a Raleigh. If you took apart the Herc-o-matic hub, it was identical to the Sturmey AW that appeared on the Raleighs. A 46t chain wheel was standard on both. But the Herc had an 18t cog at the rear, versus 19 or 20 on the Raleighs. That small difference gave me a slight advantage in top speed, which allowed me to outrun my contemporaries on the standard 3-mile circuit around one of the city lakes.

Many years later, I had a chance to buy either a Hercules or a Rudge from a friend who was leaving town. The smart money would have followed the Rudge, but sentiment won the day, and I took the Herc. Every once in a while, I feel a twang of buyer's remorse, but it doesn't last.
 
Taught myself to ride a bike using my neighbor's bike. I would roll down a hill until I fell and then push it back up the hill and do it all over again. I was a pretty stubborn kid...but I learned to stay on that bike. I never asked for my own bike, but Dad saw my determination and brought home a second hand balloon tire. I don't know what brand. We sanded and painted it together one weekend to spiff it up. I rode it until it couldn't be spiffed up anymore. Eventually, I got a brand new Huffy for my birthday...but that second hand project bike with dad will always be my first...and best.

Just pretend this is witty.
 
My aunts and my Grandmother bought me my first and only bike. It was a red with cream colored MW Hawthorne.It had the works for a bike at that time(1934), lights, horn, white wall tires etc. I probably had it for about 3 or 4 months when I wrecked it.
I had a kid on the handlebars and we were being chased by another guy on a bike. We were riding around a cotton gin that was not operating at that time and I saw a building with a wide open door and I decided to duck in and hide. Big mistake. Just inside the door was a wagon with the tongue right in my path. I hit it just about the tip of the front fender and we went sailing over the tongue. I don't think I even checked to see how much skin I lost. I looked back at the bike and the wheel and tire were ruined and my fender and headlight were bent backwards to the frame.
I was crying so bad when my dad came down to pick up the bike that I didn't even get scolded. We got a new wheel and tire and repaired the fender and light the best it could be and it went lots of miles delivering papers.
 
the ringo kid said:
My first one was a new but "cross-breed Western Flyer-bought from Western Auto. It was fire engine red-with white striping and western flyer lettering. It had a permanently attached red wagon with same insignia. Man I had loads of fun on that thing. Had it for years-till my too heavy-neighbor, decided to stand in the wagon-knowing it would not support his weight-and it snapped in half-rendering it useless. I used to think I wass really helping my dad in yardwork using the wagon to haul small loads of leaves to the alley.
Click to expand...

Coincidently, my first bicycle was from Western Auto as well. A "stringray" style 20" bike with a white banana seat and sporting chrome fenders and candy apple green paint. What a sharp bike.

We later modified our bikes, ditching the banana seats and fenders and putting on regular bike seats, thus creating what were clearly the early predecessors of the BMX bike.

We had a dirt track with jumps and bank turns and rode or bikes sans any type of protective gear or helmets. Our sign to pack it in and head home was when the street lights switched on. What a great childhood.
 
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ralph7 said:
Yeah, me here, pretty much the same deal. :)

Doesn't it strike you as funny now that we went from large, faster, bicycles to the smaller Stingrays?
Guess cool trumped practicality.
Click to expand...

Growing up in Walnut Creek, CA, there was endless open space with lots of areas where guys rode their dirt bikes. We would ride our Stingrays around the worn in tracks. The Stingrays were also much easier to ride "wheelies" on the street than a conventional bicycle. We got pretty good at it

The Schwinn Stingray had solid bar front forks that wouldn't bend and break with dirt riding and doing "jumps" like others with hollow tubed forks. We'd cut off the hollow tubed forks of old discarded bikes and partially slip them over the forks on our Schwinns for the extended fork "chopper" cool look street riding.

I remember my parents taking me to Schwinn to pick out the one I wanted. They had a fancy model called "Orange Crate" and other more expensive models. Didn't want anything else but the basic Stingray. Dad seemed pleased with that!

Memory lane... :)
 
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Yessir, I do. A 20" red Huffy. Then followed in a year or two by a 24" red Huffy in 1962 +- . By that age, "us guys" stripped them down, no chainguard, no fenders. (We had speedway and flat track motorcycle racers for heroes). Everyones bikes rusted like crazy here on the beach, so custom brush painted or rattle can paintjobs were also the norm.:D
As I recall, on my little island, Stingrays were only acceptable for girls!:cool:
 
ChattanoogaPhil said:
Growing up in Walnut Creek, CA, there was endless open space with lots of areas where guys rode their dirt bikes. We would ride our Stingrays around the worn in tracks. The Stingrays were also much easier to ride "wheelies" on the street than a conventional bicycle. We got pretty good at it

The Schwinn Stingray had solid bar front forks that wouldn't bend and break with dirt riding and doing "jumps" like others with hollow tubed forks. We'd cut off the hollow tubed forks of old discarded bikes and partially slip them over the forks on our Schwinns for the extended fork "chopper" cool look street riding.

I remember my parents taking me to Schwinn to pick out the one I wanted. They had a fancy model called "Orange Crate" and other more expensive models. Didn't want anything else but the basic Stingray. Dad seemed pleased with that!

Memory lane... :)
Click to expand...
Were you one of those kids in the opening scene of Bruce Browns "On Any Sunday"?:D:D
[ame]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3W50hGEs5JE[/ame]
 
My first was also a Western Flyer from Western Auto. It was Christmas after our county fair in October. I had been to the county fair and watched Speedy McNish ride on The Wall Of Death on his Indian Scout. So, in 1955 when I got my first REAL bike I promptly took off the front fender and took a hacksaw and cut off half of the rear fender so I too could look as cool as Speedy McNish on the Wall of Death. Speedy had a basket on the front of one of his motorcycles and rode the wall with a LION in the basket. Until this day anytime the Wall is around I take people who have never been just to watch their expression. I truly wish I knew how many miles I rode a bicycle in my life. I have been "Mortifying" motorcycles, cars, and Jeeps ever since! Oh!!! And GUNS!!
 
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