your first bike

magicbastarder

decided to go searching for it on google - by first bike i mean the first non-toddler, non-stabiliser one which gave you the ability to go wherever you want.
this was mine, great little machine:

magicbastarder

the longest wheelie i ever pulled on it was the one when the front wheel fell off a couple of seconds in.

quozl

2013 Trek 7.5 fx from the lads at ThinkBike in Rathmines Love it.

Decided to learn to ride a bike rather than spend 90 minutes every day fast walking to work and back.

It's got about 6k km on it now, as does the subsequent road bike.

Great work-horse of a bike. Dynamo hub, B+M front and back dynamo lights, pannier rack, mudguards and nippy 28mm tyres. Cycling has opened up a world of convenience to me! It's so easy to pop anywhere within a 10km radius, whereas if you're walking that or relying on buses then it can be a bloody nightmare.

quinnp

Me too ^^^^ a sliver Strika, Then a Grifter with Sturmy Archer grip shift!!! Followed by a Raleigh Burner...:D

http://members.modernvespa.net/marktheblue/uploads/img_6591_800x800_103.jpg

Just like this one....

magicbastarder

quinnp, one of these? (image too big to embed)

http://static.wixstatic.com/media/e12c11_3e892aeda75159758f4aca2b7786a4b2.jpg

crosstownk

Great bike although I had to work harder to carry a lazy mate around every once in while

Tenzor07

magicbastarder wrote: »

decided to go searching for it on google - by first bike i mean the first non-toddler, non-stabiliser one which gave you the ability to go wherever you want.
this was mine, great little machine:

Rich kid!

Couldn't afford a branded bike, the Raleigh Burner and later Vector was just a dream....so 1st bike was probably something like this:

endacl

My first was a little blue yoke, with big fat red tyres and a stamped metal carrier. I'd have no idea were to fine a pic....

My second was quite cool though. The little brother of the Raleigh chopper. The tomahawk! I always thought the names should have been swopped on those two models...

quinnp

magicbastarder wrote: »

quinnp, one of these? (image too big to embed)

http://static.wixstatic.com/media/e12c11_3e892aeda75159758f4aca2b7786a4b2.jpg

HaHa..! Exactly that one..!! Ahh the memories..(and skinned elbows!)!:D

magicbastarder

i graduated up to a 'bmx mountain bike' (it managed to be neither, it weighed an absolute ton) after the strika, and was the envy of all the other kids on the road because they mistakenly thought it was cool.

endacl

magicbastarder wrote: »

i graduated up to a 'bmx mountain bike' (it managed to be neither, it weighed an absolute ton) after the strika, and was the envy of all the other kids on the road because they mistakenly thought it was cool.

But it was cool?!?

Seve OB

quozl wrote: »

2013 Trek 7.5 fx from the lads at ThinkBike in Rathmines Love it.

Decided to learn to ride a bike rather than spend 90 minutes every day fast walking to work and back.

It's got about 6k km on it now, as does the subsequent road bike.

Great work-horse of a bike. Dynamo hub, B+M front and back dynamo lights, pannier rack, mudguards and nippy 28mm tyres. Cycling has opened up a world of convenience to me! It's so easy to pop anywhere within a 10km radius, whereas if you're walking that or relying on buses then it can be a bloody nightmare.

that is a weird first bike??????


mine is long long long gone. can't find any pictures on the net it was a president BMX 2000.... well i had a few hand me downs before that, but this was the real deal.

I remember getting it over in McQuaids cycles in Ballygall... which was a trek as I lived in Shankill, but my Auntie knew the owner or something! Good to see the bike shop still going though.

funnights74

crosstownk wrote: »

Great bike although I had to work harder to carry a lazy mate around every once in while

Great memories, those things were deadly. My first "proper" bike was an olmo racer, jeeze it had 10 gears:eek:Steel frame, weighed a tonne but i was in heaven. Similiar to this

quinnp

magicbastarder wrote: »

i graduated up to a 'bmx mountain bike' (it managed to be neither, it weighed an absolute ton) after the strika, and was the envy of all the other kids on the road because they mistakenly thought it was cool.

My Grifter was a 'hand me down' from my older brother..

The Burner was magic though. (when you're 12)

http://www.dtrcartwright.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Burner/stuey.htm

Seve OB

quinnp wrote: »

My Grifter was a 'hand me down' from my older brother..

The Burner was magic though. (when you're 12)

http://www.dtrcartwright.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Burner/stuey.htm

I always wanted a Grifter

magicbastarder

i remember the raleigh shop in roselawn shopping centre in blanchardstown getting some **** hot BMX star over for a demonstration in the car park on a saturday morning. part of which included him bunny hopping over about 20 people lying side by side on the ground. i was gumming to participate, but my father, probably wisely, said no.
he came within inches of landing on the last person in the line.

Fian

I was lucky enough to have two fairly iconic bikes during childhood. I think my first was:


And second was definitely a grifter. We had a grassy hill/field next to our house that led down to a cluster of our neighbours houses in rosses point, sligo, where we lived for a year. My brother and I used to roll down the hill on our grifters to go and play there and we would cycle home "the long way" by going an extra 20 yards to the road . The other thing I remember about the grifter is that it meant I had a more or less permanent cut right on the knuckle of each thumb, from the skin stretching/splitting from holding the handles, which turned to shift the gears like a motorbike throttle.



I got teh grifter for my birthday, I had been begging for it. when i got up that morning I was gutted since my parents gave me a jumper or something for my birthday at teh kitchen table. Then My dad sent me to do a job in teh garage. I was raging. Came back after the job was done and he sent me straight down again, on my birthday! I was outraged. Then he sent me down a third time. At this stage it was probably the tears in my eyes that stopped me seeing the grifter against the wall, no idea why I just blanked it the first two times. finally he had to bring me down adn point it out to me. Best Birthday ever

Edit: Looking at the image of the chopper I definitely had that seat and the gearshift in the crossbar, but my memory is that it had a much bigger wheel in the back and smaller in the front. Maybe that is just because in my mind I was driving one of those motorbikes when I was on it, along with the sound effects coming out of my mouth

quinnp

My first real bike.. a 'racer'..:)

http://raleighgrifter.proboards.com/thread/439/1987-super-equipe-special

magicbastarder

i had one of these at one point too - far too big for me; and i managed to get the same tyres and frame bag as in this pic (though my frame bag was flourescent yellow):

ThisRegard

Raleigh Boxer, but I don't remember mine having a seat like this one. My one was blue, later painted black I think when it was handed down to one of my brothers.


Upon being handed down, I was upgraded to this bad boy



I guarded those cross bar and handle bar pads with my life, added a few stunt pegs to the front and back in later years and perfected sitting on the handle bars cycling backwards, or spinning the bars mid cycle.

I still felt a twinge of jealously when I saw those guys with the Burners with the mag wheels though, but they weighed a bloody tonne in comparison.

First MTB and bike with gears followed, a Raleigh Lizard, loved the colour scheme


And then this proper MTB when I was around 16, a Diamond Back Topanga, loved that bike. It used to piss me off though when people thought it was a one of those cheaper quality Black Diamonds, not a Diamond Back.

Trollhättan

Had a few hand-me-downs...trikes and bikes with stablilisers but this was My first bike. Almost this exact spec as in the photo but with yellow tyres...nice!



Was great bike, I loved it....still sporting a star shaped scar on my chin from fliping over the handlebars and meeting the tarmac one day. :pac:

ThisRegard

Did someone mess around with stickers on that, BMX on a Raleigh ?

yop

This was mine!

g0g

This was mine!

Loved that bike! Started with stabilisers then worked off them! After that I had a blue BMX that weighed a ton and then a Townsend mountain bike. Strangely all three are still hanging up in the garage at home! Wonder if they're worth anything!

magicbastarder

ThisRegard wrote: »

Did someone mess around with stickers on that, BMX on a Raleigh ?

the BMX sticker is the same colour scheme as the raleigh one on the fork.

RainyDay

endacl wrote: »

My first was a little blue yoke, with big fat red tyres and a stamped metal carrier. I'd have no idea were to fine a pic....

My second was quite cool though. The little brother of the Raleigh chopper. The tomahawk! I always thought the names should have been swopped on those two models...

I thought my Raleigh Commando was the little brother of the Chopper, but according to this, it was really a Raleigh Eighteen with a chopper seat.

http://raleightwenty.webs.com/eighteentwentytwo.htm

It did pretty good distances on my Commando, maybe 5-6 mile trips across the city to see family.


After that, came the trusty 5-speed Dawes Chevron - loved that bike.

dakar

One of these:



I had the print worn off my copy of the 1983 Burner Catalogue for its replacement, but I ended up with a tank of a no-name BMXSO. An introduction to the harsh economic realities of the post-santa world...

magicbastarder

this was my first 'proper' bike. went halves on the purchase cost with my folks, after my first summer job. bought in hardings, the one upstairs in the sports department in arnotts.

ThisRegard

Just getting all misty eyed, but there was a pretty active BMX scene around Tallaght back then, I blame the movie BMX Bandits. There'd be gangs of kids going around with either their Burners and the variants, or BMXs. It was almost like the mods and the rockers facing off.

Where Tallaght hospital is now used to be waste ground, or travellers. But some enterprising "bigger boys" as they were to us, built one of these. It was brilliant, the thrill of reaching the top and curving around, or rolling down backward, turning around and cycling off without putting a foot down couldn't be beaten.



Then around Greenhills, just off where the M50 passed, was an unofficial BMX/MTB course, I think it was made by accident by soil being left there from works in the area and the constant cycling over it by kids on bikes solidifying it into trails, ramps and jumps. We'd disappear from our house miles away for the day making it home just in time for dinner in order not to be missed.

endacl

g0g wrote: »

This was mine!

Loved that bike! Started with stabilisers then worked off them! After that I had a blue BMX that weighed a ton and then a Townsend mountain bike. Strangely all three are still hanging up in the garage at home! Wonder if they're worth anything!

Bluebird!!!!! That's the one I mentioned that I couldn't remember the name of!

Back pedal brakes!

QueensGael

Triumph 20 Shopper like this one, same colour, changed out the saddle and tarted it up with lots of brightly coloured insulation tape. Bought off a neighbour. Think basket on front, puppy hanging out, and me eating up tarmac

ThisRegard

Had an auntie with a Triumph like that, was fascinated by the dynamo lights on it, but to me it was like someone putting on the handbreak of a car when you're trying to push it whenever they were engaged.

MB Lacey

Nearly all these first bikes are Raleigh!

I had wanted a black Raleigh Grifter (so cool) or red Raleigh Chopper from Father Christmas.
I was so looking forward to Christmas morning, up at 5am, creeping into the lounge, there it was - the silhouette of a bike, though it didn't look like a Grifter or a Chopper

It was a Raleigh Shopper, a gold 'girl's bike' which folded in the middle and I think had a basket.
Stupid Father Christmas.

QueensGael

I'm jealous of all those BMX and Raleigh cross bar pads - so cool!

ThisRegard

MB Lacey wrote: »

...or red Raleigh Chopper....

It was a Raleigh Shopper

Did you have a lisp or loose tooth when speaking to Santy when visiting him ? A bit imagination and you would have looked **** hot




Raleigh ruled the 80s, I wonder how they didn't manage to maintain their prominence.

Macy0161

Not going trawling for a photo, but first proper bike was a second hand, red (with the chequered decals), Peugeot 5 speed "racer". I am hoping it's still buried in a shed somewhere.

First adult sized bike was a dawes 5 speed "racer". Managed to stash that in reasonable nick, and my plan is to restore it enough to be my commuter.

Both were racers - road bikes were only invented much later!

eeeee

Ha ha I had similar disappointment with a stupid pink girly thing with a basket after my very first stabilizer machine (it was blue, which made me happy as I HATED dresses, and pink girly things. I liked farming, dungarees and going off for days in the lorry with the father ).
I think my mother was trying to force a bit of Lady like-ness on me. It didn't work!

Then I got my first proper bike at 10, it was a full sized (I was a huge child. 5'10" at 12:eek:) Raleigh pioneer, walk through ladies bike, 5 speed, purple. I rode it into my 20's! The gears broke after about 1 year, it didn't take kindly to mountain bike duties! so I only had my highest one. I blame this for being a grinder! It weighed an absolute tonne, and got nicknamed the Iron Maiden in college. Still did 14 miles a day on it though. Actually still have it. Frame was so strong it got hit by a car and not a dent or bend. I didn't fare so well! Great bike, handmade in Nottingham.

Sorry for going on there, Daisy and I had some good times!

Garzard

IIRC my bike first as a kid was a dark-green Pacer II, which I can't get hold of a picture or link of. Vague memories of the bike but had it for a year, maybe 2 until it got robbed on my twelfth birthday by presumably kids from a small halting site which had recently sprung up a few hundred metres up the road in Firhouse. F**king livid I was.

Daroxtar

I learned that cycle on my neighbours bike, haven't a clue what type of thing it was. First Communion money was spent on one of these. Front suspension, solid steel frame.....cutting edge stuff. You have no idea how cool I was. With my bowl haircut.

magicbastarder

eh, that wasn't suspension! at least not on mine...

Buchaill_Mor

I cannot post pictures or links, but my first bike I remember cycling without stabilisers was a Raleigh Bobcat. I know it had no stabilisers because one summer day I borrowed/stole my dad's tool kit, and using his vice grips (wrong tool for the job!) took them off, and learned how to cycle. My dad was gutted because I used the wrong tool, and he did not get to teach me how to cycle without stabilisers.
That got handed down, and I think my next bike was a Raleigh Kite, or Cadett, but I could be wrong about that. I got a BMX one Christmas, and on the day after Stephens Day, I left it in the back garden, behind a locked side gate, and it was nicked. I was gutted. Got a new BMX 5 days later.
After that, it was the days of Mr Roche, and Galtee Easy Singles. Got me a Peugeot with a whole 10 gears on it!! (August birthday). I had that bike for years. Went on cycling holidays on it and everything. Loved it! Then fell out of cycling for a while.
After that I had a couple of bikes for just pootling about on, then got the bug, and at one stage had 4 or 5 bikes. I am now down to 2, with kids. They are too young to be cycling themselves to school at the moment, but the older one can ride his bike. I am looking forward to a summer on the Mayo Greenway or some other greenway all pedal powered though, on separate bikes.

endacl

Garzard wrote: »

IIRC my bike first as a kid was a dark-green Pacer II, which I can't get hold of a picture or link of. Vague memories of the bike but had it for a year, maybe 2 until it got robbed on my twelfth birthday by presumably kids from a small halting site which had recently sprung up a few hundred metres up the road in Firhouse. F**king livid I was.

I don't remember the bike you mention, but I do remember that halting site...

alastair

I'd a Chopper as first bike too, a black one with hologram stickers on the chain guard




but then maturity kicked in and I got a proper racer (in this colour, and with the same ever-ready lights too!):

Daroxtar

magicbastarder wrote: »

eh, that wasn't suspension! at least not on mine...

Well when I was 7 it was. So there.

Wishbone Ash

We had a clatter of crap bikes in the shed when children and shared them rather than have a specific one each. I can recall any makes as we used to mix up parts and rebuild others.

The first bike I specifically recall being mine was a second hand Raleigh with a Sturmey Archer 3 speed and extremely uncool front and rear pannier racks! (I don't know where my father sourced our bikes!). I can vividly remember fighting my way through the big snow in 1981 on it.

goose06

I had this one as well, great memories

Trollhättan wrote: »

Had a few hand-me-downs...trikes and bikes with stablilisers but this was My first bike. Almost this exact spec as in the photo but with yellow tyres...nice!



Was great bike, I loved it....still sporting a star shaped scar on my chin from fliping over the handlebars and meeting the tarmac one day. :pac:

ThisRegard

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

I can recall any makes as we used to mix up parts and rebuild others.

Come to think of it, I remember the fork breaking on the boxer so the tube for the steerer was detached. A guy up the road was getting wrought iron gates put in at the time so my dad popped up, asked the guy to weld it as a favour and away we went again.

gnarbarian

I had the raleigh burner, the frame was blue and had the yellow tires.
I was always so jealous of my friend across the road who had the same but with the yellow mag wheels. The mags where so futuristic looking to me :P

ThisRegard

A mate had the blue one, with the mag wheels. He lost his crossbar and handle bar pads though.

gnarbarian

ThisRegard wrote: »

A mate had the blue one, with the mag wheels. He lost his crossbar and handle bar pads though.

It was a great bike and looked the biz!
I remember when one of the cereals (Rice Crispies I think) were giving away those spoke clackers to make your bike sound like a motorbike, I put them on my bike and rode around the neighborhood terrorizing everything that came my way, my mate who had the mag wheels was raging because the clackers didn't work for him because he only had 7 big plastic spokes on his wheels, that was the only time where I was not jealous of his mag wheels and he was jealous of my wheels ha!

alastair

gnarbarian wrote: »

I had the raleigh burner, the frame was blue and had the yellow tires.
I was always so jealous of my friend across the road who had the same but with the yellow mag wheels. The mags where so futuristic looking to me :P

You want the real bike of the future?...

The Raleigh Vektar comes to you, straight from Space 1999: