Musing on Other Things it occurred to me that a collage of the very first places all of us ever rode a bicycle would make an interesting art project.
Here's mine.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Events, rides etc.
The first place I ever cycled
(79 posts)-
Posted 6 years ago #
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Mid 1970s Raleigh 14, red with white wheels, from no3 to no 25 Ewing road, lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire with my dad pretending he was holding on to the saddle (also white). Great bike to learn on , very wide tyres, not much damage if fell off, weighed three tons, went very slow
Posted 6 years ago # -
I get the feeling Ewing Road may not be the most searched place on Streetview.
Posted 6 years ago # -
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@55.720478,-2.6681368,3a,75y,252.9h,75.15t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s7GdkWmaRYYmtLRjR-uTC3Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
The Dods farm back in 1983 we moved to a town in 1985
Posted 6 years ago # -
@Iwrats, thanks for that, the main building in the picture was hilariously known as the high flats, ground floor had single storey and next two floors were double uppers. The picture shows our living room windows, two bedrooms up stairs. The milligans and the mcnabs were two other nuclear families on the landing and an old couple Mr and Mrs Gillfillan also there.
You could fling an action man out the kitchen window or if allowed, off the verandah with his parachute and run down stairs and get him from the drying green which was made of red chuckies, in simpler times.
Diarmid might be along in a minute as he lived just outside the village.
Gilbert was a butcher who drove a walk in van from Kilbirnie. He squashed my wee toy motorbike with his van one day I had left it in the driveway. Mother's Pride bread also came in a van. Occasionally a rag man came. With a mini estate and you gave him a lot of clothes for some sweets and then you were in bother
If you rotate street view you see the property we moved to at 3 Braehead Avnue, maybe 200 yards away. I had my own room in that one. The first cycle went fom one house to the other
Posted 6 years ago # -
@Ed1
Glad you're still with us after your adventures. Corrected link.
@gembo
My mate, whose dad owned Andersons Cycles in Rosemount Viaduct had a loft conversion. Action Man parachuted three whole floors (on fire at times) into his back garden.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Glad you're still with us after your adventures" It was at the other end of the drive but cant get a street view for it. Sadly for my cycling when moved to town to a house without a nuclear bomb shelter in 1985 my cycling declined why I have the cycle skills of 7 year old-)
Posted 6 years ago # -
@cyclingmollie, different from the summer holiday farm?
Posted 6 years ago # -
In a different country on this track and sometimes up and down the road too. I have a strong memory of confidently telling the girls who lived next door that 'we ride on the right in this country', so four of us rode up and down the narrow country road on the wrong side of the road. The hill up to Green Farm at the top seemed very steep at the time.
Posted 6 years ago # -
This corner in Coylton in about 1970. At the time it was the end of the houses. The road is still a dead end. Douglas drive was a building site. Since there was no traffic we would ride round the corner on the pavement but use the road in the dead end. Gillian across the road's grandfather had a Beetle and I was fascinated by the running boards. We didn't get our first Beetle until a few years later.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Ramseyston+Ave,+Coylton,+Joppa,+Ayr+KA6+6JG/@55.4436055,-4.5201156,3a,75y,310.58h,81.81t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1svXNdrEvQ-MBm5bfBS4cIfQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x4889d52fa6a107eb:0xbab23567903f7893!8m2!3d55.4437302!4d-4.5188188
Posted 6 years ago # -
The road has a different name and is tarmac instead of dirt. The house is no longer there. It was a shabby jerry built house of weatherboard with a corrugated roof - not iron but some kind of fibrolite. There was a big lawn around the house with a row of shrubs and my dad held the carrier of my bike until I got the hang of pedalling. I was six.
I then cycled a mile and a half or so to the T junction where we caught the school bus. Left our cycles leaning against the fence. No locks those days. We cycled on a no exit road and nothing passed us, ever.
There was a drain beside the road and when it was dredged eels crawled everywhere.
Dead cows were dragged to the side of the road until the lorry came to pick them up. That might take a couple of days so you'd hold your breath when you cycled past.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Craig+Rd,+Newstead+3284,+New+Zealand/@-37.7470301,175.4033753,320m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x6d6d1a5702ae70eb:0x6e5adc4ccaba3803!8m2!3d-37.7537501!4d175.3926204?hl=en
Posted 6 years ago # -
Great description @Rosie. You packed a lot into those few paragraphs.
Posted 6 years ago # -
First was a flat lane in the same country at Greenroofer about 80miles apart.
Vivid memory of the first time. Cycling along with my dad holding my saddle, a huge grin on my face as I got the hang of it and could do it like my older siblings. I then looked round and saw my dad far behind and promptly fell off, but by then I was already hooked.
Adventures and games then spread to
How fast could you take the dip and still make the wiggle at the bottom.
Creating a CX route through the woods
How far can roll without pedalling
Riding the mile from the main road no handed
The BMX phase of ramps made out of old doors/radiators and bricksOn the dip I remember the conversations on just how fast we went. The main measure of speed was that we were going so fast our trousers were no longer flapping but were held rigid by the wind. It was that fast!!!
Posted 6 years ago # -
Here. It looks quite different now — you’ll see that most of the trees near the houses aren’t old enough to have been more than saplings thirty years ago. Parents wouldn’t really let us go alone into the massive forest across the road so it was mostly just round the houses cycling. The outskirts of 1980s Moscow weren’t really known for their traffic so that was fine. There’s a small incline which my grandmother was always hysterical about (we didn’t have helmets, either), though I never did actually fall. Google Maps now tells me there’s a bike hire there now, probably due to the forest nearby, which is nice.
Posted 6 years ago # -
This thread is working better than I ever hoped.
I should add my own biographical context - I can't remember who did it but like so many others I got the 'I'll hold your saddle while you get going' treatment on the wide pavement there. The newsagents was Mrs Downie's sweetie shop then and we lived in the upper flat looking down on the post box. It's barely changed apart from the pavement being being built out a bit.
I can remember coal being delivered in that street by a horse and cart, which presumably means that primary school children will soon turn up to record my memories.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Like, apparently, most people on CCE, I learned to ride a bike on a farm.
I was riding a bike with stabilisers for a while, but didn't have the confidence to try taking them off. My parents promised me a packet of crisps every day I practised without stabilisers, and I thought this was a great idea. I was cycling without stabilisers within a couple of days. However, this meant the end of the crisps deal, and my main memory is actually of disappointment at wasting the opportunity - I should've spun it out for longer.
Posted 6 years ago # -
These streets From the age of 8 up to 11, I used to cycle to school, down to friends houses, over to the park. All on my BMX.
Posted 6 years ago # -
I like the fact that @chrisfl learned to ride on another continent but still closer to Blairgowrie than me.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@gembo different from the summer holiday farm?
There was a holiday house on the farm. A work colleague used to holiday there but years after our time.Posted 6 years ago # -
@cyclingmollie,mholiday house at froth south Lanarkshire or holiday house at car hurly near Stan drews?
Off now to see if mt lungs will get me tu Humbie or if I bail after glad house.
Also if my peak flow is between 520 and 600 (with two 900s I am ignoring as outliers.) will I get tht brown puffer? I have the TUE Got to keep up with these young lads somehow
Posted 6 years ago # -
I don't have the most vivid memories of it but I learnt to cycle with stabilisers and then presumably followed up with the usual back of the bike being held by a parent to keep it stable approach until I got it all on a gently sloping path on Haslam Park in Preston. My parents still live nearby and we walked past the path fairly recently at which point my dad reminded me about this.
Posted 6 years ago # -
So far not a single member of CCE learned to cycle in the City of Edinburgh. Coincidence? You decide!
Loving this thread by the way.
Posted 6 years ago # -
What a nice topic!
I learned to cycle at my grandparents backyard between tractors and other farm machinery. They always had heaps of bikes there because they used them a lot to go to the shop, go and do some work on a field, visit family on the other side of the village etc.
Then when go a handle of it I could go on the road in front of the house: link except instead of the pavement there was a ditch acting as a sewer with farm waste, so had to quickly learn how to steer the bike. My brother ended up in there a couple of times.
I remember my first ride on an adult size bike there with an aid of my grandma. Had to cycle standing up as I still couldn't reach the pedals from the seat but was feeling very grown up and cool.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Spotted. Two groups of portobello Roadies and the Musselburgh wheel tappers out in wet and windy east Lothian this morning. Fortunately none were stopped at Humbie hub when we were there for cawfee
Posted 6 years ago # -
@gembotron
Go and set up a thread for folk to post the GPS coordinates of the first place they indulged in a rampant thread reiving?
Posted 6 years ago # -
Aw sorry IWrat the pirates are out and about. Esteemed inter web friend @cyclngmollie whom I am in dialogue with about farm locations ( a converzatione of multiple voices compared with a duologue which is two only) might have been in the fast porty Group or the Musselburgh group).
So I am claiming still within this thread but that is just like my opinion man and can accept a yellow card and should have put it n Spotted if the forum referee decrees I will not talk back.
Posted 6 years ago # -
That'll be your second yellow card.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Aw sorry IWrat the pirates are out and about.
It never happened Big Man. Thought I might have spotted @cyclingmollie on Craighouse Road as I was running. Challenged cyclist heading up to race, thought it was they but it wasn't.
Posted 6 years ago #
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