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Your Earliest Cycling Memory

(35 posts)
  • Started 14 years ago by Wilmington's Cow
  • Latest reply from Cyclingmollie

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  1. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    I would have been about 4, because we were still in Newcastle at the time. I had a blue bike, light metallic blue, and whitewall tyres. There was a path ran up the side of our house, the wall of the house on the right, a fence on the left (it were all fields....), and I was riding for the first time without stabilisers. Absolute cliche, my dad holding the saddle, me shouting at him not to let go, him letting go but telling me he was still holding on.

    Ah.

    Tis my second earliest memory - clearly bikes made a deep impression.

    (my earliest memory is of seeing a lizard on a camping holiday in France).

    Posted 14 years ago #

  2. Smudge
    Member

    I had a Budgie (the little version of the Chopper) and I remember Dad had just taken my stabilisers off and I'd been going up and down the road with my dad holding on to the bar at the back for ages, then I looked round, back up the hill and he was miles away lol, and smiling.
    I reminded him about it the other week after I'd been to see him and was setting off on my current bike, and thanked him for hundreds of thousands of miles powered and unpowered in the years since. must've been a dusty night as I seemed to get some dust in my eyes about then... ;-)

    Posted 14 years ago #

  3. Min
    Member

    The first time I had my stablisers off I just kept falling over. Seemed to set the tone for the rest of my life. ;-) But I remember way before that as I remember getting that bike and riding it with stabilisers. I previously had a trike with a plastic seat. One time my brother tied my trike to the back of his bike so he could tow me along and I could go faster. Off he went and off my seat went throwing me backwards over the trike and removing large amounts of skin from my head and back. Must have seemed like a good idea at the time..

    Posted 14 years ago #

  4. PS
    Member

    Riding down a steep cul de sac towards a friend's house at the bottom of the hill. Brakes failed (on reflection it was probably me that failed - going too fast for the brakes to slow me sufficiently to turn the corner into their drive). Hit the low wall at the bottom of the hill square on and somersaulted into a rose bush. Must have been 7 or 8 at the time.

    My memory obviously works better for traumatic events than stabiliser-off-style achievements. Must be the pessimist in me.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  5. wingpig
    Member

    I can't clearly remember much trike or stabilised pootling-around-the-garden but can quite clearly remember the strange sensation of my first over-the-handlebars front brake moment on a wee grey bike with black tyres which I'd just inherited from my sister and evidently had different brake effectiveness and a dangerously higher CoG and/or lower CoR to whatever I'd ridden previously; I would have been somewhere between 2¾ and 5½ based on where this took place. Otherwise there was lots of steaming along a lane round the back of some houses and along a dirt lane a wee bit along the road where there were always loads of red squirrels.
    Occasionally people would hum the theme tune from CHiPs whilst riding along.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  6. Mabs
    Member

    I can't remember the first time riding nor the first time without stabalisers but one momment has stuck with me.

    I was about 4 or 5 and learning to ride and in this memory there are no stabalisers.
    From what I remember cycling that day was impossible. Not because I couldn't balance but because I was in the garden pointing up slope and at that time it was very thatchy and clearly not suitable for riding on.
    I can see the reasoning behind it, soft ground etc but up slope? I must of been confident in my abilities but alas I can't remember going down slope.

    Something must of clicked though because I have been riding ever since.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  7. Arellcat
    Moderator

    My first bike, I have now established with almost certainty thanks to the indelible impact one's first bike makes on one's consciousness, was a Raleigh RSW111, but lacking both the dynohub and the Sturmey 3spd. Mine was metallic red originally but was repainted to a nice primary colour red. See? Start as you mean to go on. :-)

    I was probably 5 or 6 years old, and made do with stabilisers for a while, until all my then non-stabilised friends made me cry from embarassment. After that it was literally all downhill when I first learned to balance on two wheels while my Dad ran increasingly further behind me.

    In the end, the bike broke just behind the head tube, and I graduated to bigger, stronger things.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  8. kaputnik
    Moderator

    I must dig out some photos that my parents have of my wee kiddies bike with stabilisers in metallic orange and my first red and yellow BMX.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  9. Smudge
    Member

    "until all my then non-stabilised friends made me cry from embarassment" :-( it's easy to forget just how cruel children can be. That sentence made me wince :-( have a virtual hug(!)
    Thinking back, my first "proper" bike after the Budgie was a "Vindec" that I vaguely remember as being a gents roadbike, I know I rode it absolutely everywhere and loved the freedom but can't remember much else about it, except that it finally died when something broke in the freewheel area and split the rear hub wide open :-o

    Posted 14 years ago #

  10. wee folding bike
    Member

    Tri-ang trike, all metal, blue with white seat. I got it when I was one, have photos. Got a red metal Tri-ang pedal car when I was two.

    Second hand Tri-ang bike. Painted with Humbrol gold paint. Solid tyres, fixed wheel. Got it when I was three.

    Puch mini-Sprint when I was 9. Single speed roadster, purple with chrome mudguards.

    Sun Squadra, a re-badged Raleigh Arena, when I was 11.

    '51 Claud Butler and went everywhere on it from '80 to '93.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  11. Arellcat
    Moderator

    Hah. A bit more research proves that my first bike was actually a RSW14. There's one on eBay even now! Gosh that's a tiny little bike.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  12. Smudge
    Member

    Know what you mean, I mean to say, look at this, mine was much bigger than that.... wasn't it?!?

    and anyway, mine was red and therefore clearly better lol

    Posted 14 years ago #

  13. kaputnik
    Moderator

    looks like arrelcat's current handlebars came off of smudge's kiddie bike!

    Posted 14 years ago #

  14. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Look what I found!


    The first cycling hipster


    Breaking the law, age 6

    Cycling my colour-coordinated retro singlespeed BMX on the pavement in twill shorts, a peaked cap and lace-up shoes? I'm way more hipster than anth!

    Posted 14 years ago #

  15. splitshift
    Member

    first bike was a second hand red thing, unisex frame, white tyres and a pressed steel rack on the back.no wait I had a white trike, two wheeler never had stabilisers,I could only ride it down the path, not back up.It had a removable , mild steel top tube,white seat. Think i progressed to a second hand rsw 14, 16 ? then i had a brand new raleigh........ Stow away !Folding version of the rsw 20. complete with paniers and cast iron ever ready lights with batteries that lasted 17 minutes ! After a particularly interesting crash it became known as the bent fork special ! My mates all had 5 speed arenas,my wee brov got a grifter !!! MTB forerunner ! joy !

    Posted 14 years ago #

  16. wee folding bike
    Member

    We used to live in a Wimpy semi just like the one behind your pavement photo. Did the roof corners fall off that one?

    Posted 14 years ago #

  17. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Oh no these were Bovis!

    Posted 14 years ago #

  18. Min
    Member

    Loving the early addiction to yellow tyres.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  19. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    We lived in a semi very like that as well (before it all went wrong and we sank down the social spectrum) :)

    Right, next time I'm home I'm digging out some kiddy cycling shots of me...

    Posted 14 years ago #

  20. cb
    Member

    I could add to the spotted thread:
    Kaputnik, turning right at the Drumbrae roundabout to head east into town and then turning off shortly afterwards to head to his folks house to have a rummage for old photos.

    But that sounds a bit scarily stalkerish (and I'm probably wrong anyway...)

    I'd forgotten about this thread. Was good to see the Raleigh Budgie photos up-thread; I learnt to ride on one, belonging to my friend. Still remember the thrill of managing on my own for the first time (then dismounting; turning the bike around; getting back on and cycling bakc the way I had come).
    You could pull ace wheelies on a Budgie I seem to recall.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  21. kaputnik
    Moderator

    turning off shortly afterwards to head to his folks house to have a rummage for old photos.

    I got a roast dinner too :) were you following me en bicycle?

    Posted 14 years ago #

  22. wingpig
    Member

    By the time I was ten or so it was too late to try wheelies. The best I could do were rearward-dismounts which battered and rattled the back end of the rear mudguard.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  23. cb
    Member

    "were you following me en bicycle?"

    I was a passenger in a car. I only knew it was you because all the yellow bike accessories. You took me by surprise by turning off the Glasgow Road - was expecting you to head straight into town.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  24. onlyalice
    Member

    I never learned to ride when I was little because we lived on a busy road in east London. My dad, who was and still is a keen cyclist, fell foul of an inconsiderate taxi driver's door once when I was a baby, and then became too worried that me and my brother would do the same (which indeed I have done in December 2009, luckily not breaking anything!), so.

    This means that apart from a terrifying few seconds trying to have a go on, and falling off, my cousin's bike when I must have been about 10 or 11, my earliest memory of actually cycling was on the Meadows aged 24!

    (yes, I know that's Holyrood Park - one of my first outings on my own bike).

    Not really in keeping with this thread I suppose, but it does mean that I've got a very clear memory of it and, unlike most people's earliest cycling experiences, there's even a blog post about it :)

    Posted 14 years ago #

  25. SRD
    Moderator

    picture here
    Got my mother to dig this out and send it. Just like I remember it. (sorry, cannot figure out how to embed it)

    Posted 14 years ago #

  26. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    Not a memory exactly but my first self-propelled wheeled thing. I'd say I was just about ready for a Tweed Run.

    Wheels

    Posted 14 years ago #

  27. Min
    Member

    Hehehe, cute! Pretty sure there are no early cycling photographs of myself. Thankfully..

    Posted 14 years ago #

  28. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Here you go SRD:

    Posted 14 years ago #

  29. chdot
    Admin

    I think we need to set up a judging panel...

    Posted 14 years ago #

  30. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    @onlyalice

    That's great :) And it's perfectly in keeping with the thread - it is your earliest cycling memory!

    Posted 14 years ago #

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