Just for a bit of fun.

I saved up the £2.70 per week for delivering many, many, many weekend papers around Torquay, which parents matched. I bought one of these from Colin Lewis Cycles in Paignton.

Bloody loved it; meant everything to me at the time.

(A google pic!)

Grifter from a car boot sale

Proper first bike, or first bike you bought with your own money?
The first with my own money was a DP Freestyler that cost me about a grand in 1984, payed for on my dad’s flexible friend thet I had to do two paper rounds & washing cars after school to pay back, happy days!

A red Kite kids bike. I broke it 8)

Raleigh Budgie

First Bike

Raleigh Tomahawk

First Bike bought with (mostly) my own money (milk round)

Raleigh Medale

Something appears to have possibly gone wrong with my pic; GT talera FWIW

Raleigh budget, striker, grifter xl
Some silver racer then back to Raleigh for a banana racer
That took me to age 18
My 5 yr old has had a balance bike, some halfords 10″ wheel bike then 14 16 and now 20″ islabike!

The first decent bike i paid for was a mongoose super goose by doing 2 paper round’s.

Grifter

Raleigh nitro followed by a gt talera with the super light triple triangle. Light being a relative word.. Talera is still going!

Raleigh Boxer, which I think was a baby Grifter.

Then with my own money an Apollo Blizzard (15 gears), plus top tube bollock protector, corner frame bag for shoulder carrying, and a rather natty polystyrene helmet with fluorescent yellow mesh underpants style cover (MET possibly?)

First bike I paid for was one of these after much saving of Xmas and birthday money etc ,£20 second hand IIRC,mine had silver mini muguards.I had been riding an ancient ladies Raleigh given to me by a neighbour since I was five!No idea what happened to it,presumably handed down to my little brother.

If you mean bought, then 87 Saracen Tufftrax.

First bike I saved for(washing up in the Royal William, Cranham) was a kona explosif 89/90 with the splatter paint job/ suntour xc pro. Great bike. Previously I was on a awful emmelle cougar, then a borrowed mk1 rockhopper. Explosif was a revelation in handling.

Mine was a bike my parents got in a church jumble sale. I learnt to ride on it ( I was six at a guess) then my parents swapped with some neighbours, who had got a boys bike for their daughter at another jumble sale .. I had no idea mine was a girls bike! After that I shared my sister’s Moulton Mini until I was given a Raleigh Olympus when I was 11.

Tang, I’d pay good money for that bike now!

First bike i helped pay for was a Specialised Rockhopper 1988 , bought a 21″ it was too big but what a bike had 4 great years with it before i bent the head tube ? before that was a handmade Ellis briggs road bike far too small (father got it cheap )

Learnt on a Raleigh Budgie… a fine steed if i recall. Then a Raleigh Boxer, Striker, Grifter, Chopper, Tomahawk and a myriad of others

But my first bike was a trike, won my first race on it in 1977, Queens Jubilee Street Party.

First bike I can remember having was a budgie, I lost a lot of teeth on that bike! First one I bought with my own hard earned was a Townsend mtb.

tang – Member
Previously I was on a awful emmelle cougar, then a borrowed mk1 rockhopper. Explosif was a revelation in handling

An 85-odd Rockhopper?

raleigh Boxer in yellow.

Raleigh pacer in blue

First Mtb 1988/89 Marin muirwoods grey ‘antiscratch’ paint and dayglo green forks and stem 😀

A hawk from woolworths I think . Looked like a chopper but not.

But first proper bike was a Raleigh sprint I think

First mtb was a Raleigh mirage.

Heaven knows how many I’ve had since then, a lot!

1st proper bike I remember was my Kalkhoff racer that was too big for me! My dad screwed big wooden blocks to the pedals so I could reach them 😆
I cycled everyday to my infant school which was 3miles away (up a long hill too!). First day of junior school and I got called up in front of assembly as I had ridden in without a cycle proficiency. I was distraught, so embarrasing! I think my dad must have had a word, as I never had to take the cycle proficiency test.
That bike must have lasted me until I was 9/10 when I got a BMX.

To add a pic to my earlier post 😉

[url=https://flic.kr/p/nWm1gt]scan bmx[/url] by MartinRobbo, on Flickr

First bike-Raleigh Chopper, Then a Raleigh Bomber.
First bike I bought was a Halfords Turbo 24 BMX. 😀

A black one with white tyres and stabilisers.

Raleigh Grifter was the first new one bought for me for a birthday.

Ridgeback/Madison Rapide road bike was the first purchased with my own money (£439, and it’s in my storeroom 25 yrs later)

chipper

Budgie bike to learn on, Stinger Aero BMX which sadly I have no photos of, then an Emmelle Leopard (in fluorescent yellow and orange) which was meant to be a mountain bike! I’ll see if I can find the photos to scan in, truly horrific early nineties neon…

I was led to believe it was the mk1 Al. Red with cantis iirc. My friend was American and had brought it over when they moved here.

Can’t remember early ones, second hand roadster type things.

First new to me was a Grifter, little bro got a Boxer.

Had a Carlton Continental 5spd after that, and bent it shunting a car 🙂 happy days…..

Strangely having a lot of fun with an old Raleigh tempest commuter/roadie from 82 the cheapest and bestest race bike i have owned so far, and it only gets raced off road 🙂

my dad used to buy me cheap bikes from various second hand shops or from car boot sales…some of them were good, some not so good. he got me my first real bike which was a raleigh tomahawk from a second hand shop. it was an awesome bike and i loved riding it until it needed a new front tyre and inner tube…getting hold of one proved difficult so in the end after another year of riding it i got my first proper new bike.
i was 9 years old and my dad had boght me a puch invader bmx from the LBS for £150…a lot of money for 1987!!
i loved that bike and i felt like a king riding it…and had it up until i was 23.
got my first mtb aged 13…it was a raleigh activator…say no more!!

Can never find a pic of the Robert Millar Pegeot road bike so that will have to do – right era but a few thousand pounds dearer …its in my attic that one – wrecked but I love it.

Nice one, Junkyard – I also made my debut on a Raleigh Commando.

Smiling now just thinking about it.

Moved onto this, which was nicked.