I think my first bike might've been a budgie or a chipper, then a chopper. All would've been second hand. Parents wouldn't buy me a BMX, so I ended up with a Raleigh Pacer, I wanted a Puch road bike, I think it had more gears and skinnier tyres than the Pacer but the Pacer was definitely more suited to the farm tracks I was riding on. That was replaced eventually with another Raleigh, a Mustang.
First I remember was black with white tyres, and I remember my father taking the stabilisers off it
First proper bike was a Raleigh Grifter. Did my cycling proficiency test on that bike.
NO IDEA ON THE NAME OF MY FIRST BIKE IT WAS TOO BIG FOR ME GOLD AND THREE GEARS ON AN INTERNAL REAR HUB WHICH DIDNT SEEM TO DO ANYTHING. BRAKES DIDNT WORK THAT WELL AND MY FRIENDS DAD DROVE OVER IT WHEN IT WAS PLACED CAREFULLY IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS DRIVE. FIRST BIKE I RODE NO HANDED. THEMS THE DAYS. Sorry for the all caps. Didnt realise it was on until too late.
Think mine was a Raleigh Striker ,but also think it had a coaster brake, might be wrong
Not sure, was the eighties. My sister had some white balloon-tired thing with rod brakes - I was jealous of the fat tires would guess about 2.2" wide but who knows!? Mine was some step-through frame no top tube shopper style thing. I made 2 or 3 brick ramps to ride it over. The second time my dad brazed the frame he added a gusset. Third time bought me a BMX - a Magnum, 3 gears until I buckled the rear wheel too badly and then we bought a second hand Skyway Tuff II - it was yellow painted with white gloss emulsion.
First bike was something my dad welded up out of 2 snapped bikes (or maybe one bike that had snapped), it was red, no top tube with white balloon tyres (I do remember my brother and I had 1 stabiliser each as we learnt at the same time and parents only had 1 set). ‘It was the 80s man!’
My first bike that wasn’t a cut n shut was a Raleigh Striker with the triple crown forks (so moto, with playing cards in the rear spokes for moto noises!). My first BMX was metallic red with shiny gold bars and wheels with red tyres (cracked) and blue grips with white stars (way cooler than my brother’s Burner). No idea if the brand but I hucked that off everything hoping Nicole Kidman would notice me.
First MTB was a Raleigh marauder with 15 gears, my little brother had a Lizard (18 speed) and I was so jealous as back then the more gears you had the cooler your bike was.
Edit - after a bit of Google-fu I’m 99% sure my BMX was a Universal Super Tracker circa 1979. I’d recognise that beauty (annd HT gusset anywhere.
@jimmy748 - that first photo is marvellous. Reminded me I had a yellow mask like that I think.
I had a trike, then a red handmedown solid tyre thing. Attempted my first race on it and was doing pretty well when i rode off a curb (having never attempted this before) on to the road and went OTB and scraped off my top lip.
Last time we had one of these threads i'm pretty sure I posted a photo of me with a passenger on the bike c.1981.
Memories,
First was one of those trikes with rod brakes and a boot for stuff. Fixed gears and solid tyres too if I remember.
Then something else as a trainer bike with the outriggers.
Next a Moulton something with small wheels and a rack that eventually broke from "backies"
Some Halfordesque racer with thumbies for school duties
Then, Raleigh rigid bike circa 1987
I really really wanted an Orange P7 of the time. They had one in the shop in Ambleside but it was waaay to expensive. A Marin Nail Trail with raw alu frame, V Brakes and 20m of elastomer forkage was the one I got and that was 700 quid in the 90's and my first proper MTB.
Mine was a red Vindec touring bike with drop bars toured all over the UK on and some off road - 1970s
I had a Chipper (small version of a chopper), Grifter, then Mustang.
First proper mtb was a GT Pantera.
A Mayflower - think it was a 2nd hand Halfords girls bike.
The Boy Named Sue approach didn’t work unfortunately.
A Raleigh Speedway that I absolutely rode into the ground around the back lanes with my friends where we lived in Cornwall.
Then, when it had disintegrated I got an Amaco 202 BMX for Christmas.
Funny to think how much freedom I had as a young child back then.
Apollo Blizzard because I thought the green/white paint job was ace
I'll give it that - the paintjob was the best thing about the bike, other than the freedom it gave obviously!
Some random hand me downs when I lived at my grandparents, including a rod braked trike, which was great fun. Than a BSO from a catalogue. Pure gas pipe with double crown rigid forks, a number board and 20inch wheels.
First bike I bought was a Raleigh Winner 5 speed to ride to secondary school on.
back then the more gears you had the cooler your bike was.
Not just back then.
I while ago I was on the mtb when I picked up my kids from primary school, gathered a little crowd oohing and aahing over it, was feeling pretty smug until the inevitable question:
"How many gears does it have?"
"Twelve." *smug*
"Twelve? Mine's got 18"
"Mine's got 21!"
"Only 12? Why only 12?"
Everyone slowly wanders off somewhat disappointed, leaving me rather let down lol.
A Giant GSR 400.
(probably) gas pipe steel tubes, cantilever brakes, I think 3x6 speed or maybe (this was a big deal as kids) 3x7. A very classy gloss black paint job streaked with purple.
I might have swapped the bullhorn stock bars (those 1 piece things) with some £12 kalloy Uno bars with some fancy grips, which was a big upgrade on my pocket money. Dreamt of upgrading the tyres to some back/white striped jobs I saw in the shop window.
Rode the life out of it when we thought MTBing was basically endless fireroad loops around Barcaldine Forest that even gravel cyclists today find a bit boring. There was one bit of muddy singletrack off the side of a dam which ended up being used as a DH race course, I came joint 4th in my category (an all time personal best result! 😎) largely because I couldn't really slow down and wasn't afraid to pedal or go through puddles.
My dad commented once I'd gone through several iterations of 'proper' MTB after that I'd probably never had as much fun as I'd had on that GSR400 and he was probably right...
A Raleigh Speedway
Oh, gosh. That takes me back! I know there was a bike before I had a speedway, but that's the first I remember. One of the 9 photos in existence of me before I turned 18 is on one of those. Dad put the numbers on wonky too!
@Ossify - were you left there spluttering ‘b b b b but it’s AXS!’ As they all walked off to gawp at a Carrera belonging to one of the kids?
I think my first bike was a Raleigh Striker, then I had a white Raleigh racer (before they became road bikes) my first mountain bike was an Apollo Blizzard, @a11y that photo takes me back somewhat, followed by a Raleigh Moonrun, my sisters Carrera, nicked at uno, my dad's road bike and then a Klein Pulse Comp putting putting ten cheques at Bicycle Doctor in Rusholme when I got my first job out of uni...
Raleigh Striker? Good name for the 70s/80s!
First one was a copy of a strika, no idea what make it was, but it was 16" wheels and was built burly. learned to ride on that, it had bull bars too, which was both cool, and weird.
Got a Pro Star BMX after that. which I managed to crack at the seat cluster. Got it welded up by the local 'dad with a welder in his shed' and a reinforcing brace on it. then got a Redline 500a BMX in white, which ended up under a car, with me going over the top of the car.
18 months later, 3 months of rehab fr a wonky knee, no bike, insurance paid out and I bought my first 'ATB' a Peugeot Ranger, I broke 3 of them before an upgrade to a Laser 15.
I had some step through frame hand me down with rod operated brakes as one of my first bikes. Frame snapped but the rods kept the two halves together!
Then I had a Red and blue Raleigh Jeep with sturmey archer 3 speed hub gears.
All my mates had new Grifters , Strikas and tomahawks which I was envious of.
Then I had a series of steel framed road bikes. Normally had hand me down frames inherited from my older brothers which I’d strip down do rattle can re spray and reassemble with new bits.
First bike I bought new when I was 13 was a Carlton Criterium, which I bought with my paper round money.
I loved that bike.
Not sure what the first bike as a kid was (probably a Raleigh of some description) but my first proper MTB was a DMR Trailstar. Love those frames, wish they'd do a more modern one with a slacker head angle but retain the same fun feeling ride.
First BMX was a Haro F3, followed by a Federal Division.
