Tell me about your first Bicycle

Do you have fond memories of your first bicycle?
Do you remember the color?
Perhaps you remember how it felt to ride.
Did you enjoy a new sense of freedom when you had your first bike?

For my daughter's birthday this year (2nd b-day) we gave her a bicycle. She was drawn to it, and glued herself to it inseparably for a half hour in the store before I caved and decided to purchase it for her. She was super excited to find a bike her size. She recognized it right away as her bike and wouldn't let anyone convince her otherwise (it's a bit too big, honestly).

I vaguely recall my first bicycle. It was a hand-me-down from some relative. It was light blue/periwinkle. It had training wheels. It was too big, and it took me a long time to learn to ride it. Now, my second bike, that's a different story. I remember that one really, really well. I got to pick that one out brand-new in the store and it was everything to me. I had proven myself a capable rider, and so I was thrilled I was going to get my very own red and black 3-speed bike that I could take mountain biking. A few months after I got it, I convinced my father to take me on a trail that he and my older brother would go on often, one that would be a challenge for most physically fit adults. I was 10 years old. And I was stubborn - I rode that bike the entire 8+ miles of that trail, through the mountains to the beach. By the end, I was coated in mud, completely exhausted, and proud as could be. I asked to do it again the very next weekend. We rode that trail together nearly every other week until I graduated high school. Eventually I outgrew that bike, and my dad gave me a lightweight 21 speed sometime when I was a teenager. By the time I rode it with friends in college, I was able to leave most of the male companions that I drug on that trail in the dust. I knew that trail backwards and forwards.

The bike my daughter chose, and the enthusiasm with which she chose it, reminds me of my little red bike. Maybe it's no coincidence that her bike is also red. She definitely is determined to take it for a spin at every available opportunity.

 

The first bike I got was a black BMX style bike. I must've been about 4. I remember my dad had it all put together and it was sitting in our kitchen. Had one of those velcro pads over the bar, I thought it was so cool. That's what I learned to ride a two wheel bike on. At the time, we lived in a small town, and I rode that bike everywhere. Sometimes I would go 'uptown' to the store for my mom to get a few staples or odds and ends she needed. It was about two or three blocks, and if I could manage it on my bike she didn't have to get my little sister in the car. I even remember once her giving me a check for the mortgage (a whopping $169, I still remember) and had me take it to the bank. It as impressed on me how important it was not to lose it, and I felt old and responsible being trusted with such an errand. I can't have been 7-8 years old, since we moved away from that house right when I turned 9. Good times.

 

I do not recall my first bicycle, but my mother likes to tell the story of me as a young child learning to ride it. Apparently (and this is not something I recall, possibly related) I spent an entire day in the front yard just trying again and again and falling over again and again until I finally got the hang of it.

So it turns out my stubbornness is innate I guess.

 

Not my picture, and not my exact bike, but I had the same model.


You can see the holes on the ends of the handlebars where the streamers have been cut off on this one; they were blue, pink, and white to match the rest of the bicycle. I also had lots of decor in my spokes, also coordinated with the bicycle, but that was my own touch.

My childhood neighborhood was relatively isolated in a rural community when I was young and riding my bike around. We lived in a subdivision on an island in the Puget Sound, surrounded by country on three sides and beach houses on the fourth. The neighborhood was kind of terraced into the hillside, so there were two flat streets parallel to each other, and a long, sloped street connecting the two halfway through the neighborhood; at the end of the subdivision, there was a much steeper, curved hill that looped the two streets together, while at the other end there was a busy road at the end of a steep hill. We had our boundaries: the busy road on one end, and the loop on the other. We were not allowed to go anywhere but those two streets; however, that was ample territory to explore for many years.

All the neighborhood kids had bikes, and we would spend countless hours trolling around on them, going from one house to the next. When bored, it was common enough to hop on one's bike and cruise the neighborhood looking to see who was out playing. We would have races, both on the flat streets and on the long, sloping hill, and we would set up obstacle courses to navigate through on our bicycles. I had a very steep, curved driveway, which was the toughest thing to navigate safely in our neighborhood, and proved a challenge to more than one comer; a friend ran off into the bushes of the vacant lot next door at one of my birthday parties. Of course, we were all very proud of our bicycles, and kept them in top condition at all times. They were things to be seen on and shown off.

I started riding my bicycle sometime before 5 years old, and I graduated from the Sea Princess on my 8th birthday; I saved up my allowance for nearly a year to buy a Murray bike with gears, which we ordered from BEST. It wasn't nearly as fancy as the Sea Princess, and I missed the banana seat. Somehow, it felt a little like growing up, and I didn't entirely like it. I had that Murray until my teen years, but I didn't ride it as much once I moved to the suburbs of Portland. It just wasn't the same.

 

Mine was a blue BMX with yellow mag wheels.

/the'80s

 

I love all of your responses. They give me a glimpse into your young lives.
I wonder if anyone will pipe in who had their first experience with a bicycle as an adult.

 

This was highly influential on my early cycling days. (Yes, that's Uncle Jesse's girlfriend, Rebecca.)


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPVJzi7Ta9w

 

How many kids today weld?!