The first bike you ever loved?

[overmyhead]

Rolling through my old neighborhood this morning and feeling a pleasant nostalgia got me thinking about the recent Bicycling article and putting a thread up here.
Tell us about the first bike you ever loved.
For me it was a white early 70's Columbia (what we called a ten speed back then). By then I'd had many ups and downs with bicycles - several used, some bad choices, one stolen. My mom brought me to the country club every Saturday to be a caddie, also to keep me busy and out of trouble. I hated every second of it but saved the $12 that I came home with each week. When I was ready my Uncle Bill took me to the local "everything" store, Bennys on Branch Avenue in Providence, where I bought my sweet, white Columbia complete with frame pump and water bottle. My first "grown up" bike. I was lured by the luster of the bike - how kids like shiny things! The fork was half chrome as well as a portion of the chainstay. It had these 3 inch chrome paddles mounted to the stem that were the shifters. I later heard someone refer to them as "spleen busters". To me it was the most beautiful thing ever. At the risk of being cliche I will say it represented freedom from the often troubling household that I grew up in. We traveled thousands of miles together, with friends and alone. Our landlord said that people didn't spend as much time tinkering with their cars as I did with that bike. My two best friends at the time (whose families were a bit better off financially) went through multiple bikes that they didn't take care of while I continued to care for my Columbia. I had it for well over 20 years using it alternately as a road bike, commuter, and even a bit as a light trail bike. I went from neglecting it when I got my driver's licence to bringing it back to life at least three times. I'm not sure that I ever even had a proper bike tool. (Another cliche moment - I once broke it down and ran every part that would fit through my mother's dishwasher in her new apartment and then re-built it greasing everything with Vaseline). I even did a detailed pencil drawing of it as part of my application to art school. Eventually I saw the merit in having a newer, quieter, lighter, cleaner bike with straight wheels that weren't made true with a pair of pliers. I dropped it off at a local recycle a bike place hoping that they would find someone who could get a few more years out of it. I still wonder if that happened.
I have a few bikes now, one that is particularly dear to me for various reasons. I'm certain that if I had that Columbia now I would never ride it but I sure wouldn't mind seeing it one more time.
Tell me about yours...

[Matthew]

For me it's a black and gold Mongoose BMX bike. Before they were junk department store bikes. Had gold mag wheels that weighed a ton but looked super cool. I talked my mom into getting lighter, gold Araya rim wheels though for racing. Bike was super sharp. Reminded me of the Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am. Then some POS kid from my neighborhood stole it out of my garage. Never got it back. Sad.

[GregL]

https://cdn.barrett-jackson.com/staging/carlist/items/Fullsize/Automobilia/184771/184771_Auto_Front_3-4_Web.jpg

One of my friends had this in 1969. It was all I could do to not drool on it.

Greg

[MattTuck]

2001 trek 5200

https://cdn.bicyclebluebook.com/bikepedia/2001%20Trek%205200.jpg

[parris]

For me it was the bike I got for my 9th birthday. It was a yellow John Deere banana seat bike. I rode it enough to break the frame after several years.

[harlond]

Peugeot PKN10e Competition. Reynolds 531 double-butted tubes in the mainframe, Stronglight49D crank, Weinman 605 brakes, started with a Huret front derailleur but the never worked, can’t remember what I substituted. That was a good bike.

[bob heinatz]

There were very strong attachments to the bike I grew up riding but my first love was a Eisentraut bike when I was around age thirty. Still have it and surprised at how nice it rides.

[Bob Ross]

https://cdn.barrett-jackson.com/staging/carlist/items/Fullsize/Automobilia/184771/184771_Auto_Front_3-4_Web.jpg

/thread

[Ralph]

73 or 74 P13 Schwinn Paramount. Loved that bike....although now I realize how poorly aligned it was.....like most hi end bikes then. One of my best friends at the time rode a Raleigh Pro.....how we loved those bikes. Other friends rode Italian frame all Campy bikes....they were made even worse....poor paint jobs, rusting tubes, but we didn't know that then or care.

[Seramount]

my first bike...it was an xmas present. have no idea what it was. some dept store, gas pipe tubing, small-tire thing. all I recall was that it was orange.

BUT, once I ditched the training wheels, it was my ticket to freedom...I could saddle up and ride all day with no parental oversight...

loved that bike.

[rkhatibi]

1990 Miyata Triplecross in purple. $340-ish out the door which was all my Christmas, birthday, and way too many hours of fry cooking at $3.15/hr money. Practically lived on it in high school. Best memory was a clandestine midnight ride through the local forest preserve. Gliding through the trails in moonlight and gusty fall wind by feel and habit more often than sight.

[oldpotatoe]

Mine was blue and I still have it in the garage..great ride.

[overmyhead]

I don't know about you all but I think this is great. So cool to see and read about everybody's special bike - because we all have one.
Keep 'em coming!

[ultraman6970]

THe 1st bike ever loved and never got, was the raleigh chopper... darn I wanted one when I was a kid, dad never came around to buy me one :) I dont hate him for that tho.. :) then from the used ones I had an old caloi 20'.... split the frame in a half jumping at the motocross course like 30 mins from home, came back walking that day :D

As for track bikes, I had one made out of mannesman tubing, straight gauge 0.9... miss that one so much, i know where is it, but after all this years doubt is alive.

Road ones I miss a few :) But there's always other ones to try :D

[Chris]

1994 Serotta CRL. First bike that just did everything right.

[drewski]

In Buenos Aires 1974 I remember the first time I saw guys drafting and and saw bicycles doing laps at a park called Circuito KDT. It was like I was witnessing alien space craft. Flash forward to 1979 ( returned there after the unfortunate passing of my step-dad) Greenwich Village NYC.
I first saw road bikes such as the Raleigh Team at Sal Corso's Stuyvesant shop shop down near Greenwich Village. I grew up in New York and then Argentina.
I was a little young for Raleigh my mom arranged for me to buy a bike called France Louvre. It was stolen from me on the George Washington Bridge in NYC. An adult pushed me off it. I was traumatized by this event for quite a while.

As a pre-teen hooked on the film Breaking Away Masi bikes really were mind blowing to me. My mom told me she dated him at one time. Which was kind of mind blowing.

[echelon_john]

Definitely this one. I was one lucky kid. 13 years old. We imported it from England in a container full of wool. (my dad's business)

[bikingshearer]

Had one or two 3-speed Schwinns as a kid, and my first 10-speed Bike Boom Special (labeled "Benotto" but indistinguishable from any one of dozens of other brands just like it) is what launched me into the sport for real. But the first one I loved was a Bob Jackson I bought c.1975 with my first check from my first job out of high school. It was red with white panels and lettering and chrome socks, and I paid something like $170 for the frame and fork (and probably headset) from Stone's in Alameda. I built it up with a melange of parts that only an 18 year old kid would have. I thought it was drop-dead gorgeous, and still think it looked pretty damn good. I did some (very) low-grade racing on it, rode a number of centuries and the Davis Double on it, and even did my first loaded tour on it (even though it was a racing bike with sew-ups - that was an adventure).

I eventually went to college, and then law school, and then got married and started a family, in the course of which I rode Bob less and less. One day, someone stole Bob out of my garage. Man, was I pissed. But Bob did me one last solid even then; by losing him the way I did, I was shocked back into remembering how much I loved riding. I took the insurance money, added a little bit of my own, got a shiny new 1992 Bridgestone RB-1 and started riding regularly again. The bikes have changed, and I don't go as fast or as far as I once did, but I have never let life take me completely away from my bike since then. I'm sorry Bob had to be sacrificed to learn the lesson (and I still curse the $#&%&%$! who took him), but the love has never gone away.

[bikingshearer]

Definitely this one. I was one lucky kid. 13 years old. We imported it from England in a container full of wool. (my dad's business)

Now that is a great shot. You look like the cat that ate the canary, just as you should.

[Alaska Mike]

I'm a bit of a faithless bike-whore, so I've gone through a bunch of bikes. I buy them, play around with the build, ride them for a while, and then pass them on to someone else. Some stay longer than others.

The first bike I ever loved was a 2008 Trek Madone 5.2 Pro. I liked a whole lot of other bikes before that, some more than others, but that was the first one that I really felt at home on the first time I rode it. I still have it.

I'm developing a real infatuation with my 2008 Moots Compact as I sort out the components and fit. Who knows if it will blossom into true love?

2008 seems to be a good year for me, but 2011 and 2013 were pretty good as well. As the manufacturers have fully embraced the dark side and gone for press-fit bottom brackets and internal cable routing (when it made no sense), I've found less to love. I like innovation, but I also work on my own stuff.

In general, I just like bikes.

[benb]

Yah... I'm not sure I can actually say I have ever *loved* any of my bikes.

I have had some kind of weird love-hate relationship with all of them. I would probably have a hard time saying which one is my favorite. I might say my very first nice road bike, a Model Year 2000 Trek 2200. First aluminum frame I owned first Carbon fork, first bike with indexed shimano shifters + STI. (It had 105). I was ignorant enough about bikes when I got it that I didn't really know enough to know if anything was wrong with it. I cut my teeth on learning maintenance on it, I did my first 4 road races/crits on it, I climbed mount washington on it. I probably never had the seat at the correct height the whole 4 years, but i didn't know any better! In early 2004 I had cracked the chainstay from fatigue and I got a warranty replacement that I didn't like. (Trek 2300 aluminum frame w/carbon seatstays, a really different bike that didn't have a quill stem, didn't fit as well, and way way way stiffer.)

For example I'm not sure I've had any bikes that didn't throw me to the ground at least once, drawing blood. And all of them have from time to time been a place where I suffered a lot. Pretty much every one has lead to an overuse injury or overtraining at one point!

I could probably say I *love* my Fender Telecaster even though it cost 1/4 what my cheapest bike cost. It's never injured me and it's never a bad time. I probably couldn't say that about my DSLR or something even though it could be considered a "prize possession" because there have been times it has sucked to lug since it's heavy, and the time it got me pulled out at the airport and searched extensively is not a good memory, just like crashing a bike is not a good memory.

[Hellgate]

All of them?

I suppose it was the Peugeot UO8 that I worked all summer to buy. I rode the wheels off the thing. The first highend bike I love was a Pinnarello Trevisio with NR/SR bits, and GEL280s.

[overmyhead]

I know there are those who dismiss the notion of "bike bonding" but it is clear to me from reading some of these that it is/can be a real thing.
The other thing that I notice is that, like myself, those of you who have had a bike stolen still have some very strong feelings about it. I was approached by three kids bigger than I was. One of them made it clear that he was going to take my bike for a ride one way or another. I never saw it or them again. That was my banana seat Hermes from Czechoslovakia, sparkle green with sissy bar. A close second to my 10 speed Columbia. Even after 45 years it stings.

[onsight512]

I had a number of bikes when I was a kid (Schwinn Scrambler, Schwinn Predator), but there was about a twenty five year gap where I didn't really ride. I started again about ten years ago, commuting to work to get some cardio.

This Quiring is the first bike I've 'loved'. I found it on this forum (thanks Jeff!).
I probably think about how happy I am that it crossed my path every time I ride it.
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/414/31755423036_fa64ea9481_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/Qo7QVJ)

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5335/30058388621_b4767d269f_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/MNa6HF)

[rustychisel]

The one I built for myself when I was about 13, what you guys would call a beater.

In our area there was a club of dirt track riders called the Findon Skid Kids and everyone cool wanted to be one of them. They were hardcore, raced and did exhibition rides, had alloy (!!!!!) components on their bikes, crashed and bled and bruised just like the rest of us.

I got a frame, sourced wheels and built them up single speed, bought a pair of very wide bullhorn bars (colloquially = AJs) and built up the whole bike. Rode it everywhere, including to school, no brakes. In three years I guess I wore out 20 pairs of sneakers jamming the shoe between the seattube and rear wheel to skid stop.

I could mono (wheelie) that bike from home to the local shopping centre, about half a mile with four turns along the way; throw it sideways and stop on any surface, blah blah blah.

Then one weekend someone broke into the shed and stole it, leaving my 2 other 'good' bikes behind.

http://www.cyclespeedway.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/NSW-SKID-KIDS.jpg

[PSJoyce]

My 1981 Serotta Club Special. That bike just flew with little effort. Unfortunately, it didn't survive the first corner of my first training race at Ninigret -- back when Bill was still moving the tires to describe the corner when we were on the start line.

Have to say my current Emonda SLR is probably the best bike I've ridden, except for maybe the 1985 Bianchi Reparto Course C-Record. Wish I still had that bike.

[TMD]

Serotta Colorado AL I raced as a teenager. Something pretty cool about pulling up to a race with $3000+, ($6000+ with my team mate) on the roof of your $1200 Honda Civic. Wish I still had that bike, it was a 54 in red/yellow from 1998 if anyone has or knows of one they'd be willing to part with.

[verticaldoug]

The one I built for myself when I was about 13, what you guys would call a beater.

In our area there was a club of dirt track riders called the Findon Skid Kids and everyone cool wanted to be one of them. They were hardcore, raced and did exhibition rides, had alloy (!!!!!) components on their bikes, crashed and bled and bruised just like the rest of us.

I got a frame, sourced wheels and built them up single speed, bought a pair of very wide bullhorn bars (colloquially = AJs) and built up the whole bike. Rode it everywhere, including to school, no brakes. In three years I guess I wore out 20 pairs of sneakers jamming the shoe between the seattube and rear wheel to skid stop.

I could mono (wheelie) that bike from home to the local shopping centre, about half a mile with four turns along the way; throw it sideways and stop on any surface, blah blah blah.

Then one weekend someone broke into the shed and stole it, leaving my 2 other 'good' bikes behind.

http://www.cyclespeedway.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/NSW-SKID-KIDS.jpg

We all raced in the local sandpits when we were kids, it was a blast.

I've loved many bikes, but probably loved the bike I learned to ride on even though it was a girls bike with fat tires. I think I was 6.

[OperaLover]

My first new bike! The brown one with gold Ukai rims. Saved my summer money and bought it from a small shop in Salem, Oregon. I upgraded the brakes to Superbe Pro and put on a hot red Concor Profil saddle (the "aero" one)and pink Benotto tape. It was so 80's and I was in love! Rode the hell out of it!

[efuentes]

Got to be my shiny Redline RL-20 BMX bike with flight cranks, saved a whole summer for it, or maybe my blue Kuwahara :confused: