How old were you when you got your first really nice bike?

Brink wrote:
How old were you when you got your first really nice bike and what was
it?

I didn't get my first bike until I was 13.

Our yard is a hill. There are various gradations of hill. Some of it
is uphill and other bits are downhill but it is all hill.
Except for the bridge, which is usually littered with broken glass,
there aren't any nearby sidewalks.

So with no place for me to learn how to ride a bike and no place for a
younger person to ride without getting in the car first I didn't get a bike.

My aunt bought it for me for my bat mitzvah. She had taught me to ride
the summer before on a bike path behind her house.

I don't remember much about this bike. It was bright hot pink. It was,
if I recall correctly "a beach bike" and had big tires. I liked that
bike. A lot.

On my first big bicycle ride I was very annoyed when they said I
couldn't use my single speed bike and had to use a multispeed bike. One
of the counselors at the summer camp worked for a LBS and was a geek so
I ended up riding an old oooollld bike. I don't remember the type of
bike. But, being a geek myself, I remember the ivory colored plastic
that was an early type of plastic, and the information imparted to me
about the way in which the welds were done. It had 3 speeds. I moved
gears when someone told me to move gears.

In later years at the same camp I would bring along my older brother's
road bike and end up swapping with a counselor who could actually ride
it and having their bike adjusted to me. And then, my last year at that
camp I had my own new geared bike.

Which was a nice bike though may have been an Xmart special. It also
may have been bike shop. Recent past though it was I really do not
remember! It wasn't important to me at the time, it was just a bike
that was going to replace the single speed I really liked because the
people at the summer camp insisted I have a multi speed bike. (I never
shifted except when someone reminded me to do so and usually walked up
most of the hills but they insisted if I wanted to go on the two week
bike and hike trip I had to have a proper bike.)

And which was stolen from _inside_ our house at the end of summer. The
theif realized someone was home before they got anything valuable and
was heading out when they saw the bike sitting in the entryway. Rrrrr.

In college I rode my hot pink single speed and loved it. It almost
never got locked. In my third year of college the people mowing the
lawn at my rented house moved the bike away from its hiding place next
to the house into a nice prominent place on the porch ... from which it
disappeared never to be seen again.

I probably would have gotten a new bike but I broke my leg at the
beginning of that summer.

I purchased my first "bought it with my own money" bike at 21 from the
bike shop closest to work. It was 220 rmb bargained down from 420
because I wanted the cheapest bike in the shop and they refused to sell
it to me. "Not good enough for a foreigner."

It was stolen over the summer when I loaned it to a friend.

My first nice bike came a few weeks ago.

Not a fantastic bike but a nice bike.

For 490 rmb (about 50 or 55 bucks) I got a Giant Athena. It has wide
tires but definitely isn't a mountain bike. I'd guess it is an all
terrain type bike. Local streets can certainly be all terrain at
times.. Single Speed. Shimano thingy-whatses on the wheels ... I think
hubs is the correct term. Those are the only parts on it that have
names printed on them.

You can see a picture of it and some uselessly written in Chinese
specifications at:

http://www.giant-bicycles.com/ch/030...=87&model=6661

or

http://tinyurl.com/nawg

Still not a fantastic bike. It is way better than my last bike, or any
bike I have ever owned except for the hot pink bike that was my first.
Having a good bike I want to have a better bike.

For now, I guess the answer is either 22 or 13 years old.

-M

Brink wrote:
How old were you when you got your first really nice bike and what was
it?

I didn't get my first bike until I was 13.

Our yard is a hill. There are various gradations of hill. Some of it
is uphill and other bits are downhill but it is all hill.
Except for the bridge, which is usually littered with broken glass,
there aren't any nearby sidewalks.

So with no place for me to learn how to ride a bike and no place for a
younger person to ride without getting in the car first I didn't get a bike.

My aunt bought it for me for my bat mitzvah. She had taught me to ride
the summer before on a bike path behind her house.

I don't remember much about this bike. It was bright hot pink. It was,
if I recall correctly "a beach bike" and had big tires. I liked that
bike. A lot.

On my first big bicycle ride I was very annoyed when they said I
couldn't use my single speed bike and had to use a multispeed bike. One
of the counselors at the summer camp worked for a LBS and was a geek so
I ended up riding an old oooollld bike. I don't remember the type of
bike. But, being a geek myself, I remember the ivory colored plastic
that was an early type of plastic, and the information imparted to me
about the way in which the welds were done. It had 3 speeds. I moved
gears when someone told me to move gears.

In later years at the same camp I would bring along my older brother's
road bike and end up swapping with a counselor who could actually ride
it and having their bike adjusted to me. And then, my last year at that
camp I had my own new geared bike.

Which was a nice bike though may have been an Xmart special. It also
may have been bike shop. Recent past though it was I really do not
remember! It wasn't important to me at the time, it was just a bike
that was going to replace the single speed I really liked because the
people at the summer camp insisted I have a multi speed bike. (I never
shifted except when someone reminded me to do so and usually walked up
most of the hills but they insisted if I wanted to go on the two week
bike and hike trip I had to have a proper bike.)

And which was stolen from _inside_ our house at the end of summer. The
theif realized someone was home before they got anything valuable and
was heading out when they saw the bike sitting in the entryway. Rrrrr.

In college I rode my hot pink single speed and loved it. It almost
never got locked. In my third year of college the people mowing the
lawn at my rented house moved the bike away from its hiding place next
to the house into a nice prominent place on the porch ... from which it
disappeared never to be seen again.

I probably would have gotten a new bike but I broke my leg at the
beginning of that summer.

I purchased my first "bought it with my own money" bike at 21 from the
bike shop closest to work. It was 220 rmb bargained down from 420
because I wanted the cheapest bike in the shop and they refused to sell
it to me. "Not good enough for a foreigner."

It was stolen over the summer when I loaned it to a friend.

My first nice bike came a few weeks ago.

Not a fantastic bike but a nice bike.

For 490 rmb (about 50 or 55 bucks) I got a Giant Athena. It has wide
tires but definitely isn't a mountain bike. I'd guess it is an all
terrain type bike. Local streets can certainly be all terrain at
times.. Single Speed. Shimano thingy-whatses on the wheels ... I think
hubs is the correct term. Those are the only parts on it that have
names printed on them.

You can see a picture of it and some uselessly written in Chinese
specifications at:

http://www.giant-bicycles.com/ch/030...=87&model=6661

or

http://tinyurl.com/nawg

Still not a fantastic bike. It is way better than my last bike, or any
bike I have ever owned except for the hot pink bike that was my first.
Having a good bike I want to have a better bike.

For now, I guess the answer is either 22 or 13 years old. 22 years old
because it is my best bike to date. 13 because that is the age of
wonder and everything is wonderful when you are that age.

-M

My first bike was a red Schwinn singlespeed. Rode that bike until my
two older brothers got new Schwinn ?'s (not Varsity, they had those,
it was a step up from that) and my younger brother and I got their
Varsity's. The Varsity was where I learned bike maintenance, tearing
down everything and putting it back together. Those bikes were great
for a kid!

We used to have "Glide Races" down our road. Only one push with a
foot allowed and then a 3/4 mile run down various slopes. I was a bit
rotund, so the runout at the end always made me the winner (one of the
few bonuses of being a fat kid).

We rode those bikes everywhere, sometimes even a 20 mile round trip to
the neighboring larger town where they had a Mexican restaurant
(mmmmmm!!!!).

Then a Sekine 10 speed bike my college girlfriend (now wife) rescued.
Loved it but left it unlocked in her neighborhood one evening (ah, the
distractions of young love) and poof! gone.

My next bike was a Panasonic mountain bike. Frame came from a friend
in college and I built it up myself (it had a crank, bb and headset
already installed). I forget what happened to it.

Later bought one of the original Cannondale mtn bikes from a roommate
- steel fork and a little too small - but so cool on campus! That
bike was stolen (u-locked to a wrought-iron railing and someone came
along and clipped the railing - so much for kryptonite locks).

One day, after receiving my tax refund while in college, I decided I
needed a road bike. I had been doing 10 - 20 mile rides in the area
and decided to start riding. Traded my refund check ($500!) for a
Fuji Club - 14 indexed speeds, Ishiwata triple butted and channeled
tubing, RX100 components, yowza, that bike rocked! After graduating
college, I started doing club rides in the area - touring rides in
southern Wisconsin with a co-worker. My first 30+ mile rides and real
hills (anyone know Mound Park road?). This was the bike that pushed
me to learn to build wheels.

After the Cannondale was stolen, I replaced it with another - an SH600
hybrid. LX components, very nice. Good for campus riding where the
Fuji didn't like the dust from the bike trails along the lake, jumping
curbs and potholes on the roads.

A series of life changes put me off riding for a few years and I was
down to the hybrid which served me well (sold the Fuji to a friend).
Started riding again and bought a Klein Stage Comp T. Did GRAABAWR
on it and some other fairly serious riding until I realized it was
just too big in the top tube.

Which brings me full circle to my two latest bikes. Both Schwinns,
both frames I picked up off ebay. One a Paramount Ti (Serotta was
building these) and the other a Super Sport SL (Reynolds 853). Both
Campy 10 (Paramount = Chorus and Super Sport = Daytona). Both of
these are amazing bikes in their own right.

Which bike was the first really nice one? How can I pick? They all
served me faithfully. The first really nice one, though, has to be
that very first single speed Schwinn. I loved that bike, got my first
serious road rash on that bike, and best of all, it was on that bike
that I got my first taste of freedom.

App

(Brink) wrote in message . com...
How old were you when you got your first really nice bike and what was
it?


At the time, each bike seemed like the really nice bike. After riding
the big blue bike with balloon tires that my sisters and cousins
before them had all used, the gold Roadmaster banana seat stingray
seemed to be really nice (c. 1970). Then the Schwinn Varsity 10 speed
that I saved my money for (used from the want ads) seemed to be the
really nice bike when I was 14.

The Miyata 710 purchased in 1982 was and still is a really nice bike
(for city use). But my really really nice bike is my Nobilette custom
frame, Suntour supbrepro components, bike from 1986 when I was 26.

Sat, 13 Sep 2003 12:07:17 +0200,
,
"sparker" wrote:


I love my new bike.

Lock it. Always. Forever.

And with two locks, but especially in France.

The volume and stench of Parisian traffic is overwhelming in contrast
to Vancouver but it seems to move in a more civilised manner in that
they're more accepting of, and accustomed to, other road users.

French drivers too are eminently more skilled than the visible
majority of Vancouver's renown lousiest drivers.

I'd watch where I dabbed though.
--
zk

Zoot Katz wrote in
:

Sat, 13 Sep 2003 12:07:17 +0200,
,
"sparker" wrote:


I love my new bike.

Lock it. Always. Forever.

And with two locks, but especially in France.

Only if it is a road bike Zoot, if it is a mountain bike you can leave
it unlocked anywhere and no one would even look at it let alone
steal it...the French are wise in some ways.

First "nice" bike was a Centurian when I was about 15. Next was a Centurian
Ironman Master after I got married, probably in 1989. Then came a
Bridgestone Radac in the late '90s as a hand-me-down from my dad. My first
"really nice" bike was a Bianchi Daytona 2 years ago when the Radac was
stolen.

"Brink" wrote in message
om...
How old were you when you got your first really nice bike and what was
it?

I got a cheap mountain bike from the local bike shop at age 21.(
Mongoose hiltopper)

I got a really nice road bike this year at age 29. (Tommasini techno
ultegra components)

Why did i wait so long?

Well at least i saw the light!

----Brink

"Zoot Katz" wrote in message
...
Sat, 13 Sep 2003 12:07:17 +0200,
,
"sparker" wrote:


I love my new bike.

Lock it. Always. Forever.

And with two locks, but especially in France.

I do. And I never leave it outside overnight. I have seen so many bikes
picked clean after being left out. The bad side of this is I have to carry
my bike up five flights of stairs each day. I look at it as conditioning.


The volume and stench of Parisian traffic is overwhelming in contrast
to Vancouver but it seems to move in a more civilised manner in that
they're more accepting of, and accustomed to, other road users.

French drivers too are eminently more skilled than the visible
majority of Vancouver's renown lousiest drivers.

I'd watch where I dabbed though.
--
zk

You are absolutley right, and I don't mean to say that riding in Paris is
better than Vancouver. They're different. And I will probably move back to
Vancouver soon, so I will have to get used to it's traffic (and rain) once
again.

Alex

(Brink) wrote in message . com...
How old were you when you got your first really nice bike and what was
it?


Ah. Nostalgia.

I vaguely recall my Raleigh "Mounty." I think it was
blue. White chainguard.

I remember learning to balance my first bicycle
(we skipped the training wheels).

The launch-sequence stabilization device (aka my father)
would accelerate alongside until I reached exit velocity,
then the locking clamps (aka his hands) would drop away
and I'd be on my way to the space sta ... er, ahem, end of
the laneway, trying to remember how to stop without falling over.

I rode (relatively) long distances for a munchkin, exploring
Sherbrooke Street in Montreal. I think traffic was kinder and
gentler back then. Or my guardian angel shooed away the
asteroids and space debris (trucks, cars, motorcycles).

Perhaps you need to be more specific when you say
"really nice bike"

I was in fifth grade and it was a red stingray , That I bought for one
dollar at a police auction.
"mark freedman" wrote in message
...
(Brink) wrote in message
. com...
How old were you when you got your first really nice bike and what was
it?


Ah. Nostalgia.

I vaguely recall my Raleigh "Mounty." I think it was
blue. White chainguard.

I remember learning to balance my first bicycle
(we skipped the training wheels).

The launch-sequence stabilization device (aka my father)
would accelerate alongside until I reached exit velocity,
then the locking clamps (aka his hands) would drop away
and I'd be on my way to the space sta ... er, ahem, end of
the laneway, trying to remember how to stop without falling over.

I rode (relatively) long distances for a munchkin, exploring
Sherbrooke Street in Montreal. I think traffic was kinder and
gentler back then. Or my guardian angel shooed away the
asteroids and space debris (trucks, cars, motorcycles).

Perhaps you need to be more specific when you say
"really nice bike"