What was your first bike?

Raleigh Budgie in a bronze brown followed by a Raleigh Burner in red and yellow. Both got well used and probably ended up at the local tip. If only we knew how collectable they would become.

I learned to ride on a red girls bike which was handed down from my older cousin but the following Christmas, Santa got me a Raleigh Strika in metallic green with a pedal back coaster brake which was just the thing for amazing skids.
Reading that Chopper thread has brought back many great memories from my childhood.

First one I can remember was a Gresham Flyer - no photos exist of this though - we weren't a photos sort of family! 🙂

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Trike with direct pull brakes

That must have been a great Christmas because I can also see a Jacko the monkey, a robot and a tonka toy. I think this is 1977

As per jp-t853, a trike, with a cavernous great boot for carrying the Action Men in. Or maybe Jacko, cos I had one of those too 😀
Me n big bro about to go truckin

Raleigh Grifter is the first 'propper' bike I remember, first MTB was a 1989 British eagle no idea which model, first decent mtb was a 93 rockhopper fs.

There is an old photo of me in the family heirloom aged about 3 on a trike. Does that count?

If it must be 2 wheels I think it was a bsa racer. Probably 10 speed. Had bar top brake levers I recall. I’d have been about 8 or 9. I remember the cotter pins always falling out of the cranks. There’s a photo of me in it in cub uniform somewhere. Came secondhand from grandparents I think.

Then a series of skip find frames built up resprayed crashed and broken.
First new bike I bought with my own money was a Raleigh road bike. Lovely cream colour. 531 frame 501 forks. Bought with money earned one summer holiday when I was 14 or 15. Did 300 miles one week round welsh youth hostels when I was 16. Bar bag and rucksack. Got knicked within weeks of starting uni. Insurance replacement never gave me as much joy. Also a steel Raleigh road bike. Snapped at headtube down tube junction after too many drops off kerbs. Jejames got me a warranty replacement. Got ridden less and less until I got my first mtb after uni. Khs Montana comp from langsett cycles… didn’t ride drop bars again till I was 40!

edit- yeah just like those trike pics above!

I had a Jacko the Monkey too!

First bike was a hand me down with solid tyres, next bike was a 2nd hand racer that had been completely painted in lime green: tyres, rims, spokes, cranks the lot. Dad & I stripped it down & he repainted it.

First new/proper bike was a Raleigh Arena with 5 (yes a whole 5) gears. I was the first of my mates to get a bike with gears, then a few months later one of them got an Arena with 10 gears, the bastard. Then BMXs started to appear and these racers we had looked old fashioned.

Raleigh Budgie in a blue green, then a Chopper, then a Coventry Eagle Stratos (racer) then at 16 into the roadie world with a Raleigh Road Ace 531c.

Me n big bro about to go truckin

Watch out girls!

Raleigh Commando - Wasn't a Chopper, wasn't a Grifter, but I loved it

Dont remember my first bike by manufacturer, the one i learnt to ride on. I do remember it was a hand-me-down from my big sister and it was red and yellow.

Next bike was a Raleigh Boxer, then a Raleigh Meteor. Then onto motorbikes.....

A 1973 Raleigh Pixie.

A blue and yellow solid tyred beast of a machine.

A trike, bit like the one above except mine had solid tyres, a bike handed down from family via my sister. My first 'proper' bike was a 5-speed Puch Pacemaker racing bike my mum bought from the local auction house. Best bike I ever had it was so special to me, as we had very little money to spare.

Like this:

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I do remeber it was a hand-me-down from my big sister. It was red and yellow.

Raleigh Chico? Loads of them about when I was a kid.

Watch out girls!

Shitty stick in boot to beat em off with! 😆

Raleigh Road Ace 531c.

oh yes! My mate Dave had one of those. Black with the stripes on the top tube. Same catalogue as the cream one I had but better bits. Mine was called a corsa or something similar Italian sounding. Or maybe that was its replacement.

Dave got into mtb before me not long after we’d been round wales together. He had more money. Had an early Marin. Prob 1990sh? Grey with pink forks?

A turquoise chopper copy. Close-ish, but singlespeed. Could just fit a passenger on the seat. Actually quite good as it seemed faster than actual choppers for some reason. My little sister wanted it after me, but my Dad wanted to give her a new bike that Christmas...but didn't want to spend £££s. So he stripped the bike down, got the paint shop at work to spray the frame pink, then changed the saddle, polished everything else and rebuilt it. It did indeed look like a new and different bike. My sister was happy, but said she would have been happier with my old bike instead...

Raleigh Chico? Loads of them about when I was a kid.

No, it looked like this. Internet search says Raleigh Elf?

No. It had a double thin tubes for a top-tube and a thicker downtube. Not Raleigh. Seat like chopper with a back rest, but not quite as big.

No idea what I learned to ride on. Had various hand me downs, a Raleigh Bomber, then a Raleigh Pulsar that I bought myself when I was around 14-15 at a guess, maybe a bit younger. I'd class that as my first proper bike (not my pic)

Raleigh Striker. Think that was the one with fake shock covers on the forks. Nice and yellow anyway.

Big bro had a Grifter. Got into trouble one day riding it because you could tuck the rubber back part of the front mudguard against the tyre for fake motorbike noises. Downside was that it wore through after about 10 mins of that. Oops.

First bike I remember was a bright orange Lee Ways/Play Ways - remember going with my parents to a warehouse somewhere to get it, only had a front brake.
After that it was a Raleigh Striker and then Raleigh Super Burner (not with the black mag wheels though....).

A folding Raleigh shopper - second hand.

/four Yorkshiremen
An I thought I was lucky...

I think it was around 1987/88, mum and dad took me and my brother to the bike shop. I got a 16" wheel BMX style bike in white and red (may or may not have been a Raleigh), and he got a Raleigh MTB in white and maroon with 20" wheels and proper gears.
As this was my first bike dad had got me stabilisers. Got home and within in about 5 minutes I'd asked for them to be taken off and I was away. I never have been allowed to forget that he wasted money on stabilisers that I didn't need.
I inherited brothers bike some years later which then saw me through until I got a Marin Bolinas Ridge for Christmas in 1995.

A trike, looked almost exactly like that red one in the photo above from desperatebicycle!
Late 80's probably when I was 4 or so, it was a rescue project with the local bike shop guy who was a family friend. Started off as a rusty heap, ended as a gleaming red & yellow thing of beauty. No idea what happened to it.

First 2-wheeler was a proper old BMX, not sure what the style's called, a big thing not like today's stunt bikes.

First thing that could remotely be called a mountain bike was probably also my first bike bought new, a Claud Butler Pagan in an amazing black & yellow paint job wot I can't find a picture of.

Dont remember my first but the second was a Raleigh Striker but with the normal back brakes followed by the black and gold Grifter and then i went halfs with my parents one birthday maybe about 13 and got a Raleigh Quasar with the funky aero bottle. No bikes for a while after that then in 2010 I bought a Carerra Fury then a Bfe and an Aeris 9. Still have the last 3 bikes but wish i still had the Quasar!

Ellis Briggs 531 tubing road frame bought second hand from a junk shop for £5 for my 11th or 12th birthday in the 1970s. I particularly remember the intricately cut lugs. Built up by a relative with old Campag parts mostly. Stolen when I was 15 or so. No pictures because no-one in my immediate family had a camera. We had it tough up North back in them days.
Choppers and other heavy bikes with cowhorn handlebars and tassels never appealed to me.

A horrible pinkyred girlie looking shopping bike, with stabilisers. Dad built up the pedals with wooden blocks so I could reach them. I was probably about 4, think I finally learnt to ride it age 7.

From that I progressed to a Raleigh Module 3. A "racing bike" with a three speed hub gear.

A Raleigh Scrambla Trike...like this but in blue...I didn't even know it was a Raleigh until now after googling lots of 70/80s kids trikes 🙂

Theres one on ebay now...hhmmmmmm

Thers also my first mountain bike on ebay....Raleigh Maverick yellow/white 1989/1990

I had a Caloi "Chopper" knock off. It had independant handlebars, if you pulled too hard to wheelie one bar would pull back and the other wouldn't!
Then a Raleigh road bike, silver blue/grey if I recall.
First mtb was a Marin Palisades Trail around 86 or 87 from the windsurfing shop in Poole, the matt grey one with yellow forks, stem and bars.

I'm sure my parents have some pictures somewhere in one of their 28 albums but I remember 3 bikes and was able to find pictures that were similar, the rest I do have pics of.

1st bike was very similar to this

2nd bike was like this but I remember planets and more black than green on the rear wheel

3rd bike was a chrome GT Dyno, 1997 one, loved that bike. Had it for a couple of years until I got a yellow 24" wheeled Giant.

Then I wasn't too fussed about bikes and had my dads hand me downs into my teens including a GT and a Specialized Rockhopper as I was growing, about 13 got into mountain bikes and dirt jumping and built up a Brand-X 4x frame with bright orange RST triple clamp forks, the rockhopper was torn apart to build it.

Then when I was 15 I saved up and got this with some birthday money.

Lost interest after learning to drive and sold it, then got back into riding in 2011 and bought a full sus Specialized Pitch

Sold that in 2016 and bought a specialized Enduro which I still own and ride today

Found a pic of the Caloi!

Always had bikes as a kid - just cheapo generic things to bash about the cul-de-sac on but my first "real" bike was a Dawes Audax thing. Beige with 2x5 gears (downtube shifters obviously!) and a rack and mudguards which weren't very cool but I didn't know how to take them off. Bought S/H for £45, part-ex'd several years later for £50 when I bought my first MTB, a 1993 Saracen Sahara Elite for the princely sum of about £400.

Like this but black:
https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/1993-saracen-sahara-elite.196652/

To be fair to it, it was a great little bike, I did all sorts of rides on that starting with just bashing about the local woods before joining a local club, doing a couple of entry level races, going on much longer rides and then some basic MTB touring (a couple of those Tim Woodcock books) and it got progressively upgraded with V-brakes when they first came out, RockShox Quadra 21R forks, an LX/STX groupset etc. Ended up donating it to a local cycle charity when I eventually bought a new MTB. Wonder what happened to it...?!

I had a Triang bike with a double parallel cross bar with metallic blue paint work. It would have been in the late 1960's. Do not remember its name and cannot find a picture on the web. Can anyone shed some light...?

First bike was this one

The first one I remember was a Yamaha BYZ1 and a PW50

First bike was a Raleigh Strika. First 'mtb' I used was actually my brothers:

...which we still have in my mums garage.

My first one was this beauty (loved that paint scheme):

Reckon the bike I learnt to ride on was similar to @eatmorepizza’s, first one I can fully remember was a Raleigh Nitro, 24” wheel kids bike, then my first proper adult bike, I got around 12 or 13, was a Carrera Mission, much like this one.

Upgraded pretty much everything, was running 1x9 XT by the time I changed to an Azonic DS Evo frame. Seems I’ve not changed in 20 odd years

Apollo Lazer from Halfords. Rode that beast to primary school and back for years. Took it up Mabie forest and snapped it into three pieces on the jumps. A fitting end 🫡

First bike bought for me was a second hand Puch BMX. Thought it was ace because my mate had a Puch BMX too and I wanted the same although his was new and chrome, mine was not. BMX Bandits era and there was a track at the local park with races every week.

When my head was turned towards MTB I also lusted after an Apollo Blizzard because I thought the green/white paint job was ace! By the time I'd saved up enough money, I'd been buying MBUK for a while so my sights were set a bit higher and I ended up with a 1989 Saracen Tufftrax with Deore thumbies.

My first mtb was a Peugeot Tim Gould replica in the early 90’s, second hand from the local bike shop in Whitworth, bloody loved that thing, was far better riding over the moors than the racer it replaced! Saw one chained up to a lamppost, sans wheels, and rusted to death in Bristol about ten years back which made me sad!

Raleigh Tomahawk followed by an Arena road bike. Loved that bike.

First bicycle without stabilisers was a Pavemaster, like this

First fatbike, about 1968??

Raleigh Formula 3. Basically a Tomahawk with 3 speed Sturmey Archer gears and gold mag wheels.

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.