I don't have my very first bike. But I do have my second bike, a 1972 Schwinn Stingray. ;)

Never seen a purple Bianchi, but it is very distinctive. Barney, LOL. My first real bike, which I still have 13 years later is a Bianchi as well, but in more traditional Celeste green.

1979 Tommasini with Suntour baby.....still rides fine, but my old bod says no to steel. One of my pals kids is riding it and he loves it. Great to see a youngin' embrace the sport for sport and not the bike.

First official tri bike was a Nishiki Altron. Most of the newbies here won't even know what it is, but it was a bad mamma jamma in it's day! When I saw Wolfgang blazing Kona on that butt ugly neon yellow frame I new it had to be mine. Got around $500 for it in 2005 with the stock build up on it.

No, but wish I did. Just for fun if nothing else. It was a 1990? cannondale r300 with suntour components.
Rode it for a couple years until I upgraded to a 1992 cannondale r700, 105 group w/ forward seatpost and gripshifts.Rode the shit out of that bike. I still have the r700.

I'm laughing out loud b/c around the time GripShifters came out was when I was learning wrench skills. Remember the giant, one piece Scott aero bar? My buddies and I struggled to get 'er done, but we did. My Zunow looked like a freak show Frankenstein, but I loved her. Sold it around '95.

My first steed was a Schwinn and I killed her in 1987 after the Columbus Bud Light race. Pulled into garage and that was the end of her:( I imagine she was made into Coke cans somewhere along the line.

Loved the gripshift esp. on clip-on bars. You could change bars pretty easily. Back in those days there wasn't much, if any, internal routing so swapping bars was pretty simple. I know that the gripshifts were a beast trying to install on some of the profile clip-ons.

I dont have my motocross bikes from when I raced (when I was 7-14 years old) -- but my first road bike -- a Univega...with suntour 6 speed -- thats right I was cool because my bike had 12 gears instead of 10...

It's in the garage on a rack -- needs new tires...will likely at some point in the long future become a commuter...or something of that sort...

-Ron

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I have deceptive speed...I'm slower than I look.

'70 gold colored Royce Union 10 speed. I won it selling chocolate bars for my San Diego Little League team. I was tied with three other boys for the 2nd place prize (the bike), so they sent us to the San Diego Zoo to do a sell-off for that prize. My dad called all his friends (he was in the Navy, so he had many) and had them all go to the zoo to buy candy from me. I won the bike and rode it through elementary school, high school and college. Even won a couple of individual pursuits using that bike. I left if at my parents home when I went off into the real working world after college. It promptly got stolen.

I loved that bike.

Yep, 1986 Pinarello Triviso, ................for my 50th my wife is having it refurbished!

The first bike that I purchased is hanging on the wall at work as I write, slowly melting the snow off the frame from this morning's ride from home. It is a 1989 Giant Rincon "mountain" bike (no suspension), 7 speed, with Bio-Pace chaninrings. It is my daily commuter, complete with two sets of rims (slicks for summer, studded tires for winter), fenders, rack, lights, and no front derauiller as I just keep it in the middle chainring. I did my first tri on this bike, the Devil's Challenge sprint distance at Devil's Lake, WI. The bike was awesome on the uphills (lots and lots of hills), not so much on the flats and downhills. I got hooked on tris at that race.

My "first bike" was a Crazy TV Lenny 10-speed special that I got when my parents bought a new TV back in the 70's. American TV had a special at the time, "Buy a TV, get a bike! Buy a couch, get a bike!" etc. The guy who headed up the bike campaign ended up forming his own company, Pacific Cycle, which now owns Schwinn, GT, Mongoose, etc. Nice guy.

Kept the first one I bought, a 1994 Diamond Back mtn bike. Hung in the garage for years and just converted it to a single speed (rigid, 26" obviously) this year. Most fun I've had on a bike in a long time, had forgotten how much fun it is to ride trails compared to hours going in a straight line on the road. Gave my first roadbike to a friend though, a POS Raleigh, but it's still going strong 10 years on. Nice to see the old bike getting quality use.

Of all the past bikes I've owned, Mongoose Supergoose, Schwinn Super LeTour, Shogun Kaze (TT bike with 24" front wheel), Trek 5000 (replaced under warranty with a Trek OCLV 5500 Frame and Fork), Cannondale M1000, Giant XTC2, LeMond Poprad, Gary Fisher Caliber 29, and TitanFlex Transition, I still have and ride the last three and the Trek 5500 is on permanent trainer duty. I wish I had the Shogun back.

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Formerly DrD

My first 10 speed was a Free Spirt (Sears) bike I rode through high school in the early 80's. It actually had a disc brake for the rear.

I bought a steel roadie with Shimano 600 in 84 or 85 for college. Non-aero brakes, downtube friction shifting, 6-speed cassette. That frame with original shifters, brakes, and derailleurs still sees the most saddle time of all my bikes as it's on the trainer. I still take it on the road a few times per year for old times' sake.

Bikes have very little value used. My "good" tri and road bikes were bought used and certainly aren't slowing me down by much.

first bike was a single speed unknown name that I rode all over Toronto as I was growing up. The frame is still under our family cottage. My first real bike was a Fuji Finest that I bought for $475. in 1968. That was a lot of money then. You could buy a new Corvette for $5000. Still have it. My fastest time at St Anthony's was on that bike in 2003. Now I have several other bikes ---carbon fiber , Zipp wheels, power meter etc and I am slower. Nice eye candy but that Fuji is still a great bike

My first road bike was purchased in the mid-80's. It was a Lotus Legend with all Campi Nuovo Record groupo. It served for many years as a winter trainer but became to rusty to ride in the past year. I took off the groupo and am selling it on ebay in the spring! Hoping to breakeven on the purchase from 23 years ago!

Here she is on the way to the grave yard! Sad day.

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"Marco [Pantani], why are you such a strong climber? To shorten my pain".

I feel your pain. I loved that bike too.

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Dave Stark
dreamcatcher@astound.net
USAC & USAT level 2 certified coach

Hey, if you can't bear to part with a wrecked frame, you could use my idea for when I have my perfect workshop set up. I've got an Aegis Victory frameset that was smashed in an altercation with a minivan. Also have a pair of aerobars that were folded somewhat when I hit the back of a truck, and various taco'ed and otherwise wrecked rims.

I plan to zip tie the whole thing onto a peg board, laid out like a complete bike. Will also zip tie jars and various other containers in appropriate locations around this display, and will store spare parts in them. The idea is that I can use it as a visual filing system, and can immediately find, say, a rear brake bolt, spare spokes, aerobar risers, etc. Also, will just make for a cool piece of wall art, I think.

As for holding on to my first bike: I have a 1986 Bianchi Avanti mountain bike, complete with Biopace chainrings (aftermarket additions), awaiting restoration out in the barn.

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Over 4.5 years bike crash free.

I'm getting my 1986 Haro Master back next week. Does that count? I remember being a little kid riding that bike 15 miles to town and 15 miles back all on winding country roads....the entire time looking over my shoulder hoping my mom wouldn't happen to drive down the road, see me, and ground me.

My first bike was a birthday gift at age 4. That would be 1952. It's one of my earliest memories, in fact; I can still picture the bright red frame. I shed the training wheels about three years later. No, I don't have it anymore. ;)

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Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
Which is probably why I was registering 59.67mi as I rolled into T2.

Nope, but reading this thread I wish I did,
First bike I paid for was a Yokota Terminator or something, great bike but it was stolen one night when the garage got left open, next bike was a Yokota Yosemite that one got stolen from my appartment in university. Then came a Norco Nitro from '98 I think, I still ride that one as my mountain bike and winter comuter. My first road try bike is some $500 fuji, and I still ride it as my road/tri/summer commuter bike. I won't miss the norco or the fuji when they are gone but I do miss the Yokota's the first was unique and the second was just a fun steel bike to ride.

Ben

yes

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

My first serious road bike was a Cinelli Supercorsa with Nuovo Record. I wish I still had that bike.

Bought my first road bike as a senior in high school in 1987. A Shogun Electra (or something like that). It had the first 105 index shifting system from Shimano (downtube, of course). Bought the bike in anticipation of doing my first triathlon, and a friend bought a Peugeot at the same time. We did races for years on those bikes.

Eventually upgraded to a Geurciotti frame and gave the Shogun frame to a friend who stripped the paint off it, spray painted it black and had a local shop weld cantilever brake bosses on the fork and seatstays. Anyway, after doing all that he never built it up and the last time I saw it, which was a year or two ago, it was still sitting in his garage.

Over the years, the Shogun had, in no particular order: the original Scott DH bars (in 1988 or so), those triangle profile bars, and one of those six pound "Seat Shifters". Thankfully, since then, I've backed off on the tri-geekiness.

My friend still has the Peugeot...

Great thread!!

Hello yoondaddy and All,

My first bike was an used Schwinn I got when I was 12 - (1945) without brakes (you would stick your shoe between the tire and fork) long since gone and a succession of used bikes in between.

In those days you could take your bike across town with your .22 on your back to go shooting and nobody cared.

Later I had a much better used Schwinn I used to deliver newspapers on the longest paper route in Napa. I did not realize that I was getting some training each day.

I had a Schwinn with a Marmon Twin engine on it for awhile - rumor had it that Zeppo Marx owned the company.

Schwinn made a bike for mounting small engines that had beefed up wheels and frame.

Whizzer was the most popular engine and had a belt to drive the rear wheel.

For a long time I did not have a bike, and for exercise I would run on layovers, then another pilot got me interested triathlons and cycling.

We bought a used Bianchi in Honolulu (probably about a 1960 model) and added Shimano gear and new tires.

We stashed it at the Ala Moana Hotel and since we flew different trips could each use it on layovers.

Later I started flying to Asia and stashed the bike at the Narita Crew Hotel in Japan and often rode on the narrow roads in the countryside.

The Japanese were polite and seldom dusted me off on the narrow roads.

I still have the Bianchi although the tires are threadbare and it is in sad shape.

I am always impressed at how heavy it is compared to my P3C.

Cheers,

Neal

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Cheers, Neal

+1 mph Faster