Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - what was your first bike?

a theory if you will, of mine, that alot of people into riding fixed/singlespeed were at one point really into bmx. Am I wrong? Hate me alot? Want to prove me wrong? then go ahead...

what was your first bike, first bike that you rode seriously, or first bike you fell in love with, before riding fixed or singlespeed road/mtb?

for me it's always been bmx, and fixed just reminds me alot of it.

so yep, I'm bored.

pk ripper, age 10.

hmm, not sure, i remember it was blue with red and white stars or dots...and white wheels. age 6?

gold & black Kent Ambush when I was like 5.
Then some red and blue huffy I rode everyday. Followed by an early 80s diamondback BMX I found in my grandparents shed (with the die-cut diamond plates attached to the top and down tubes at the front).

my childhood was all bmx until I moved to the city.

i grew up riding bmx bikes and even rode one in college
last december when i was out in california i road a road bike for the first time, my buddies 80's japanese singlespeed, and it was dream. the minute i got home from my travels i got my dad's old road bike up in running until i could find or build a singlespeed
which i did in august

hand me down race inc. from my sisters boyfriend. 1981. 8 years old.

26"xfraction wheels, english-threaded fork, sturmey archer 3speed hub. I was like 12. I still have it.

purple girls bike (i'm not a girl) with solid rubber tires, then a generic bmx bike, then a gt performer at age 9 and it was all over.

my first bike was a dawes when i was a kid. old english road bike w/ fenders.
first was ss a bridgestone mb-3 converted to ss and repainted orange.
favorite ss was a .243 racing dj bike.
first roadbike as an adult was a bianchi campione.
favorite road bike was some no-name straight guage 3/25 ti frame i built up, took my time about it, ended up all dura, velocitys, nuke proof hubs, can't remember bars and stem.
first urban beater was a general lee 24" cruiser with a manitou black fork.
first fg was a torpado road bike, pink!

sorry; they were all firsts of a kind

i can't remember how old you are in 4th grade, but my paper route and lawn mowing money went to a pink gt mach one with pink mags (i wanted black to make it look tough, but for whatever reason i ended up with pink). i rode that thing every day until 8th grade or so when i got a chrome raleigh bmx frame from a friend and traded out the parts. i grew up in arkansas, and 4 years of dealing with the daily hassle of being a pubescent boy on a very pink bike in redneck country got to be too much for me to take.

seems to me that not only do ss/fg riders have a bmx connection, but there's also something with the girly colors...

Rusty red trike hand me down.

seems to me that not only do ss/fg riders have a bmx connection, but there's also something with the girly colors...


girly colors and *blogs*

a cheap generic taiwanese bmx bike my parents got me when I was around 7. Didn't have training wheels but took it downstairs (was living in taiwan in an 10storie apt building) and taught myself how to ride a bike in 30min.

I forgot to mention my radioactive orange 80's bigwheel. I ruled the streets on that jammie. I suppose that my first bike was a fixie afterall!

my first bike was a huffy thunder road, it was kinda a chopper style dirt bike with a huge spongy bannana seat. I think I was about 8 or 10 years old when I got a Hutch
pro racer for my birthday. totally chrome - Bling!! rode it for a couple years til it got ripped off out of my parents' garage. Got a huffy ten speed after that. Man I could leave those huffys anywhere without them getting ripped off.

we were camping in upstate new york, and even though it was late summer, it was cold in the mountains. so we huddled together in our tent. somehow, cindy and i wound up alone there. . .

ohhhhhhh, first BIKE. who cares? :)

My first bike was a neon green Huffy.

I rode that bike over I-294 [near Chicago] on a catwalk when I was 7 years old at full speed. Anyone who rode these catwalks circa 1990 knows that they were not the safest bike paths around. The ends of the catwalk consisted of "rough gravel" - golf ball sized chunks of rough and ragged rocks. Rough gravel is decent traction if you are on large tires and travelling slowly, but coming down off of a 50 foot ramp over 8 lanes of highway is another story.

As I barreled down the other side of the catwalk in an enthusiastic burst of energy, my front tire a large piece of rock. I went over the handle bars face first. I have no memory of hitting the ground, but I am told that my face was the "friction point". I slid along my forehead which eventually slowed me to a stop, a few inches further and I would have lost some eyes. All of my teeth were out of alignment, I had to go into emergency oral surgery for them to crack and reset my pallete. Novicane in the roof of the mouth is quite possibly the worst pain I've felt. Even worse than the accident itself. I spent 3 hours in the E.R. in intensive care next to a guy who had been axed by his wife about the head.

My closest memory to the accident was spitting out teeth and blood into the wash basin of a house at the end of the path before the ambulance came.

I still ride too fast.

I rode that bike over I-294 [near Chicago] on a catwalk when I was 7 years old at full speed.
I still ride too fast.


Is that the one from Western Springs to Hinsdale? I wiped out on that one when I was about 10, not as bad as your story though.

My first Bike was a Classic Schwinn Kids bike. I was about 5 and it was red and shiny with a sparkly red banana seat. My first real bike was a Red BMX of some make, cant remember. The first bike that I thought was the $hit though was my Huffy White Heat Mountain Bike

My routes are in BMX Single Speed no doubt.

huffy, green/blue...white handle bars...pink somewhere...white peddles...weighed more than me...

genero red huffy 20" mtn-style bike-shaped object with pegs and a huge bag under the seat.

then a genero blue huffy 24" mtn-style bike-shaped object with sweet greay and flourescent yellow splatter paint (imagine '92 LA-Gear sytlee).

then a semi-genero yellow schwinn 26" mtn bike that made me fall in love with mountain biking, but got stolen by a crackhead over by PSU.

then a motobecane singlespeed touring conversion that made me fall in love with singlespeeding.. it eventually became my first fixie conversion until the chainstay broke..

and the rest is history!

Mid 80's white Huffy Stu Thompson model, with those little glow in the dark spoke rattler things, a transformers reflector, and a license place with my name on it. Those were the days.

i hated bmx i skated. and my first bike was a marin moutain bike, age 4. also first ride to sausalito at age 4

my bike chronology

- hand me down red trike from my sister
- hand me down red coaster-braked banana-seated cruiser from my sister (this one tried to kill me by throwing a chain going down a steep hill. I was 8)
- my first "new" bike....a BMX from Eaton's
- rigid MTB that went through many personality changes. (rigid->suspension->slick wheeled commuter. This one tired to kill my sister during it's rigid phase) I've had this one for 15 years?
- and over the last year i've acquired ... road bike/fixie conversion/track sled.

I guess I should have answered my own question...

I've had a few loves, my all time favorite was the GT Pro Series (89 model I beleive, and I still have it) used it to race, got me to #26 in Maryland before I gave up racing. an old chopper my dad pulled out of a house he was renovating, think I might throw it on the rack tomorow and make it all purty, long raked out front fork, it's goregous. oh and my first "freestyle" bmx bike, it had foot plates instead of pegs, and this weird bar behind the seat, still have it hangin in the barn, it's now painted with a leopard scheme. oh bikes........ *sigh*

now I'm really missing the old days of reading bmx plus in class instead of doing work, dreaming of fancy bikes, seeing lots of cool things show up on bikes, like GT's belt drive bike with disc brakes. the old Titan bmx frames that had half front forks and half rear triangles, those things were wild looking! Auburns with the removable rear triangle, for seemingly no reason................

not MY fist bike, but interesting anecdote:

when i was in kenya, i saw little kids riding huge, heavy indian-made steel singlespeed, rod brake, baloon-tire bikes.

These bikes were WAY too big for these kids, so they would swing their right leg inside the front triangle and keep their body to the left of (both) top tubes. These bikes were probably heavier than they were! Hardcore!

Is that the one from Western Springs to Hinsdale? I wiped out on that one when I was about 10, not as bad as your story though.

You betcha. I didn't go to LT, but I have a ****ton of friends who did (some graduated in 2000 I think).

Small world afterall.

A red BMX like bike that my dad put together from 3 or 4 neighbor's trash bikes. My first new bike was a black and gold huffy bmx for my first communion. I wrecked that bike more times than I care to remember and never once taco'd a wheel. Awesome bike.

first bike was hell if i know little kid bike, first one i remember was a green huffy with a radio between the handlebars, first one i rode seriously was my felt f70, first one i fell in love with was my mercier kilo fixed

burgundy red BMX huffy. speed speed of power. As a kid I rode everywhere in my neighborhood on that bike. I later sprayed painted it yellow and my dad got pissed off at me for doing so. Really crappy paint job. I don't remember what happened to it. I think we trashed it.

Red BMX when I was 4. Receiving that bike is possibly my earliest real memory.

Huffy Team Murray.

I have no idea what happened to that bike. I do remember that I had one of those Transformers reflectors. The shiz for sure.

But it's not fair because how many of us grew up in the 80s? It's like asking some 15 y.o. now, was your first bike a mountain bike?

Duh. Yeah.

On the other hand, not so long ago I had a GT freestyle (Dyno Air) which got stolen. Then I had a hybrid for about a year. Which got stolen. Then I moved into fixed gear.

bmx wasn't invented when i got my first bike. it would have been some sort of coaster brake, flat bar kids bike. first bike i loved was one of those bikes that looked like a motorcycle... red plastic gas tank, front and rear shocks, number plate up front. awesome ride. we used to do some sweet jumps on those...

a red schwinn scrambler bmx...loved that bike

Shwinn sting ray that was purple with a white banana seat. Yep, a great memory that it was.

i had some chrome bmx at age 5 that i rode everywhere. still had it until it got donated a year ago or so

my first & last is a soma rush,i ain't buying another bike since this will last me till i die!

a red huffy 24" bmx with a coaster brake, almost everything was red, except the cranks, spokes and chain.

Huffy "Wrangler". It was beige. I rock. I guess I went through an Achy Breaky Cowboy phase as a child...thankfully, that's over.

chrome Mongoose Californian with red tires.... yeee haw.

First road bike was a Cannondale R500 in gray... talk about a boneshaker.

not MY fist bike, but interesting anecdote:

when i was in kenya, i saw little kids riding huge, heavy indian-made steel singlespeed, rod brake, baloon-tire bikes.

These bikes were WAY too big for these kids, so they would swing their right leg inside the front triangle and keep their body to the left of (both) top tubes. These bikes were probably heavier than they were! Hardcore!


Hey, Hungarian kids in the 70's were even tougher! They did the same in traffic!

http://www.alleycat.hu/?q=taxonomy/term/27

click on "mehet" beside the third photo, "Kerékpáros oktatófilm a 70-es évekből"

The video is an old biking safety advocacy piece, state-ordered, of course
Under it, there are videos of Ted Shred, CM and CMWC of Budapest

Since you asked....... Sears 20" cruiser at age 5,converted it into a Stingray when I was 9.Rode that thing till Junior High (were talkin pre-bmx,and mtb here) Got a huge paper route in Jr.High and went to the bike shop and bought 2 new bikes a Newsboy Schwinn clunker with baskets for work and a Supersport 2 years before the big bike boom of the 70's hit.. Everyone that rode that Supersport came back with grins and saying things like wow thats like flying,no work at all to ride,,almost goes by its self....So are we jaded now or what,,,that thing weighed as much as 2 modern bikes....JJ

Oh yeah I almost forgot I used to take the clunker trail riding,,,,,so I guess I invented single speed mountain biking (yeah right and Gary Fisher invented the mountain bike,,,hahaha)

a red schwinn scrambler bmx...loved that bike

same here, but mine was grey/black.

Orange/white Huffy stingray-clone, hand-me-downed from my older bro. It had a cowboy motif in the decals, with rope and stuff. Also, the frame had silver splotches on it all over from when he tried to spray paint it silver (at 6 years old) and my parents caught him in the act. Banana seat, not-quite chopper bars, coaster brake. Rode the hell out of that thing on a farm in ND.

The first bike I recall riding was a Sears special blue cruiser type bike with gorilla-type bars and a big black banana seat. My dad taught me how to ride it by bringing me to the top of a big hill and giving me a big push. It evolved into a "bmx" when I changed out the seat and bars. I loved that bike.

the first bike i ever actually rode regularly and owned myself is a ross barracuda "3-speed", much like this one here. i got it 2 years ago and only rode for a summer. then i went fixed. go figure.
http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.com/images/rossfish1.jpg

ah, you're all a buncha poseurs. i've been riding track bikes since i was 8 months old.
:D

first bike was some no-name red thing. crashed it into the thorn bushes a few times before i got the hang of it. the next bike i remember was a black & gold huffy with an ever-so-trendy top tube protector. i rode that thing everywhere.

some pos kmart version of a sears bike that was stolen before i could grow too attached to it.

red Sears FS500 BMX with the bars in the "Chicago Gangsta tilt" position

Metallic orange Stingray. I was six. I remember my dad paid $18 for it, and it came partially disassembled in a box. It wasn't exactly bmx, but I rode it as if it was.

My coolest bike was a metallic brown Vista 5 speed, with the cantilevered frame, banana seat, and monkey-hanger bars. It's prominent feature was a big honking stick shift on the top tube with punched-out holes on the lever to make it look super sporty. It had whitewall tires, and a huge slick on the back. Hey, it was the 70's!