Mountain Biking - Your FAVORITE Department store bike

I had a huffy when I was a kid...what can I say...I loved bikes then and thats all the parents would buy. How about you?

I love the full rigid huffys. We used to ghost ride my friend's off of jumps, and if (rather, when) you tacoed a wheel, you could fix it with a hammer. We weighed a huffy kids bike (the kind with 24s): 40-45 pounds.

I wish I could find my old 24" huffy...I wonder where that went.

Mongoose D50i - - Downhill weapon!

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t162/dminorwa/Doug_Waterville.jpg

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t162/dminorwa/Doug_49Deg.jpg

Is that the frame from your ski bike?

It is.

In 1970, my father bought me a Schwinn Hot Canary very similar to this bike. I loved it...wish I still had it

92063

i don't remember my first bike, it was some sort of crazy cheap BMX bike. it was blue and white and from this one LBS Main Bike World before the Taylor location burned down. then i got some K-Mart beater when i broke that because i liked my brothers Mongoose and it looked like it. i have a picture, but i can't read anything on the bike.

hah

I wouldn't mind going in to a department store, and asking the clerks there a bunch of technical questions about their bikes :P

Or buying one and taking it on the trails I normally ride, see how it holds up :P

Huffy White Heat. It was my first bike with hand brakes and gears(like 12 I think) and cool plastic hand guards over the brake levers. Probably weighed about half of what I did.

My first '10-speed' was a white CCM. I felt like I could fly on that bike.

hah

I wouldn't mind going in to a department store, and asking the clerks there a bunch of technical questions about their bikes :P

Or buying one and taking it on the trails I normally ride, see how it holds up :P

Last time my friend and I were inside a wally world (this was just after a ride) we walked around and tightened up a bunch of brakes (so that they would, um, touch the rim when the lever was pulled) and QRs.

'Nuthah plugg in fo da Huffy!

When I was stranded in WA at M&D's place (bikeless...crap on UPS for biffing my Super-V)...my dad pulled out his Huffy and let me do some 50mph fire road shuttle runs.

About 5 years ago my girlfriend bought me a Honda Trail Pilot. I didn't know squat about bikes and thought it looked cool and actually thought Honda made it. Seeing the Honda label made me think it was good. LOL

Honestly that bike got me addicted to Mtn Biking. It has been rode hard and beat the hell up. Its been on some very technical stuff and the wheels are still true. Brakes still work, Fork still works, etc. Never a problem. It even shifted pretty well.

Drawbacks were, short travel fork, and it weighed about 900lbs. Well ok probably closer to 50lbs. Some uphills were impossible but other than that, I had damn fun on that bike. I keep it as a backup still.

In 1970, my father bought me a Schwinn Hot Canary very similar to this bike. I loved it...wish I still had itFoul! THAT was not a dept. store bike. That was the type of real bike shop bikes that kids like me would have drooled over five years previously.

My old magna took a real beating, it had a heavy steel guard protecting the rear derailleur. What a tank!

I had an awesome black huffy bmx with purple top tube and crossbar pads that were like puffy marshmallow looking foam. That was a cool bike, I road the **** out of it.

Foul! THAT was not a dept. store bike. That was the type of real bike shop bikes that kids like me would have drooled over five years previously.

I was gonna call him out on that one, but I wasn't even alive back then so I figured I'd let one of the "old farts" deal with it.;)

Are all us old western flyer bike folks dead now? My mom got it at the western auto! It was cold hard steel, and weighed more than me, but it was way faster than that John deere pedal tractor was!

Are all us old western flyer bike folks dead now?Naw, we're all over in the 50+ Forum complaining about colonoscopies, getting giddy about 'bents and drooling over pics of some guy's Brooks saddle ;)

I remember Western Auto stores; used to love going in and seeing the sheer variety of cool stuff in them. My first bike was a mid-weight 24" J.C. Higgins. I must have had a thing for slack head angles even way back then; I recall swapping a fork from my dad's old 26" frame to it for a while just to try it out.

Naw, we're all over in the 50+ Forum complaining about colonoscopies, getting giddy about 'bents and drooling over pics of some guy's Brooks saddle ;)

I remember Western Auto stores; used to love going in and seeing the sheer variety of cool stuff in them. My first bike was a mid-weight 24" J.C. Higgins. I must have had a thing for slack head angles even way back then; I recall swapping a fork from my dad's old 26" frame to it for a while just to try it out.

Ha My first shotgun was a J.C. Higgins SS 410 guage!
Ahh the home spun moment.

My first actual bmx bike was an Open Road when I was in first grade. Not sure where my parents got it from. The frame looked like an old Mongoose knock off. Steel mags that were heavy as hell. Use to take it behind the old elementary school on Fairchild AFB, Wa.....good times.

I started out on a kmart huffy bmx (warp factor three) in the mid eighties. After working as a mech in a podunk town where most people buy POS bikes, my favorite department store bike is the one I'm not expected to fix!

The first bike I remeber was an old huffy BMX style bike, light blue with white tires and grips (it was the '80's so that kinda thing was in back then.) I rode that bike for years, wish I knew where it was, I'd like to have it now as a throwback to simpler times. Dad still has a J C higgins 12ga that he bought when he was like 15.

My first bike was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle hand me down 16" BMX style bike w/o training wheels. When it got stolen I had to ride one of my three sister's bikes until I got a 20" Pacific BMX for my 8th('94) Birthday. I put that through more than I have put any of my MTBs(completely submerged multiple, times, left it outside for year,s etc). I never serviced/greased anything and it worked until '99 when I nearly got ran down in the bike lane in Littleton, CO. I was given a Roadmaster MTB but only rode it on snow days when i lived in Littleton, CO. That bike was a TANK and was unstoppable...seriously. After putting new pads, adjustment, cleaning the painted steel wheels I gave up and donated it to my less fortunate friend. He replaced the plastic brake levers with some older steel ones and he could do stoppies.

I bought a Mongoose Paver 700c half a year ago as a back up commuter and it's not a horrible bike for what I paid. I just know to never compare it with my "real" bikes.

When I was a kid we got our bikes from the local hardware store...

Every spring we would go in and look at the shiny new bikes which were of course, CCM's and the hottest thing on two wheels was the Mustang.

I recently found this bike which was nearly identical to the bike I used to ride and I upgraded the bike from the coaster version to a 3 speed to make it even closer to my olf 3 speed 'Stang.

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikepics/sallydrive1.jpg

When I was a kid we got our bikes from the local hardware store...

Every spring we would go in and look at the shiny new bikes which were of course, CCM's and the hottest thing on two wheels was the Mustang.

I recently found this bike which was nearly identical to the bike I used to ride and I upgraded the bike from the coaster version to a 3 speed to make it even closer to my olf 3 speed 'Stang.

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikepics/sallydrive1.jpg

IMO...from a collector's perspective upgrading that bike was a mistake. OEM would be worth more. For nostalgia's sake...good on you for bringing back the childhood...I've never been much of a collector anyways.

Love it:thumb:

My 1984 Supercycle 12-speed 'ATB' would be my only department store bike.

It was alright, got the job done... slowly.

my first bike was a BMX that my dad bought from a coworker (he was a maintenance mechanic)while at work he stripped it down and painted it black put some lightning bolt stickers on it and a set of frame and handle bar pads true 80's style) on it new shiny steel rims and handle bars. i rode that bike into the ground.
i didn't know he did all this until much later in life and this x mas i helped a coworker do the exact same thing for his two little boys (i am a maintenance mechanic. the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree i guess) it felt good to do that for his kids and to teach some one who has no idea about bikes some cool stuff.

Thats awesome!!!

That bike is so cool looking. brings back a flood of memories from when I was a kid. Banana seats rule!!!!!:thumb:

My favorite was a Sears Free Spirit 10-speed. Seems like I had to beg my parents forever! Wasn't my first bike though. I learned to ride on my brother's sting-ray & later got a dept. store bike complete with glittered and flowered banana seat. Once I rode a racer, though there was no going back.

I rode Western Auto bikes [ Western Flyer ] for years. You could go to a Western Auto & buy ANY,,, I mean ANY part for ANY bike back then.
http://wheeling.craigslist.org/bik/970281310.html