peterws

Yes. The one which didnt come wi little wheels attached. Got mine when i was about10. It was a Hercules, made in dear ole blighty, weighrd a ton(ne) and came complete with rusty wheels.
Had to wheel it home 5 miles wi me sis, someone elses ole wreck!
Got it going, went all over on it. Loved it. More than me sis. . .ha ha

Ive had a fondness for rusty wheels ever since. But theyre hard to come by these days. . .

Rick@OCRR

My first proper bike was a Peugeot PX-10, purchased for $200.00 in 1968. Seems ancient now, but at the time I was impressed by the spec. Sew-Up (tubular) tyres, Brooks Pro saddle, Simplex derailluers, Mafac brakes, Stronglight crank-set. Don't remember the original pedals but I do remember tapping out the crank's pedal openings to British thread so I could install come Campagnolo pedals.

Rode that bike for many years; sold it in about 1986 when I replaced it with a Mercian. The Peugeot was a "proper" bike in it's day though!

Rick / OCRR

rydabent

I lived on a farm as a kid, and went to a one room country school. My first real bike had 24" tires, and I rode 1 3/4 miles to school on gravel roads. This was in 1948 I was about 10.

Doug64

I received a Columbia bike that my dad had bought used and fixed it up really nice for Christmas when I was 6 years old. I loved that bike and my parents for sacraficing to make that day special for 5 boys.

I also had a Peugeot PX 10 later in life. The shop that sponsored a small local team upgraded the drive train with Simplex Super LJ components. He also retapped the cranks to accept non-French threaded pedals. That was a great bike.

Lyotard pedals were the standard on the PX10.

RonH

My first "proper" bike was a 1985 Schwinn LeTour. Bought it new from the bike shop. Don't remember much other than I enjoyed doing longish rides on it. Rode it for 4 years and then gave it to my son. I was then bike free until 1999 when I bought a 1999 Raleigh R600.

Frreed

My parents never had a problem getting me a bike when I outgrew the previous one. My first proper bike was a Schwinn Typhoon Deluxe. It was a 3 speed and I, secretly, was disappointed when I got it for Christmas. All my friends had Stingrays. I soon learned that I could out ride all of them and the bike became a great friend. Next my dad showed up with a Raleigh Grand Prix in abour 1973. It was a sweet bike with a brooks sadddle, simplex derailleurs and decent sidepull brakes. Again, I was on such a different bike than my friends who had Varsitys and Continentals. Again, that Raleigh was so much better and I rode it through college.

GlennR

Mine was a Motobecane Super Mirag when I was 19.

nobodyhere

A 3 speed Hercules I got used about 1950 or so. Before, I was a trend setter for today's riders by riding the SINGLE SPEED I shared with my older sisters.

Little did I know that a whole modern industry would be built upon my shared single speed.

MarkND

I remember getting this big red bike when in 1963 when I was 5. It had a rack in the back and dual headlights up front. It was way to big for me. I then got a stingray style bike from Sears. It had the ape hanger handle bars and a banana seat, a big fat slick for the back tire. My first proper bike was a Miyata road bike with 10 speeds which I bought in 1977. I rode that bike every where, wearing cut-off blue jeans, t-shirt and a pair of runners.

Mark

Gerryattrick

A 4-speed SA hub gear Raleigh Trent Sports when I was 11 in 1958 for passing my exams to Grammar School (a bit too big for me so I could grow into it!). Cost my dad £24 (about $37) and I rode everywhere on it with my friends for a couple of years before turning the bars upside down and using it as a dirt bike on the local coal tips. Great days.

Barrettscv 

At the age of 15, I graduated from cutting lawns to start my first real job at George Garner Cyclery in Northbrook, IL. George Garner Cyclery was a performance oriented shop with a large volume of racing bikes sold. I used my earnings to buy a Paramount.

I purchased the new bike from inventory in 1972, I had the bike rebuild at the Chicago factory in 1983. It had been lightly used since. I finally admitted to myself that the bike was too small for longer rides and I sold it in 2009.

OldsCOOL

Summer of '73 I bought a Motobecane Mirage with my busboy money. That is what started it all. There was a group of 4 of us that pacelined to school in the mornings. One of the kids had a bike which I have yet to ID, it had sewups, sidepull calipers, gum hoods, corncob freewheel and that was my first taste of a real road racer.

Outnumbered

A Schwinn Varsity back around 1971. Got my around for many miles over many years, not really taken care of but it was a fun teenage to college time on that bike.

ltxi

1981 Fuji Gran Tourer SE. My introduction to adult cycling bike. Many miles and still have it....mostly for nostalgia purposes.

Zinger

JC Higgins single speed. Three curved crossbars (or "toptubes"). Not quite balloon tires but big ones. Rode it 8 miles into town and back.

Upon getting back into the hobby in my late 20s it was an Italvega 10 speed with centerpull brakes.

IzzyL

Built my own piece by piece when I was a teen. Took a long time and a lot of allowance savings. Well worth it and was able to do some stunts on it (wheelie, stand on saddle) to impress girls of my age. lol

bobbyl1966

My first road bike is was nishiki century I ride 56cm road bike. That bike is was too tall for me 63 cm but i used to ride for almost 2 years every day.

jskash

My first proper bike was a 1970 Schwinn Varsity. I rode it all the way through junior high and most of high school. I had the stem up so high by the time I was 17 it was bending really badly. It looked quite a bit like the image attached here.

Fldaves

My first ever "proper" road bike was a Schwinn LE Tour followed by my first proper race bike made in Belgium called Libertas when I was 16.

scott967

I don't know about proper, but my first "real" bike was a Raleigh 3-speed (tourer?) with 26" wheels. I don't know how old I was but pretty young, so I had to kind of grow into it. Then around junior high I got a Schwinn varsity "10 speed". IIRC that also had 26" wheels. I rode that bike quite a bit all through high school. Then when I started at U of Wis I needed a bike to get around so bought a cheap C.Itoh (which I'm not sure is a "proper" bike either). That got me through college then I went into the Navy and didn't really have any way to keep a bike until about 10 years later after I was married and had a real house.

scott s.
.

qcpmsame 

My first bicycle was a Sears-Roebuck 24" single speed, coaster brake, in 1963. Dad picked it up from the Sears warehouse in Atlanta while on a business trip. I thought I was something special. After several Stingray knock offs from the local hardware stores, that managed to get stolen, I got my first derailleur equipped bicycle, in June 1971, another Sears-Roebuck (actually these were made by Puch/Austro-Daimler for Sears.) I rode the wheels off of that bicycle. My first real/proper bicycle was a year later, a Bottecchia, with low end Campy bits, that did it, I was hooked and began my serious bicycling that continues to this day. I wish I had some of the bicycles I have been blessed with over the years, but right now, my CAAD 10 does the trick for me, every day.

Bill

OldsCOOL

I flipped a garage-find '74 last year. Couldnt wait to get it out of my shop.

wphamilton

Vintage Mongoose touring bike that my wife inherited in our late 40's and we took turns riding. We were not kind to that bike and we discarded it after it was hit and deemed totaled by State Farm. If I knew then what I know now it could have evolved into a pretty nice riding bike.

rootboy 

Peugeot PX-10. Bought it after graduating high school in 1971 and went on a tour with my pal who bought a Gitane Tour de France.
The Olympic Peninsula and down the coast into Oregon. A great adventure.

Biker395 

I guess it depends on what a constitutes a proper bike.

My first bike of my own was an old Royce Union Stingray knockoff.

My first decent bike was bought as an adult ... and was a Bianchi Portofino touring bike. Lugged frame with Tange tubing. I rode that thing everywhere ... on tours, in the mountains, and (unfortunately) to work ... the salty air at the beach finally did it in. I one calculated that it had 80-90,000 miles on it when it died.

It looked something like this: