Spookeay Bird

I see a lot of what bike you have, whats this, and whats that. I have started one or 2 of these threads myself.

I have looked around and I think I have an original thread here.


Do you remember your first time you went on 2 wheels?

Who were you with?

Do you remember the bike?


I will start:
It was in Bartlesville Oklahoma 1975. Dad was working for Phillips 66 as and electrical engineer. As always happens in OK there was a tornado. It just missed us but not by much. Slung every thing around. It took one of the training wheel off my Racey Rabit bike.
^ THIS IS NOT MINE.. mine was blue and cute.... "I may bid on this one"..........I rode it after the clean up on one training wheel. I remember my first time on 2 wheels. I remember leaning off the training wheel and getting up on 2. I kept going back down that stretch of side walk popping a bump in the pavement and getting up on 2 wheels for a moment......... I did this all day till I was off the wheel. Dad came home that night and I begged him to take the other training wheel off the bike. After some *****ing he went out to the carport and said ok,,,, If you fall, I am not putting it back on. That night I sneaked out of the house. Must have been 2 AM and rode all over the hood........ So tired the next morning I went out and let the world know I knew how to ride a bike...... Still remember the day.... Warm, alone and proud....... So,,,, who took your wheels off?

ilovecycling

I tried to remember, but I couldn't. Then I realized it's because I never used training wheels in the first place. My dad just held the seat and kind of ran with me as I pedaled. He would let go for a second or two to see if I had control, and if I didn't he would stop me from falling. After 5-10 tries I was riding by myself on two wheels. I think his strategy worked well because I wasn't able to rely on training wheels. I knew if I didn't do it right I would go down, so I think that helped me learn much more quickly. Now, learning how to swim took a lot longer for some reason.

calamarichris

I must have popped my cherry about the same time you did, Bird. I was 4 or 5, living in Belton, Texas right across the street from a Methodist Church that had a colossal, inviting grassish field that would be covered with bluebonnets every Spring.
I remember riding down our sloped driveway after my father had removed the training wheels from my mini beach cruiser (although they weren't really called beach cruisers back then) and into the street.
I remember the weightless thrill of not having either training wheel touching the ground. My father was excited and yelling his head off. I remember smiling back at him, and turning around just in time to see...

...pain. A parked orange & tan motorhome or trailer was parked in front of the neighbor's yard, with that corrugated fiberglass. I remember hitting my head very hard and crying pretty loud.

And well before that (at least a year), I remember riding out to the candy store (probably a gas station and convenience store) with the training wheels still on the bike. It was about 3-4 miles away and across a major Texas highway. I remember looking at the candy on the shelf, especially a "Chik-O-Stick" and wishing I had money to get one or those little wax coke bottles with the sticky syrup of various colors. The clerk nervously asked, "Where are your folks? Are you here to buy something or are you just here to say hello?"
I remember him holding the handlebar of my bike to get me back across the highway, and while I was riding home, Mom pulled up all smiling and crying in Pa's Dodge convertible. It was strange because Mom didn't take my bike and make me ride home in the car, but she followed me slowly in the car. I was pretty nervous about getting a whippin' for that when Pa got home, but I just remember my parents laughing and not making me finish my gross black-eyed peas.

Mom probably has a picture of me on that bike, but this is the closest I have to that era:

garciawork

I was 5. I convinced my grandpa to take off my training wheels the night before, but I couldn't stay up. FIRST thing next morning, early, got straight outta bed, hopped on the bike, and rode around the tiny backyard without missing a beat! It was awesome, rode the entire day.

Edit: Grandma's old house in Concord CA, on Lynwood. And the bike was... green. Most likely inexpensive. No idea what it was.

Sixty Fiver

I never used training wheels... my brother put me on his CCM Mustang (which would one day be all mine) and pushed me down a hill and it did not take me long to get tired of being pushed down that hill and falling down before I was pedaling on my own.

Rowan

Training wheels? Pffft!

I jumped straight on a girl's bike after being invited over by some neighbours two houses along. We lived in a cul-de-sac. My parents basically forbid me having a bike as too dangerous, but I had an absolute ball that day, until called inside and told not to do that again. I was about 10, no helmet, riding up and down -- the other kids almost had to push me off the bike to have a go themselves.

I've made up big time in the past 15 or so years for what I missed out on then.

Looigi

Yep. I have very vivid memory of my first two wheeler and learning to ride it out in front of our apartment. I was like maybe 7 or 8? There's was (may still be?) 8mm footage of the event in the family archives.

in0va3

Same thing with me. My Dad just held onto the saddle and ran behind me. I didn't know if he was still holding on when I was pedaling fast enough. And that was only riding a straight line. I didn't know how to turn yet. My Dad also signed me and my brother up for swimming classes in a nearby high school. I used to bike and swim a lot!

Soloist Assassin

I remember it like it was yesterday. My mom, worked with me on the playground of the school behind my house when I was little. I don't know exactly how old I was, but I learned on my sister's old bike that was passed down to me. Started out with training wheels, then switching to just one training wheel, and then eventually none. I had no helmet, I don't think they had bicycle helmets back then. It was a Schwinn Pixie, and it looked just like this one:


It was the start of a very long addiction to cycling. Eventually, I removed the fenders as well, it was my first weight savings modification. Soon I was riding with my neighbors everyday, then eventually when I was allowed to ride further away, I was all over town, and then eventually riding to other close by towns. I had to step up to a 20" for that however. Oh, the good 'ol days.

Mult47

Don't remember the training wheels. Don't think that I ever had them. The first bike that I can remember was one that was way too big for me. Probably a hand-me-down from my older brother. To mount, I had to stand on the steps of our porch. To get off, I just stopped and let it fall over. I have a vivid memory of carrying home a bag of groceries on the bike. (My mom believed that kids were born to do errands as soon as they could find their way back home). I couldn't control the bike very well with the bag in one arm and smashed into a gas pump at a corner service station. The guys at the station helped me get up, put me back on the bike with my bag and gave me a push to get going.

Snydermann

Good story. Yeah, I also grew up in the time before people worshipped their children. I think I was more an indentured servant. I was so little when I started cutting the lawn with a push mower, I wasn't even strong enough to pull-start the thing. I learned to ride a bike at a family picnic as it was decided the bike was available and I should learn. A few pushes around the yard on the neighbor's bike and I was good to go.

BarracksSi

My training wheels were set up just a bit off the ground to supposedly enable me to balance normally while preventing me from falling over. After realizing that my training wheels were only encouraging me to lean slightly to one side, my dad took them off and ran behind me, holding onto the banana seat to keep me upright.

I remember the moment when he said to stop looking at the ground and "look up, at the end of the sidewalk." Maybe fifty feet after that, I started being able to ride on my own.

Here's the bike, washed & lubed for my niece to take it out. The mod bug hit me early -- it originally had plain, black rubber pedals, a yellow-to-red flame banana seat and high, white-taped ape hanger bars (probably with streamers, too).

justkeepedaling

Rode down a 8% hill on a crap Magna walmart mountain bike. Almost crashed through my neighbor's front door. Helluva ride. Went to college on that bike, brake cables broke immediately. If that had happened when I was going down that hill at 30 mph... :O

ThinLine

I do, I was like 5-6 and my Dad would take me up and down the sidewalk without training wheels and I would fall a few times until I got the balancing thing down pat. Bike was a small huffy.
I then got a Schwinn lemon peller and my brother got a Schwinn orange crate......remember them.
As I got older, went to a Schwinn collegiate 5 speed, then a Kia 10 speed with white stem mounted shifters.

Fast forward 40 years, Pedal Force RS2 w/ SRAM Force, Dura Ace wheels, 6 others.

fasthair

Ms. Bird: In 1966 I was five years old and after my half day of kindergarten class in the morning I would go over to my cousin Marvin's house and wait for mom to pick me up after she got off work. One day on a bike much like your little rabbit Marvin and I took to pushing each other back and forth on the sidewalk in front of their house. It wasn't long before instead of pushing each other we were watching each ride back and forth. When mom came to pick me up the first thing I did was say "mom I want a bicycle" and as proud as a Peacock I hopped on the little thing and sped off up the sidewalk.

It took awhile because we were dirt poor mom being single and raising two boys on her own. But she managed to scrap together enough money to order me a red 20" standard bike from the tire store in town. For weeks when we would go to town I would head over to the store and ask if MY bike was in yet? I had that bike until I was fourteen when it was finally just too beat up to fix anymore. By that time though mom had bought me silver 26" single speed cruiser and I was the fastest kid in our little town.

Aw... what great times!!!

fasthair

Spookeay Bird

Love hearing the story of when and how. Kinda fun to think back about it.

GP

I'm thinking of taking mine off tomorrow.

Then again, maybe not.

fasthair

Funny you say that. After throwing my bike on the ground Thursday for the second time this year my buddy asked if we were going to have to put them back on

fasthair

Spookeay Bird

That is a good looking bike. Schwinn had a great design team back then......

jdon

No training wheels. I am self taught, sort of. I was four, sitting on my neighbors BIG HEAVY bike with fenders and fairings everywhere. He was just called in for supper and I decided to give this bike riding thing a try. It went pretty well until the dismount when I hit my Dads car. Ended up putting my bottom teeth through my lip. A few stitches and a couple months later, I had my own bike. Dad rode beside me and talked me through proper dismounts after that.

DropDeadFred

i remember the first moment the training wheels came off...1986 it was a german brand blue and white bike. I actually speak of this moment quite a bit. It's pretty vivid.

idc

I wish I knew what the make was, but it was a very fine looking metallic green used Japanese steel bike with a rear rack/secondary seat built into the frame. My mum taught me to ride, she would hold the bike steady behind me as I learned to pedal and one time she just let go unbeknownst to me (no training wheels). I was scared when I first realised, but also thrilled. It was on the street outside the house I grew up in Sydney, Australia. A fond memory - once my brother and I outgrew that bike we had other used bikes of varying quality, and none ever matched that first bike in my mind.

dayday82

Not my first bike, but I had a Huffy Sonic 6 and it was the coolest bike on the block. Front fairing and "stick" shifting LOL

seedsbelize 

I don't believe training wheels were in existence in the mid fifties. Dad ran behind, holding onto the seat until I got it. Don't remember the bike.

Soloist Assassin

I think that bike is still around sans fenders, at my grandma's house. Most of my nieces, and nephews learned on it as well.

I remember that commercial, and that bike. My neighbor had one. I used to drop him with my Schwinn Predator however.