A 1956 JC Higgins with 3 top tubes. Of course my dad was one of the "He'll grow into it" buyers that didn't want to have to buy another one later so I didn't manage to learn to ride it until I was about 8 or 9 years old. Actually I learned on my neighbor's smaller bike. But once I started riding I was living out of town and we used to ride 8 miles into town, during the summer, to spend the night at my friend's house and ride back. That's when I started wishing for one of those 8 or 10 speeds we used to see in the Montomery Ward or Sears & Roebuck catalogs......mostly for the easier gears they had for the Texas Panhandle headwinds.

I remember stripping the JC Higgins down once including the chainguard. Was 'blasting' down the road, with one of those 30 mph wind gusts at my back, right after taking the chainguard off, and caught my pants leg in the chain. Pulled my foot down in front of the pedal, racked my goods on the top tube, and spun me around to the ground hard.....Put that chainguard right back on.