I especially like chuckk's photo history. thats pretty cool. I think the oldest photo of me on a bike is one my little bro has of us clowning around on sting rays back in the early 70's. I'll have to see if I can get that one scanned.

For me as a middle child, it was hand me downs. 1st bike being the one my big bro taught me to ride on. It was originally my sisters' blue step thru schwinn with wire baskets slung over the rear fender. I remember this because big brother mike would hold onto them while pushing me up n down the street in front of our house. One day i asked him how I was doing and could hear him laughing a 1/2 block away. I crashed trying to turn around. My 1st new bike was a 3 speed 'english racer'. Then a few stingrays including one of those cool 'lemon peelers with the 5 speed stick shift and springer front fork. In jr high I had a motobecane and later, I bought a nishiki international in high school. About 4 years later I began working for the same company I am with today some 33 years later. I saved money and bought my 1st high end bike: A coicc san christobal and built it up with campy. I traded it later for a bruce gordon custom that I still have today. It still wears some of the components I transferred over from the coicc. I got married, had a son and took up MTB. Had a cannondale for a few years until it was trashed then built up my Yo Eddy back in 2001 that I still have today. Later when my son grew up n moved out, i began restoring the bruce gordon and bought a merlin extralight titanium bike. Now that bike even though it was a little small for me was an absolute joy to ride. I sold it when I found an eddy merckx MX leader a few years ago. I had the good fortune of meeting eddy merckx in canada and he autographed it for me so now I doubt that I'll ever let that one go. My latest bike is an older alex singer I bought last spring. Thats my story..

First "bike" was a horse. The next three, me and my Dad got from the town tip and rebuilt. Next was a Raleigh 27" steel frame with suicide levers. Next a top Walmart model also with suicide levers. Now I've got a nice CRX3 Giant which is fantastic.

Schwinn Stingray
Schwinn Varsity 24" wheel
Miyata 90
Motobecane Mirage
Vitus 979, Campy Super Record
Rossin TT bike, Suntour Superbe
Atala SL Air, Campy Super Record (still have)
Trek 2300, 7 speed Ultegra
Trek 2300, 8 speed Ultegra
Bianchi SB, DA 7403
Cannondale CAAD3, DA 7700 (still have)
Motobecane Team SL, DA 7800 (still have)
Redline Conquest Team, DA 7800
Specialized Tarmac SL, DA 7800
Specialized SL, DA 7800
Specialized SL2 DA 7800
Planet X Stealth, DA 7800 (still have)
BH G5, SRAM Red
Austro Daimler Superleicht, Campy Nouvo Record (C&V) (still have)
Schwinn Paramount, Campy Nouvo Record (C&V) (still have)
Peugeot PX, Mavic SSC (C&V) (still have)
Cannondale Supersix, DA 7900 (still have)
4 Canondale CAAD10's I rent out to travelling cyclists (still have)

That's all I got for now

Specialized Hard Rock Kids MTB
Univega Via Del Oro Hybrid
Guerciotti Alan Aluminum (1985)
Miyata 912 (1985)
Lemond Buenos Aires (2000)
Specialized Roubaix (2009) Still have and is my favorite. Keeper
Bianchi Ltd (1985)
Guerciotti PRX (1996) Love it and still have it. Keeper
Surly Crosscheck (2006)
Curtlo Cyclocross (2005)
Trek 400T (1988)
De Rosa Professional (1985)
Specialized Allez Sport (1996)
Specialized Allez Elite (2003) Fastest flip. wayyy too stiff for me.
Rodriguez Adventure (2002)
Davidson (1983)
Niner MCR 9 (2010)
Litespeed Natchez (1996)
Rawland Nordavinden (2013) In the mail!
...and lots of flips along the way.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/4783361...7632823758567/

Which leads me to my keepers and hopefully long term stable.

Roubaix 09 - Amazing ride. Distance Bike. Love !
Guerciotti 96 - Italian Steel. Fast! Amazing ride. Great fun. Beautiful. Unique.
Nordavinden 13 - Rando / Sport Touring / Able to carry more than a water bottle

My first real bike was a Panasonic dx4000 in 1982 at the age of 17.
Cannondale crit bike in 87
Guerciotti team bike in 88 (local racing team)
gt mountain bike in 89
Klein Attitude in 2001

Then the crazy bike collecting began!

Schwinn Sting Ray, then got a Motobecane for commuting at college, then Redline, CW & GHP cruisers to race BMX with my son. Mountain biking hit & I got a Bridegstone MB-1, added Manitou front suspension, then moved onto full suspension with a Proflex & then a Jamis Dakar. Bought a Giant Anthem frame, but suffered a hip injury before I had a chance to build it.

We've had some great resurrection threads lately. This one ran while I was on my hiatus from the hobby.

None of this would have come close to happening if not for the fact that my uncle owned a bike shop.

1. At about age 5, I got a used (probably a trade-in) red, 20" coaster brake bike with cruiser-ish bars. Training wheels lasted about an hour.
2. I think it was for my 8th birthday, I got a new single-speed, coaster brake, Raleigh Fireball. It was gold, and I used to hold my own against neighborhood kids on their 3 and 5 speed Schwinns.
3. That got stolen out of my back yard when I was 12, so I replaced it with a unicycle.
4. About 2 years later, I got my first 10-speed. I used to ride it to the public golf course nearly every day during summers, towing my golf cart to play 50 cent rounds of golf, and to track meets at RIT once a week. I forget the make and model - it was a low end, bike boom machine. Remember riding it 50 miles one day in summer of '76 to go camping. It got stolen while I was riding near a friend's house. That was replaced with another, which was stolen from me while competing in an all-day track meet right out of the bike rack at RIT.
(end of the free-bike era)
5. Summer job money went towards a Raleigh Super Course, which I was able to get for cost + tax. What a revelation! It was so much better than anything I had ridden before. I owner it all through college, and rode an impromptu double-century on it returning to college to start my senior year. That bike got stolen about 2 weeks before I joined the Navy following college. Was living in a shared rental next door to the bike shop and saw two brand-new bikes on the screened porch, and thought they had been stolen (there had been a rash of thefts from the storage garage). Made the mistake of locking my bike to them while I went to ask if the bikes I saw were ones that had been stolen. 10 minutes later when I returned, all three were gone. I knew who stole them, but police said I didn't have proof. grrr

25 year break from nearly all things bicycle

Son became old enough to be in Boy Scouts and his Troop's big adventure was riding the C&O Canal. Got two Magnas from Target for it. I was wondering why bicycling was so much less fun, and so much harder than I remembered. Almost gave it up again. One day, I found a bike set out for trash. It was a low-end Follis, too large for me, but I picked it up and started researching - which led me to Bike Forums. Found a Raleigh Grand Prix the same way, fixed it, rode it, noted that it rode quite differently than I remembered the Super Course of old riding, so I found one online and bought it. Fixed it, rode it, got curious when I got to reading how that Super Course wasn't regarded as being anywhere near the best, and decided to keep looking. Found a Fuji Finest on eBay about 150 miles away and drove to pick it up. After I got it put together, I started to understand. I've been hooked pretty much ever since.

The first time I was seriously into cycling was in middle school riding BMX at the skate park. For Christmas in 2001 I got a chrome Mongoose Stylist Pro (exactly like this one)-





I rode that until I got my license and then basically forgot about bikes all together while I got big into modifying custom trucks.


In 2011, in an effort to lose weight, I bought a bike on clearance at K-mart and started riding it. It was one of these:





After losing 30 lbs I rewarded myself with my first real road bike - a 2012 Felt Z-85 (shown here after a lot of upgrades):





I fell in love with cycling with that bike and decided I wanted something nice that the majority of people around here weren't riding. That's when I got my first C&V - a 1989(?) Eddy Merckx Corsa SL (pictured as found):





This bike really sparked my love of C&V bikes. I have owned and rebuild several since then, but still have that Merckx, albeit, with a much different look.


After I was in a pretty bad accident avoiding a car and a good friend of mine was killed by a driver about 1/4 mile from my house, I (read, my wife) decided I need to stay off the roads. After tiring of the local bike path, I decided to try mountain biking. I bought a cheap MTB off the internet - a 2014 Airborne Goblin (shown after several upgrades):





Mountain biking became my new love and I had to get a bike that performed at least as nice as my road bikes to be satisfied, so I bought this Niner Air9 Carbon frame and built it up:





I still own the bikes that really had an effect on me; the Felt, the Merckx, and the Niner. I can't see getting rid of any of those no matter how many other bikes I own.

Hmmm, have to do some serious thinking.

First was some 20 inch red single speed with coaster breaks. Next was some custom built banana seat with high rise bikes a stranger gave me (we didn't have much back then). Then I rode my Mom's Montgomery Ward bike for a couple of teenage years. Then came an old 50/60's era single speed cruiser type bike.

Then I joined the Army and no bike until I got to Germany in the mid 80s. There I had a really sweet Peugeot with drop bars, fenders, rear rack, generator, etc. Road that thing all over southern Germany and used it more to go to town than my car. Even brought a stereo home on it piece by piece. This one started my love of bikes.

Next up was a too small Shogun racer in Colorado. Constantly fighting the goatheads and it turned me off to biking a bit. Then I had a Diamondback MB will in Utah in the late 80s, early 90s. After a crash where I tumbled down a mountainside into a creek I decided to stick to running for awhile. Moved to Hawaii in 1993 and picked up a new Schwinn road bike. I think it was a Passage. Kept that until handing it off to a family friend around 2007 or so.

In 2005 I picked up a Specialized stumpjumper but honestly didn't use it much. Finally sold this a couple of years later.

Around 2010 my disabilities had caught up with me. Couldn't run and had gotten fat. Knew I had to get my act together so decided it was time for another bike. Got a new Trek Madone 4.5. Frame broke a few months later after the RD body broke, spun around, and fractured the frame. Trek replaced it after a year long back and forth fight. Or at least the bike shop said they did. Long story here... Anyway wound up with a 2011 Trek 5.9 replacement frame built up with the components from the 4.5.

During this time I also picked up a 1999 Schwinn Circuit.



And then a 2000 LeMond Zurich. And the "steel is real" fever was born!



Added a used Raleigh Mojave 8.0 MB to the mix for a winter rider and then a mint 2003 Kona Jake the Snake to mix for wet weather riding.



Then I found a late 2000 Scott CR1 Pro for a good price locally and picked it up. Stiff, light, a great climber, and beat the heck out of me.



Finally decided I was too old to keep putting up with the beating I took on the CF bikes with our chipseal roads and went looking for another steel ride. By now I had foolishly sold the Circuit and loaded out the LeMond Zurich.

I picked up a sweet 2003 LeMond Tourmelet built back up by an old local racer with a mix of Dura Ace and Ultegra parts.



Then I spotted this sweet Giordana Antares and picked it up. My love of Italian steel was born. This is it all fixed up.



From there it's been an truly fun time collecting a bunch of wonderful steel rides. I won't drag this on any longer though. I'm now up to 20 bikes and will leave it at that.

Is that purple UO-8 with some nice looking upgrades there leaning against the wall in amongst all that high end steel? Love it!

Yep, good eye!

It's running the alloy wheelset off my Fuji S12-s now as there's no real stopping with the original steel rims. Funny thing is the steel rims are lighter.....

Circa 60? It's red and it's fast.


'62 - 16' wheeled Raleigh coaster
'65 - 20" wheeled CCM coaster
'66 - first bike mod, swapped out for monkey bars/banana seat
'68 - Raleigh fastback, first Sturmey 3 speed
'71 - Eatons (Raleigh) Glider 5 speed Huret/swapped next week for Eatons Glider 10 speed, Simplex. Stolen in 2 weeks
'71 - insurance pays up, get Orbea with some Zeus Alpha Junior, all steel, half-step/corncob, heavy and cool. Rest is history.

That's a beautiful collection. I'm not a collector, but I can certainly see that having such a stable would bring great joy to one's life.

I don't remember most of the bikes I rode as a kid. They were all used, probably many had been stolen at some point, but were now in the stream of old bikes sold between neighbors and friends in the late 60s and early 70s. I do remember the ss stingray I had. Rattle can gold with a big spring front shock. The early equivalent of a mountain bike. The banana seats didn't last long riding trails and jumps so it ended up with a more conventional seat. The only other bike that stands out was a five speed Huffy upright. Even as kids we knew it was a tank and it was sort of a house bike. None of the 4 brothers ever thought of it as theirs.

When I was 15, I bought a Raleigh Record. My only new bike and I thought it was a fine machine. It was really bottom end gas pipe, of course, but it was the only new bike I'd ever owned and was a big step up from anything I'd ridden. And heavy though it may have been, it was still a couple pounds lighter than the bottom end Schwinns and department store brands my friends were getting. So as far as I knew, it was a British racing bike and I loved it. Rode the heck out of it for 4 or 5 years. As kids we thought nothing of 50 or 60 miles in day and would often do longer overnights in the summer. Then I got into riding motorcycles instead and didn't get on a bicycle again for 35 years.

About 5 years ago my wife wanted to try riding around the neighborhood. Living in a fairly rural area, we're fortunate to have many miles of beautiful, low traffic roads at our doorstep. A friend gave her an old Trek mountain bike. So I grabbed a used Ross hybrid off CL to ride with her. I hated the flat bars and in a few weeks replaced it with a Bianchi hybrid that had been converted to drop bars with stem shifters. It was basically the first drop bar bike I found on CL that fit me, so I bought it. It was much more comfortable and my old love of riding quickly returned.

So I started looking for an old Raleigh to relive my youth. I still knew nothing about the C & V market, but I was fortunate to stumble across an 81 Raleigh Team Pro. Had a lot of rust and a slightly bent crank, but a quick internet search told me that the SBDU serial number marked it as a quality frame. So I bought it and put it back into service with a modern drive train. I still want to go more period correct with that, but it's really the frame I'd have wanted had I known enough to know it existed. It's the bike I would have evolved to ride had I kept riding in my youth, which for my desires made it just exactly perfect. After 5 years on this forum, I now know a lot more about the C & V market and there are a number of other bikes I covet. But I don't really have room to store more bikes and right now wouldn't really have the time to enjoy them enough. So I'm very happy to just ride my Raleigh as if I were still a younger man.

Good thread to wake up!

I would guess that "first bike == Schwinn Stingray" is a matter of age. Me being of "a certain age", my bike history predates the Stingray. I learned to ride on my dad's old Schwinn, already rusty but still functional, heavy. Us kids (all five of us) had a clunker type bike as we grew up. At one point a younger brother got a 3-speed and boy did it feel easy to ride by comparison.

After graduating from college and getting a job so I had money I bought a UO-8 and rode it everywhere. Maybe 6 or 7 years later, after starting grad school, I was offered the Raleigh frame so it replaced the Peugeot as my go-to bike. Purchased a bike for my sweetie, then built her a custom bike. Eventually she stopped riding. Fast forward a few decades and I built the Peugeot tandem. Had so much fun building it that I built the Bianchi. Then a friend offered me the Masi frame. Then as a project I built the Motobecane. Then the Centurion. Commuted a lot on the Peugeot, Bianchi, and Centurion. Then I built the Gazelle. Then the Grandis, Now the Tommasini.

A few bikes have passed through the house, a Fuji which was given away, and a Bertin which was "decommissioned" and the frame sold. The frame of my sweetie's custom bike still sits unused. Oh, I did build her a Terry that fits better. But she loves the tandem.

1. American Eagle (pre-Nishiki branding) copy of a Sting-Ray (around 11 years old)
2. Montgomerey Ward 10-speed purchased on layaway (age 14)
3. Raleigh Super Course MkII, which I rode from Madera to my cousin's in Woodlake, then the next day to my grandparent's in Three Rivers (all places the OP will know!) (age 15)
4. Team Fuji (age 22)
5. Italvega ? (age 22)
6. Cannondale SR 900 (24?)
Then a blur, I was in the bike business and had a couple of bikes at a time, sold one, bought another, repeat. Buying at wholesale I could afford to, I think I made a small profit each time.

Puch BMX (white, I think) (maybe 1979)
Bananna Seat 3 speed (maybe a Schwinn)
DiamondBack BMX (1983)
Cannondale Crit Shimano 105 (maybe 1988)
Lemond Buenos Aires
2012-1017 many bikes; used and new
Rawland Stag
Ted Wojcik
Raleigh Competition
Univega Super Strada
Bianchi Giro
Waterfords x2

And the latest, after repeatedly saying I would never own a carbon frame, I finally bought one:
Latest Acquisition: 2016 Giant Defy Advanced Pro 0

My short bike career began when I was two years old in 1960 when I got tricycle. I don't remember that bike or the next one which was a red Roadmaster Satellite. After the Roadmaster I do remember these though:

1969 Blue Schwinn Stingray 2-speed with chrome fenders and a slick rear tire - It looked like a drag racer with that tire (OMG I miss this bike)
1972 Brown Schwinn Collegiate 5-speed (Stolen)
1975 Red/white Raliegh Supercourse (Sold)
1977 white Peugeot (Sold)
1979 Powder blue Gitane (Sold)
1981 red Austro-Daimler (Sold)

Through the 1990's I got seriously into in-line skating and racing and all but gave up riding except for the Nishiki Ariel mtn bike.

After that it's my current stable of two-wheelers:
1987 white Pinarello (Bought used from a friend)
1985 Raleigh Wyoming (Bought used in 2015)
1989 Nishiki Ariel (Bought new in 1989)
2016 Wabi Special
2016 Wabi Classic
2014 Kona Cinder Cone

I had various Schwinn bikes as a kid, including the obligatory blue Stingray. In my adult life, my first "real" bike was a Miyata 1000 touring bike. I don't have a color photo, but this one I found on the internet looks quite similar, if memory serves. I loaned it to someone in 1989 to get home after an earthquake, and it got stolen.



It got replaced with this 1990 Trek 520 touring bike (stock photo -- mine had low riders and a few other things):



My first "road bike" was a 1987 Bianchi Superlegarra. Here are recent photos, before and after renewal:



and after:



In 2007 I got a mountain bike:



In 2000 I got this Crack&Fail as a commuter. It has hydraulic rim brakes (WTF?). I never felt comfortable on it. Maybe it is the aluminum frame:



This acquired the derisive nickname of "assistant professor's bike". It captures the very essence of its stogieness.

My most recent bike was a custom steel build in 2014:

Wait, wait, wait. "Bike" is short for bi-cycle, which is to say two wheels, not tri-cycle which is three. Sorry but the tricycle doesn't count!

Of course, my twin brother and I got tricycles when we were about 4 y.o., I think. I chipped a tooth on the handlebar when it hit a bump and I jerked forward. It must have been after I grew my adult teeth (not that I'm adult yet) because I still have that chipped tooth which my dentist insists on fixing and then every few years the patch breaks off and he fixes it again. But it wasn't a bicycle. I can't remember ow old I was but I can remember how many wheels it had.

For me it started in the early 80's with some BMX Huffy's and my first Mtn Bike (I know a stretch for a Huffy) but it got me into the cycling scene it was a 1984 Huffy Cherokee 3 ATB . I cracked the Frame and then got a 1987 Diamond Back Ascent. in about 1990 it got stolen and i got this bike a 1990 Trek 7000 all the mean time also riding my Brothers 1985 Peugeot PH10LE and his 1987 Trek 560. after that i didnt buy a bike for years until i picked up 2001 Trek 1000 and then i got into collecting and its all roses from there
1987 Diamond Back Ascent
1990 Trek 7000
2001 Trek 1000
2008 Trek 7.3
2012 Trek Marlin
and many more after that..

The Bike ive had the longest this guy a 1990 Trek 7000

My first bike, - also, was a horse -- a retired thoroughbred by the name of Mr 707 ( who has been the influence of my internet handle and lucky number ever since)


Sometime , I got a banana seat bike in the 70's , followed a little later by a Team Murray 330 BMX

I discovered motocross eventually and bicycles and equestrians both fell by the wayside for a while.
I eventually bought a Bridgestone MB-6 to cross train for MX. A small handful of years later, I sold the last MX bike and bought a Marin road bike with the proceeds , that was 1992

I've gone through a slew of machines since - and have also re-kindled my relationship with the MX bikes, - albeit a lot slower now.

In time line order:

Cool crap - banana bike
Bad crap 35lb department store bike 3 sizes too big - rode for 10 years everywhere
New nice - miele sl with campagnolo victory -stolen
New nice - ritchey mtb - stolen
New crap - Phoenix mtb - nobody would steal
Nice new - custom aluminum mtb build - finally cracked and discarded
New beginning - raleigh revenio - to sell
Old.faster - Sworks e5 aerotec - awesome go fast and beat you up doing it..still have
New faster - Carbon 15lb superbike...cracked and discarded after doing a 360 in the air
Older steel - concorde aquila - it begins - awesome, fun and cheap
Cool older steel...older steel...old steel..old steel...no new carbon on the horizon

Oh man, a trip down picture memory lane. The first real road bike for me was after years of BMXs and a mountain bike as a kid, then a long hiatus which ended after I had been up in Seattle for a year and a half. Thanks to an incredibly beautiful woman (same age)--we hit it off pretty quickly--I have the C&V bug for the rest of my life. The seed already existed for years before, but there was no proverbial soil or water to plant it and have it grow. Knowing that she wouldn't be there to help another family move one day early in our friendship (but her dad would be), I volunteered to help out and see if I could get to know her dad. Well, that didn't happen (it would later though), but the family couldn't take a certain way-too-small-for-me 1985 Schwinn World Sport in a lovely light blue all the way to Kansas. So they gave it to me for free. I like cars a lot, and had tools, and set about learning (Sheldon Brown) and refurbishing it. Oh those innocent days! Also, drive side photos are for suckers--look how good it looks on the NDS! Lol.



That woman is now married to another man, which is good because ultimately we wouldn't have worked out. Our friendship has been great though. The aftermath of the World Sport has wrought a lot of good stuff. So to the bikes, in pretty much proper order:

1985 Schwinn World Sport (51cm--too small for my should-be-25" size)
198X SR College Sport FG (one brake...short ownership)
2013 Nashbar Aluminum SS/FG (with brakes)
2002 Felt F45 (that RED color - origin of "don't sell a red bike")
2009 Felt F5 (full CF)
1985 Ross Signature 294S (bought to flip, but kept it! Great bike!) *
1989 Schwinn Tempo (24", a hair small)
1985 Schwinn Peloton (4 groupsets later, Queen of the Fleet) *
1983 Peugeot PB14 (SS and home repaint)
2001 Guru Racelite (61cm)
1986 Dancelli America (62cm)
1985 Peugeot PH10LE (62cm)
1984 Trek 400
1983 Nishiki Olympic 12 (27"/68.5cm)
1982 Raleigh 531
1983 Fuji Supreme (great riding bike, now my bro's)
1981 Trek 616
1989 Cannondale SR800/2000
1984 Schwinn Super Sport
1988 Masi Nuova Strada *
2007 Novara Trionfo (dynamite ride quality for the newer stuff) *
2016 Trek Emonda ALR 6 (frameset built up)
1985 Cannondale SR500 *
1977 Schwinn Super Le Tour 12.2 - chrome (CHROME!) *
1974 Schwinn Paramount (in restoration) *

Slowing down a good bit as I have a lot of winners and don't want to sell, so space is at a premium in my apartment. It's a lot of fun, and I like my Schwinns!

* Indicates current fleet member fully built up (minus the Paramount), I do have a few framesets I'm trying to sell, but otherwise, all the rest are sold.

Well, it's cold and rainy so no ride today. So I decided to kill time finishing out the evolution list.

2015 Lysnskey R265 - Built as my dream bike yet I love steel better. Trying to sell locally.
1970s Peugeot U-08 - Purple and so cool. Still working on this one.
Mid 90s Giordana XL- Super - Bought as NOS frame and built up with Athena 11 speed. My overall favorite
1989 Greg Lemond Ventoux - Billato Brothers built from Cromor tubing. Set up for comfortable centuries



Mid 80s Club Fuji - Rough when I got it but cleaned up nice. Resold this because it just didn't "speak" to me.
1987 Schwinn Circuit - Bought as frameset and built up with Anthena 11 speed. A great overall bike.
Mid 80s Fuji S12-s - In the process of converting this to a 650b light tourer. Near mint.
1985 Trek 560 Pro Series - Currently on the trainer. Will sell in the spring because this too does not "speak" to me.



Bob Jackson - I don't know what year/model this is but it's a great all-around bike.
Amf Hercules - My errand runner. A bit rough and needs a new crankset now. Rear rack and basket with LEDs bulbs in the lights now.
1987 Schwinn Prologue - This may only have 6 speeds but I catch myself on it a lot. Such a sweet ride, very fast.
1985 Fuji Opus III - What a score. Great condition and totally rebuilt/serviced by the seller. So beautiful.



1999 Bianchi Campione - Mint, never really ridden by the owner. Still sorting this one out but not sure if I'll keep it.
Mid 80s Orbea Cabestany - Hodgepodge of parts and rough. But it all works great and the beast rolls well.
1988 Basso Gap - Beautiful repaint. I think I have this sorted out now but waiting for clean spring roads before I start using it again.
Early 90s De Rosa Nuovo Classico - Planning to build up with Campy Chorus 9 speed. TSX tubed, good shape.



And finally, the latest.

Early 90s (I think) Greg LeMond Maillot Jaune - TSX tubed and Campagnolo equipped in excellent shape. My 4th Billato Brothers built bike. Just got this, refreshed it and am waiting for clean roads to test it on.



And that completes my evolution for now. Still more to come I am sure.

Having just gotten back into riding in my adult years about 2 years ago now, mine is pretty short so far...

I don't remember the couple bikes I had as a small child but I'm sure they were department store bikes. I do have a couple photos of me riding two of them though. I traded in bikes for horses for a few years until the stables closed and my horse, Payday, was relocated. So my dad got me a new red Huffy and I rode that everywhere until I got my license and 92 Camaro at 16. I sold that bike when I was 20 after it sat for years in the basement.

When my son got his first real bike, I needed a way to keep up with him so I went and got a $10 huffy off CL. It was an awful bike but I found I loved riding again. A few weeks later I bought another Huffy off CL that was in better condition. I rode that for a few months while I saved up for something better. That's when I bought the like-new 95 Specialized Hardrock off CL and found BF.

After spending time in C&V I knew I wanted to head in that direction. First I found a 91 Schwinn CrossCut. I wanted to convert it to drop bars since I hated flat bars but it was too heavy and a smidge too big. I really just wanted a road bike but finding a vintage bike in my size and budget wasn't easy. So I sold that, saved more, hunted CL daily, and finally bought my first road bike, the 87 Schwinn Prelude. I absolutely love this bike and have been making changes here and there...now saving up for another 80's road bike.

ETA - I actually recently found out that my dad bought my mom an 87 Schwinn Prelude, also pink, back when they came out... When I remembered her having a pink road bike, just a couple months ago, I showed her a picture of mine and she confirmed its the one she had lol. Sadly, she gave it to my brother years ago and he destroyed it, of course...

Below are the bikes listed above, in order. A couple were truly horrible lol