moultonguy

I still remember mine and I saved up my pocket money and bought it from a local shop window ad, the old guy worked on them in his back yard. This was around 1966 and it was a RUDGE of some sort in 531. It had drop-handlebars bound in bamboo type material, a Sturmey Archer alloy hub gear and a most un appealing brownish paintwork.
I soon brush painted it kingfisher blue with white bands and had a five speed HURET derailleur conversion fitted, bottle carrier, LUCAS mileometer and rode it all over the area with my campione cap on my youthful head, looking back it must have been an early fifties bike, but it introduced me to vintage bikes from the start, here is my latest...

https://www.facebook.com/groups/152894891545784/

repechage

Started with a book about bikes. 30 month of saving and a Bertin C-37 as the result.
Only error and it was a big one was I was 12 and within 6" of 6 feet. Everyone thought I would be very tall soon.
Never grew into that bike.

I knew there was no turning back when I sold off a Schwinn Sting-Ray for funds to buy a pair of used Campagnolo pedals ($15) and a Phil Wood bottom bracket, ($30).

bikemig 

Started with a bike and a book. The bike was an inexpensive Nishiki 10 speed my dad bought as a gift when i started high school. It was a grey Nishiki custom sport. I loved the bike. I then bought a bike book (Richard's bike book) and a set of tools. I still have (and use) the tools and the book but not the bike! I loved the last chapter of Richard's bike book where he talked about a world where people actually rode bikes rather than drove cars. I used the book to overhaul my Nishiki. I was 14. It was easy to take apart but it took me around 2 weeks to put it back together. It was a good thing that I could walk to school.

scozim 

Christmas present - 1984 Peugeot PSV10 - 52cm. Was nice and light and a blast to ride.

Hoss Cartright

I was 14 years old, and my Grandfather had connections in the business. He got me a 58cm 1972 Gitane Tour de France in metallic green. It had the plastic simplex derailleur and sew-ups. Had a flat every day on that bike. Put the "nail-pullers" on there and still had flats all the time. I learned to sew with that bike. And that messy tire/rim glue....
After about two months we traded it in and I got a Motobecane Grand Record in Yellow with black trim. It was a lot better better bike for me.

elcraft

"Lightweight" is a relative term. The Raleigh made "Hercules" (AMF's "brand name") that was my first adult bike had a decal that said it was a "Guaranteed English-built Lightweight". By American balloon tire standards, it was a lightweight bike! It was less than 40lbs. If you mean lighter than that, It would be my '75 Raleigh Super Course Mk II, purchased in '77. While the Hercules was sold off in a garage sale, I still have the Super Course.

Murray Missile 

True, my very first bike was a 1961-ish "English built Lightweight" I got for my 6th B-Day. It was a red, 20 inch, single speed, diamond frame Western Flyer. 10 years later I got a red 1971 Raleigh Grand Prix, it was very light compared to the 26 inch Murray Missile with saddle tanks and rear rack that came between those two.

Bianchigirll 

I don't know if you call it a lightweight but I had one of those black Sears 3 spds for but after I got a job I stepped up to a used Royce Union "10 speed" WaHoo!!

coolkat

An '85 Roadmaster when I was 14. Eventually learned to overhaul bearings, and figured out soon after that it was a pretty crappy bike. Replaced it with a Centurion, and then a couple more showed up.
This was about two years ago, BTW...

Chombi

My first lightweight bike was actually my 1982 PH10s I got brand new in 82. It wasn't "light' out of the box (I think the advertised weight was around 26-27 pounds), but with some modifications, It got it to around or just below 24 pounds (weighed on a bathroom scale), which a lot of race bikes in the early 80's weighed in stock.....

AZORCH

Some serious crap that came in the years before, but my first serious lightweight was a 1984 Centurion Turbo.

Lascauxcaveman 

1972 Lambert Grand Prix I got as a frame set in 1982. Still ride it regularly. 24 lbs in its current configuration (not with the big bag on front, natch). That counts as a lightweight, right?

Paramount1973 

My first lightweight was a Peugeot PX10. In early November, 1971, I drove from Columbus, Ohio to Dayton to buy it and on the way back drove right into the middle of a riot at Ohio State:
https://univdistcol.com/riots7.html

At one point, I was slowly driving down Pearl Alley, near High Street, and a cop threw a kid onto the hood of my car and beat him with a nightstick. I finally got to my sisters apartment (I had borrowed the car) and decided to take a ride on my new bike. I mean, who wouldn't? After dodging a tear gas canister, I decided to ride another day. Good times.

KerryP

July of ’69 I thought I had my first lightweight, a Varsity. June of ’71 once again I thought I had my first lightweight, a Super Sport. April of ’72 I had my first lightweight, a PX 10.

Drillium Dude 

What I consider to be my first true lightweight would have to be the Olmo Nuovo Super Sprint, anthracite grey with yellow graphics and bar tape. Full Zeus 2000 gruppo - yeah, the black and silver anodized and drilled stuff. 56cm of quick "wow, how the heck am I going to ever be able to control this?" handling and light weight.

Pretty much looked like this:



Replaced my 60cm Raleigh Super Course 12 (bought before I had a clue about fit) after it was stolen.

DD

oldroads

C.Itoh, all steel, I mean everything was heavy straight steel, but it had drop bars.
Bought it at Lechmere Sales in Cambridge MA with money from my busboy job.
40-something years later, Lechmere Sales is long gone and I own a bike shop just down the street.

rootboy 

Yep. After graduating high school, I saved up money working in a restaurant and bought a Peugeot PX-10. My buddy bought a Gitane TdF and together we hitched a ride with a Hippie pastor guy who had an old Hudson Hornet. Loaded our bikes and panniers into his old cruiser and he took us from Salt lake City all the way to Tacoma, where we started our Olympic Peninsula tour. Stopped off on Vancouver Island and saw Victoria.
Then all the way up to La Push and down the coast into Oregon. It was a great adventure.

sirupate

Yes, yes I do. I had been wanting an "English racer" for a while. This was about 1963. At the time my bike was a used Schwinn Spitfire. Eventually Mom and Dad broke down and ordered me a Sears 3-speed bike that was made in Austria (if I remember correctly). It was sort of red metallic color and I eventually was able to get maes-type bars put on it.

About that time, the Schwinn 10 and 15 speed bikes came out and my newish Sears was no longer my dream bike. I'd love to find a similar bike to my Sears at a garage sale just for the memories. Maybe a Raleigh 3-speed will do.

16Victor

Mine was a Atala bought from a local department store. I was saving up my money from delivering papers and being a 'rent-a-kid.' $99.99 "Cadillac of the Imports." Dad financed half and I paid him back with interest. It had wraparound gumwalls and a plastic ass hatchet seat. I was about 14 at the time, 1975ish. Years later, my kid brother borrowed it and left it outside a grocery store where it was stolen

easyupbug 

While stationed near Phoenix I had enough $ for my first "lightweight", a shiny new white 1971 Peugeot U08. Loved that bike and having gears.

yodatic

Our family owned a bicycle shop and my older brother and worked there through high school. He financed a new Schwinn Super Sport at the Schwinn Dealership in Pensacola, 1974? Not to be outdone I was able to just barely buy a leftover Raleigh International the next year, which for some reason I still have ! DL170 Copper

cbresciani

That would have been my Guerciotti Carbonio with full Campy Record components. Man I loved that bike, wish I still had it.

Don Marco

Mine was an Atala kids road bike, bought for me at age 9 by my dad when we were living in Sicily. No pictures of it survive, unfortunately. I just remember it being blue, having to learn toe-clips and DT shifters all at once and outgrowing it quickly. 24" tubulars!

Here's my son wearing my jersey from the shop the bike came from:

gaucho777 

After watching Alexi Grewal win the gold medal in the '84 Olympics, I decided I wanted to get into road riding. I was 11 at the time, and would try as best I could to ride my dad's green Raleigh (Grand Prix?) but I could barely reach the pedals even with the seat post slammed to the bottom, and dismounting was always an adventure. By '85, when Lemond was challenging the Badger in the Tour, my family took a trip to France, and I had already been saving for a road bike for nearly a year. From the '84 Olympics to the summer of '85 when we took our family trip to France, everything went into my bike fund. I'd also sold a lot of my other belongings at garage sales, baseball card shops, worked at odd jobs, saved birthday/Christmas money, etc. I don't remember how much I had, but it was good sum for a 12 year-old boy. During our trip, we stayed for a week with the family of a French exchange student we had hosted the previous year. They own an oyster fishery on the coast of Brittany, and their home overlooked the bay above the oyster farm, with idyllic views of the beach and the sea cliff walls. I still remember them bringing out the most enormous platter of fresh oysters, and watching the oysters squirm as you squeezed lemons onto them. During our time in Brittany we visited an incredible bike shop in large warehouse/hanger-type building. As you might imagine, there was lots of Hinault memorabilia, and parts I had never seen back in the U.S. My host did all the translating (and I'm sure there was a fair amount of negotiating going on as well). My plan was to buy the parts in France and then pick a frame once I returned stateside. Among the parts I chose, under the guidance of the shop owner were Simplex retrofriction shifters with Mavic 801 front and rear derailleurs, Mavic 501 hubs, Modolo Pro brakes, Galli Top Crit tubular rims, and Wolber tubulars. Upon my return, I picked up a sky blue Vitus 979 frame, and the rest is history. Those original Simplex retrofriction shifters and Mavic 501 hubs are still going strong on my Look, now 28 years later.

Pompiere

When I was 14, my parents were divorced and I lived with my mom. My friends were getting ten-speeds and I still had my muscle bike, so I was saving my money to get one, too. Back then Sears sent out catalogs that were 3 inches thick and had everything you needed for everything. So I had a bike picked out and was just waiting for a trip to the city to buy it. Before that happened, I went to my dad's for a weekend and told him my plans. He worked with a guy that owned a bike shop on the side, so Dad said I should get a good bike from the bike shop instead of something from a department store. I ended up with a used Kabuki, not sure of the model, but it was the same price as the Sears bike. I rode it all over, even commuted 8 miles into town for summer driver's ed. Right before I went into the Navy, I took it on a three day camping trip. I sold it to another sailor when I bought a Fuji Royale. I bought another Kabuki a few years ago, just for nostalgia.