My first serious non-trainer bike was a 26 inch Panasonic single speed with rod brakes while living in Yokohama, Japan, 1962...

A lot of nice memories here.

How about some of you other folks chimming in?

Joe

My first bike was probably a Murray or a Huffy. I don't knw because it was a hand me down from my brothers. They taught me to ride by parking my butt on the saddle of one of their bikes and shoving me down a hill. Evenually, after some blocks of wood were taped to the pedals, I got the hang of it. I do remember it was red and the bars were bent.

My first bike was a black bike with 20" wheels a banana seat and high rise handle bar that I STOLE from some kid. I do not know the name because I painted right after I got it home. Hay what else is a 10 year going to do.

My dad owned a bike shop but never got around to getting me a first bike--I had been riding a tri-bike (a tricycle that had pedals and a chain drive). He had a pile of old junk bikes waiting to go to the dump and when I was five years old, I pulled an old 16" junker out of that pile and learned to ride on it. It had the hard rubber semi-pneumatic tires--the rear one was about one-fourth burned away from being next to a trash fire. I remember it being brown in color because it was so rusty and it didn't pedal well because of rusted links in the chain. It was a bumpy, rough ride. I went thru a succession of old used bikes that I fixed up myself until I was about twelve or so and my dad gave me a red 3-speed Schwinn Racer for Christmas.

My first was a 26" JC Higgins from Sears about 1961. It was a bit big for me but my dad couldn't afford to buy me two bikes so he bought the one with the idea I'd grow into it.

But my second bike--ahhh sweet memories--was a 1959 Fiorelli, all Campy, which I bought with my savings in 1964. The derailluer went out immediately and the new one cost more than the whole bike. Sure wish I still had this one.

john in oregon

20" red Schwinn handed down from my older brother in the very early 60's. I taught myself to ride by pushing off the front porch with one leg and repeatedly crashing on the lawn till I learned to keep my balance. First thing I taught myself to do and was proud as hell. Might be one reason it still feels so good to ride. Big fat seat with the big "S" on it, rattling fender guards, coaster brakes, geez. Brings back good memories.

I'll never forget my first bike. My parents had very little money and I never had a bike until I was 10. For my tenth birthday, in 1953, My gramma took me down to the bike shop and told me I could have any bike I wanted. I picked a beautiful Rawley (sp?) three speed English Racer. It was green. It cost $75. (a tidy sum in 1953). It was gorgeous.

Have no idea what my first bikes were...from when I was a kid. Probably, something from Sears. I do remember buying a couple of bikes from the police auctions at Santa Monica for a couple of bucks.

As for my first "real" bike, it was a white Peugeot UO7 or 8 or something. That was in the '70's. I was so proud of that bike. Still love the look of that 10 speed. I know we took rides of up to 100 miles or in that area in those days. A couple of times, we road from the L.A. area in groups of four or five to San Diego, where we'd have a nice dinner, spend the night in a good hotel, and head back the next day on a train. Of course, I was a lot younger and leaner as well. Can't even recall ever getting a flat on the thing. Must have weighed pretty much compared to bikes of today.

I don't have a photo at the moment but my first bike was a Huffy convertible. I've never figured out why they called it a "convertible"...maybe because it might have had training wheels as an attachment.
It was red and white and it had all the cool stuff on it like handlebar streamers and american flags across the top of the handlebars. I also remember using my mom's clothespins to attach baseball cards to the frame to make "cool" sounds as the spokes hit the cards. It sounded really fast. :D

Can't remember the name, but it was black with caliper brakes,a single freewheel and a saddle with springs. I had it from about age 9 to 12. At first it was too big for me and so it had blocks attached to the pedals so I could reach them.

They were called convertibles because with the top bar on it was a boy's bike and the top bar could be removed or lowered to another position to make it a girl's bike.

I remember as a kid in England riding various borrowed clunkers, but the first bike I actually owned was a Hercules I bought from a school friend who was getting his brother's Ellis Briggs. This Hercules was still a clunker, so as I got interested in lightweight bikes I bought a new Claud Butler "New Allrounder". I believe this was around 1953 or 54. The Claud was a bit up from their entry level line, made from straight gauge 531, steel rims, with a 4-speed Simplex derailleur. At the time, pencil thin seat stays were all the rage and I think these were 1/4" at the dropouts. When we emigrated to Canada in 1956 I left the Claud behind, thinking there would be nowhere to ride one like this. I was partly right, since lightweight racing bikes were very rare in Toronto at the time. I didn't get a real bike again until the seventies.