Your first bicycle can be a magical experience - something you have wished for becomes real and in doing so every journey seems possible. Whether it was for Christmas, a birthday, a ‘congratulations on your exams’ that first bike is steeped in memories.
So why not share your memories with us? Send us a few words about your first bike, maybe where you went, what you explored, if you fell off and what that bike meant to you. If you got a photo send that too.
Please email us at myfirstbike@wheelsoftimekingston.org
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Hannah
Oh she was a beauty! A pink and blue Huffy, exactly like this one. I was the queen of Topeka, Kansas on that thing.
When my dad took the training wheels off (that's what we call stabilisers in the States) he ran down the street with me, holding me up, and I remember yelling at him not to let go, and he responded from 50 feet behind me... he'd already let go; I was balancing myself. In my amazement I promptly steered into a hedge.
Natalie
It was my birthday (probably 7th or 8th) and I woke up to find a red ribbon tied to the end of my bed. The ribbon was trailed all through the house, out to the yard and finally to the shed where I flung the doors open and found this gleaming beauty!
I rode it everywhere. It gave me total freedom and was great exercise. I even used to put a peg with bit of cardboard on the spokes to pretend I was riding a motorised bike.
Simone
My first racing bike. I was so excited and happy to be given this bike for my 16th birthday. All I can remember is cycling to Hampton Wick and pulling on the front
brakes. I flew over the handle bars and landed on my nose. No blood or mess but when I got home my mum asked what happened. She immediately took me to hospital and I had an operation that night to straighten my nose!
That was the first time I was ever in hospital and in the morning my
school friends came to see me. My mum had been told there could be two
black eyes and a lot of pain but all I had was an elastoplast over the
top of my nose and no evidence of this major surgery (with a hammer).
Anna
I was about five years old – 1949 – and I’d already had my bash at cycling on a battered old 3 – wheeler that had a little metal “boot” on the back. But that hardly counts as I could start and stop without any fear of falling. My first real machine was another beat up item, a fairy cycle which having given away to much wear and tear - and rust – had been hastily repainted with dark blue paint. Even so, this paint job had not been done for my benefit, but for whoever had had it before me.
On this fine machine I coursed up and down my street in south east London , a terror to the neighbours, falling and falling again until I had got the techniqueand then riding at dreadful speed round the block deaf to the entreaties of my mother to restrain my zeal.
Mark
Got my first adult bike when I was about 12 before that I had a child bike with stabilizers when I started out. Basic Raleigh bike I think not the most comfortable but fairly reliable just a 3 speed gear so not great up hills though perhaps that down to my fitness or lack off. My brother and parents also had a bike including a Chopper one with a shopping basket. Went out on rides mostly locally as far as Claygate or Oxshott or Effingham on one occasion plus the occasional ride in Richmond Park. Occasionally did cycling with the scouts they had a cycle rally event every year. Also used it to cycle to work when I had a summer job in Chessington and occasionally cycling back from the pub including one time after several drinks got home safely though didn't remember much about it. Unfortunately it got pinched when I left it in the communal area of the flats where I was living and that was the end of my cycling career. Never passed the cycling proficiency so possibly not the safest cyclist though never got any more than a few cuts or scrapes ..
Bob
My first bike was an adult bike, a black Rudge, with a distinguished history. For example: November 17, 1946.
To Kyera. 20 min by bike - very scattered village. A good gathering of locals and quite a successful meeting. Started a good hare by suggesting a communal garden maize plot for the whole village against an emergency. At first, great opposition because [it is] contrary to native custom. Explained that this was a supplement not a substitute for their own system and that even in a communal garden each could have his own plot; the great advantage being that a good strong stockade could be put around it and the maximum protection afforded against weather and against animals. Eventually the women agreed with me and so their men changed their tune a little. Matter will be considered.
That was an extract from my Dad’s diary, when he was Assistant District Commissioner for the Karonga District in the Northern Province of the Nyasaland Protectorate (now Malawi). His British Rudge bicycle served the function that a Rolls-Royce serves for Government functionaries in more civilised places: it allowed him to arrive in distinguished style in his visits to outlying villages. On “ulendo” – the Chichewa for “safari”, meaning “official visit”.
That Rudge bicycle came with my family when my father was posted to the capital, Zomba, where I was born. A small saddle was attached to the cross-bar, and on that I was borne to school, with the family cook, Basil, riding. I do not have a photograph of us on the bicycle, but I do have a photograph of me with Basil (and my sister, Angela, and dog, Chips):
When I was older, that is the bicycle I learned to ride; standing, because the saddle was too high for me to reach the pedals. It was Basil, again, who patiently pushed me off, time and again, picking me up when I fell off, until I got it.
Natalie
