how old were you when you started messing around with bikes? for me its been 12 and several bikes later im 14 :mrgreen:
how old were you?
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Riding-about 7-Racing-About 9-Collection-About 11-Customizing-about 13-and then downhill from there
was in 5th grade and traded a BB gun for most of a stingray and BMX'd it up.
Well im 18 right now soo i guess i was about 6 or 7 when i first started getting into the bikes, my first real bike was a 16in lime green metal flake huffy, I loved that bike until i had to give it to my friend because my mom said I was too big
My father was a great man but had very little mechanical skills when it came to bikes (anything with wheels), so I learned by trial and error as well as from the older kids. My first customization started at four years old when I put a set of Exxon/Esso/Mobil Tiger Grips on my brand new 24" Typhoon. it was a year later that I was big enough to ride the bike! My second mod was, my dad and me taking the training wheels off that we got with the bike. I never rode with training wheels. My dad taught me to ride without the trainers. I went from trike to bike in less than a day. :lol:
Throughout the years I've messed with several bikes and never had anything that could be considered original. I'm more about looks and rideability than I am about the high dollar accessories and components that only bike geeks drool over. Most of my bikes get noticed in the crowd and they always draw attention from non bike people.
Throughout the years I've messed with several bikes and never had anything that could be considered original. I'm more about looks and rideability than I am about the high dollar accessories and components that only bike geeks drool over. Most of my bikes get noticed in the crowd and they always draw attention from non bike people.
this was me on my very first bike. (big kid anyhoo)
3 days after this picture was taken, i tried removing my training wheels.
it didn't go well.
13 stitches in the forehead and a life long scar was what i got for my efforts.
i've had 400 plus stitches since then,all bike related. (i used to have a death wish when it came to jumping things on my bike)
those 13 stitches are the ones that stuck with me. my gram was looking after me and the shear volume of blood triggered a mild heart attack.
we rode side by side in the ambulance.
it was many years after that, before i threw another wrench at a bicycle.
3 days after this picture was taken, i tried removing my training wheels.
it didn't go well.
13 stitches in the forehead and a life long scar was what i got for my efforts.
i've had 400 plus stitches since then,all bike related. (i used to have a death wish when it came to jumping things on my bike)
those 13 stitches are the ones that stuck with me. my gram was looking after me and the shear volume of blood triggered a mild heart attack.
we rode side by side in the ambulance.
it was many years after that, before i threw another wrench at a bicycle.
I was five or six when I started riding. I was seven or eight when I started customizing my bike. I got away from all bikes for many years and now at thirty I'm back and more obsessed than ever.
I rode a full size adult bike at 5...couidn`t touch a foot down and had to jump off at every stop, then push and jump on to get going again... :lol:
First customization was at about 10 or 11, a beat up and discarded 10 speed that I fixed up and rode for the next 7 or 8 years...
First customization was at about 10 or 11, a beat up and discarded 10 speed that I fixed up and rode for the next 7 or 8 years...
I had a Huffy Sigma that my dad helped me put on a set of white GT mags and white tires, the kind with the little footprints on'em. Then we installed what I thought was the holy grail of technological wizardry at the time, the Odyssey Gyro, I guess I was 11.....
Man those really were better times.
Man those really were better times.
About 14 I guess and that was in '71. Old Schwinn that Grandpa brought home for me. Fixed it up nice with apes and paint. Tossed the fenders too (wish I knew where). Was at my girlfriend's house meeting the dad one day. He asked me if I had a bike. I said yup and pointed at the Schwinn. He says 'no, I mean a motorcycle.'
I said 'dude...I'm 14 years old!'
It wouldn't have lasted that long anyway I guess.
I said 'dude...I'm 14 years old!'
It wouldn't have lasted that long anyway I guess.
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About from the time I was 7 I started dragging home bikes, using parts on other bikes, started doing customs around age 10, Been building every since. Wish I know where half of my childhood bikes were. Ah the days before American pickers and shows like that ruined the bike scene for us.
I think I was about 8 when I took the forks and seat off my old tricycle, flipped the frame, and put it all back together so it looked more like the Big Wheels that my friends were riding. I was riding bikes/trikes before that, but that was the first time I can remember customizing one.
I think i was 10 when a friend and I pulled a bike from a local creek., We cleaned it up, jammed a set of forks from a donor bike on it to create a chopper and painted it blue with a can of oil based paint and a brush.
Wish I had a picture of it.
Wish I had a picture of it.
Must have been five or six years old, I know that's pretty young, but there was a Schwinn shop right across the street from us. It was one of those that was Grandfathered in after Schwinn put the push on for regimented franchise stores, and was really no bigger than a two stall garage located in a working class neighborhood in the Shadows of the Charles City Iowa Oliver tractor factory.
My parents used to let me spend hours in there just hanging out with the owner who took delight in pranks that he pulled on the neighborhood, like the time he tied a metal 55 gallon drum lid to my bike and had me ride up and down the street with it to shake everyone up.
My parents used to let me spend hours in there just hanging out with the owner who took delight in pranks that he pulled on the neighborhood, like the time he tied a metal 55 gallon drum lid to my bike and had me ride up and down the street with it to shake everyone up.
1977(?) so I must have been 4 years old.
Me learning how to ride a bike on the 'family's-learn-how-to-ride-a-bike'-bicycle. I fell and injured my head. It's still a miracle that I I've learned how to ride I bike cause I remember screaming that I won't climb on that evil yellow thing ever again. Too bad you won't see me fall, only me on my mom's lap, crying... Oh, and that cocky kid riding towards the camera at the end of the footage is my big sis. She has never learned how to ride but just did it! After she came out of the hospital my dad said:
I've bought you a bicycle so now you can ride a bike when you get home. Well, she got home, climbed on the bike and just rode off!
Took this out of the vintage pics gallery thread. There are lot's of other 'my first biicycles' from forum members over there...
Shortly after my yellow bike I got a blue chopper. But the 'customization' began after I got my 1st bmx. The bmx-thing had a big aftermarket, so lot's of products to choose from to put on your bike.
Me learning how to ride a bike on the 'family's-learn-how-to-ride-a-bike'-bicycle. I fell and injured my head. It's still a miracle that I I've learned how to ride I bike cause I remember screaming that I won't climb on that evil yellow thing ever again. Too bad you won't see me fall, only me on my mom's lap, crying... Oh, and that cocky kid riding towards the camera at the end of the footage is my big sis. She has never learned how to ride but just did it! After she came out of the hospital my dad said:
I've bought you a bicycle so now you can ride a bike when you get home. Well, she got home, climbed on the bike and just rode off!
Took this out of the vintage pics gallery thread. There are lot's of other 'my first biicycles' from forum members over there...
Shortly after my yellow bike I got a blue chopper. But the 'customization' began after I got my 1st bmx. The bmx-thing had a big aftermarket, so lot's of products to choose from to put on your bike.
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I still remember my first custom bike, it was a Huffy mountain bike and a Murry BMX bike that I had chopped up and lengthened, set of skyway mags that were worth more than the rest of the bike, sloppy welds, (I also learned how to weld building it) and I tried to do black with flames and it looked like I painted it with a dead chicken. Every bump you came to a stop for fear of the frame flexing a little too far......lol. Wish I still had pics but I did a re-make of it a few years back. with different rims and better welds.
6. Already mechanically inclined, every nut and bolt toy, toddled around with my "Mr. Machine". :mrgreen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WHQI5iKYfM
My great uncle Kenny gave me lube tips, a can of oil and a graphite stick. 8)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WHQI5iKYfM
My great uncle Kenny gave me lube tips, a can of oil and a graphite stick. 8)
