WHAT GOT YOU INTO THE BIKE HOBBY

[KEMPRACING]

So lets hear it , what got you into this wild and crazy hobby that we all love , for me it was having a heart attack and having the doctor telling me to get more exercise , So bikes it was , I have been a welder for 35 years and just couldn't leave my bike alone and once I built one that lead to the next and then the next , So lets hear it what got you started

 

[mikeeebikey]

My 69 Schwinn crate I had in 1976- won the bike rodeo, got a boy scout merit badge for cycling, I was hooked pretty bad by then!
Than in 1979? Dad got me a Schwinn sx1000
HOOKED!
I have quit riding during periods of insanity in my life...

 

[Bicycle808]

Like most suburban kids, I rode around town as a child b/c my parents didn't feel like being my personal chauffeur service. I remember being jealous of my friends who worked on their own bikes b/c my dad was the least mechanical person ever and he'd always just give me money to go get it fixed up town rather than teaching me how. (My friends' efforts to teach me was pretty much fruitless; they weren't very patient and I was very apt.) As a teenager, I learned just enough to keep my bike rolling, but when I think back to how sloppy all my bearings were, and how hard it is to work on bikes with ONLY a couple screwdrivers and an adjustable wrench, it makes me pretty embarrassed.

About like 13 years ago, when I was 23 or 24, I realized just how FAT I'd gotten, so I started riding to get into shape. I bought a mtb, and mostly commuted to work on it, but i started riding trails, too, and then I got a track bike for commutes and kept the mtb for the trails. The track bike was so simple, it got me into working on my own bikes, and soon I dove headfirst into trying to wrench my bikes myself to save money.... found out it was pretty fun. Nowadays, I still ride frequently (don't hit the trails nearly enough, though), but I believe I like wrenching bikes and building different things more than I like riding.

 

[BlueFlame]

A couple years ago I stopped at a friends house to show off my "new" motorcycle. I saw a chrome front end of a bicycle, with a big round head light on it, sticking out from behind a half-closed door. I've always kinda liked tankers, and this turned out to be a Jetflow, complete but very rusty. It followed me home, so I replaced and repacked bearings, put a pair of wide whitewalls on it, and I now ride it regularly ( in warm weather ). I've added a few to the collection, but that is the one that got me going.

 

[deorman]

My dad pushed me off down slope and I went flying and BAM!!! careened into a tree.
Hooked for life. The tree part not so much.

 

[Walker]

More years ago than I care to admit, a friend let me ride his Huffman Supercycle, freshly restored. What a smooth ride. I can still picture the bike....I had always been into cycling, first road racing, then mountainbiking. It wasn't until a couple of decades after riding the Supercycle that I bought my first antique bicycle. I just like the style and feel of the old bikes, back then form followed function. The aesthetic appeal was as important as, or more than, the function itself. It's awfully hard to find that same ideal today in mechanical objects.

 

[B607]

I was a bicycle nut when I was a kid. Kept all the neighborhood bikes going. Got a drivers license and put bicycles aside. I was in my early 30's around '85 and junking in Indiana with my wife, mom, and dad. Found a yellow band kickback laying loose and bought it for $1. Rebuilt it as I had done them before. Now had a hub but needed a bike. Bought a rough Schwinn Jaguar, mounted the hub and I was on my way. Went all balloon shortly after. Have all Schwinn but also one Monark and one Elgin. Can't wait to start riding again this spring. Gary

 

[JaxRhapsody]

Learned to ride at ten. Wasn't really in to bikes until I got tired of walking around the city. Then I learned to fix them. That is what opened up bikes fir me.

 

[jd56]

TANKLIGHTS!!!!
That's all it took for me. Had to have one.
Just 3 Years ago I saw a tanklight bike at the beachfront.
I decided I wanted the attention it brought too. Had no idea how to work on one. Never was a bike mechanic as a young kid. Sure I could get the chain back on the bike but, as a kid I had no idea why it kept coming off.
Now I have over 40 bikes with many being Tanklight bikes.
Also fell in love with the Schwinn ballooners soon after.
When the addiction got out of hand was within the 2nd year of my madness.....and its getting worse.
But it keeps me busy, not out of trouble but busy.


Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[the_undecider]

Love this thread so far...great topic idea!

I grew up riding cheap bikes. My first new bike was a Huffy 20" bmx. One of the kids in the neighborhood had a fancy, expensive Diamondback freestyle bike and he never missed an opportunity to brag about how awesome it was or how much it cost. Stuff like that leaves an impression on a young kid and I never stopped lusting after expensive bikes.

As I grew up, my parents would always me new bikes of the big box variety. I had a 24" Murray mountain bike that I broke the handlebar in half doing a wheelie (could have been a bad crash, but wasn't). Not sure why my dad didn't just fix it, but he agreed to get me a new bike. It was at that point, I recognized the value of a bike shop purchase and had my mom take me to look at bikes at a bike shop. I remember picking one out that was $239. She knew my dad had other plans and ushered me out of the shop with a "maybe we'll come back." We passed by the Wallyworld on the way home and I spotted my dad's truck in the lot. I knew he was getting me a bike and I was still happy to get it, but in the back of my mind I wondered why he didn't spend a few dollars more on the bike I wanted. The Huffy he bought was the most expensive one at Walmart at $200.

I rode the heck out of the Huffy and that is the bike I started to tinker with adjusting brakes and derailleurs. Eventually, the freewheel pawls broke and my uncle gave me his old Diamondback mountain bike. I finally had my own Diamondback!

It was about this time that I started driving, so bicycles took a back seat in my life for a few years. Then, in college, I started getting the bug again. I wanted to start mountain biking, but wanted something with a shock. I bought a new Raleigh M60 on ebay. Soon, I started upgrading parts and doing the work myself. I started buying parts from a local ebay seller who soon opened a shop and hired me to run the place during the day since he had a day job. It was around that time I started flipping bikes. Circa 2004 was when I went full bore into the bike hobby. It's been all downhill since then, haha!

 

[Rustinkerer]

My second "first" bike (first was stolen), was a Columbia "All American" banana bike, just after the '76 Bicentennial. It had a white frame, red fenders, and there had to be some blue somewhere. I think one of the neighborhood kids said fenders weren't cool, so I soon took mine off, and began the start of a great legacy of tinkering! Three years later, in the summer of 1980, I checked out a garage sale, and saw a very rusty Schwinn Corvette. It was instant love, just like Christine! It was one of what we now call "PLEASE TAKE MY MONEY!!!" moments! For two dollars and fifty cents, Old Faithful, as it was later named, was mine. My Dad helped me fix it up the first time, one of many. I last repainted it in 1996, I was working in auto body, and returned it to it's original black, with DuPont Chromabase. Couldn't find S-7 whitewalls back then, so I bought a new Huffy and swapped rims. In 04, I met someone who's friend ran 4 bike rental stands at the beach, and loaned me the "Holy Grail" J & B Importers catalog. I ordered a springer fork, flamed seat, and a few vintage bike books. Learned Old faithful was a 1956. A year later, I discovered ebay, and started collecting og parts for the '56, then went a little crazy, and bought a lot of 54 old bikes! I've told the main story before, but we have so many newer members. This is the deluxe, 'behind the music' episode! -Adam

 

[KEMPRACING]

Its funny how for most of us it started as a kid , we put bikes aside for other life things but we all came back to it in one form or another , weather its rat rods or choppers or vintage bikes , to me that says a lot about this hobby we all love and you don't see that with a lot of hobbies , Great stories keep them coming

 

[todhunter]

I'm just now getting into the bike hobby for the first time. Sure, I had a few bikes as a kid, but the last time I probably really rode bikes was 20 years ago in my early teens. I'm an avid outdoors guy and my main hobbies are paddling whitewater in a canoe (not a kayak) and hiking. Lots of my friends who also paddle and hike are into mountain biking, and have tried to get me into it, but I've never really been that interested. I'm a mechanical engineer by trade, and was practically born with a wrench in my hand, so tinkering and building things comes naturally to me. I also like the eccentric and unique things in life that turn people's heads.

This past Christmas (1 month ago) we bought my 3.5-year-old daughter a 12" Huffy, her first bike. My wife and I took her to the park to ride, and started thinking of getting our own bikes. We bought my wife a Huffy cruiser, but I wanted something that would draw attention and be unique. I had seen a buddy ride a home-built swing bike one time a few years ago, and started researching those. Fast forward a few weeks and several hundred dollars more than I had planned on spending, and I have my very own Swingbike that I'm putting together. I think it will be unique enough and turn enough heads! I'm a buy-once-cry-once kind of guy, so I picked out the components I really wanted (with my VERY limited knowledge on bikes) and went ahead and tore the bike down for a full overhaul. Can't wait to get it together, and I'm really enjoying it so far.

 

[sean1960]

Like most everyone else I started getting into bicycles when I was a kid. This was in the late 60's by the early 70's we couldn't mow the back yard any more it looked like a bicycle wrecking yard. Dad didn't like that very much. He always said if he wanted to find a wrench all he had to do was start up the lawn mower. I grew up in a small town where everyone knew each other (couldn't get away with anything). When I would get home school some times I would find piles of bicycle parts in the driveway. People would just drop stuff off at the house. In the mid 70's we moved and I only got to keep a few of the bicycles I was very disappointed to say the least.

Jump to the 80's and for a brief time I got back into bicycles. At this point I had honed my fabrication skills working has a production maintenance mechanic for Coca Cola seven years. During that time I built the front wheel drive bicycle some of you have seen. By the mid 80's marriage and family became my priority. It was the mid 90's before I got the chance to build bicycles again. I started collecting bicycles anything old mostly junk thinking I would some day restore them. Didn't happen I sold most of them. I discovered that the part of the hobby I enjoyed the most was the designing and building my own creations. Now jump to the 2000's and I find Rat Rod Bikes and my inspiration to build starts all over again. I have never been so inspired just watching all of you building your bikes. I'm glad I found Rat Rod Bikes and all of you!

 

[jerrykr]

Mom and Dad gave me my first bike, a 24" Montgomery Wards, maroon/cream ballooner. Grew out of it and it hung in the garage for a long time. Think Mom sold it at a garage sale. Next came a 26" MW straight bar ballooner, that I threw a newspaper route from. Don't remember where it came from, but it was used. Got a bigger paper route further from home when I got a motor scooter (pre-Honda days). Bikes kinda went to the side, but I did get interested in a cantilever frame I got from the kid next door, and built a "hot rod" with a home made bananna seat from a piece of 2x4. Painted it candy apple red with model car spray paints. Always tinkered with the bikes, re-greasing the ND coaster brakes, actually got them back together and working, tho I knew nothing about them. Car- 55 Chevy, College, Military in the late 60's intervened. Got married in early '70s, no kids yet, wife and I got swept up in the 10-speed craze. Bought a pair of Italian Coppi 10 speeds, everyone else were buying Raleighs. Great bikes. Rode occasionally, not seriously.
Surfing the internet a few years ago and literally stumbled on this forum. Was looking at the bike Gallery pictures, and realized that the old iron was just like my earliest bikes and stuff I did to them. Suddenly took interest, starting buying, keeping, flipping bikes and the rest is history. Great site here Steve. Thanks for creating it and all you do.

 

[alecw35]

when I was a kid my dad had a load of stuff in various sheds in the yard and garden. There was a lot of old bikes, this was early 80s.
My dad had rode old motorbikes, like Matchless and BSAs. He kinda got out of them before I was born. But there was still a BSA Bantam and a BSA B31, in bits in the garage.
Mum wasn't so good on 2 wheels. So had a Pashley Picador trike and an Ariel 3 moped trike that had a hinge in the middle.
Dad got into cars, just for going to work and transport the family. He did have Beetles and Morris minors. As well as other more forgettable stuff.
He did his own repairs. My 2 brothers were a bit older than me. They had various old cars that needed work, so I would often watch them. Or help them.
I built my first bike out of those old bikes in the shed. I learnt to cycle on an old Butchers bike...er shop delivery bike. I thought the basket frame work would be a kind of bumper/bull bar, if I crashed.
A few years later I asked for a bike for Christmas. gave a list of Raleigh bikes I liked. Grifter, Bomber, Chopper. I got a mark 2 chopper. Was black with cool shiny exhaust pipes sticker on it.
I rode that a lot. Sometimes to towns 10 miles away.
Ive been into all kinds of bikes since. Did some road racing. Toured all over Scotland and into England.

 

[dracothered]

Bikes, where to begin.... I had a black 20" Schwinn Stingray that was a used bike as a kid. Then I wanted one of those cool BMX bikes with the the mag wheel. My parents wouldn't buy me one so I ended up piecing one together from parts here and there. That was my first bike I built as a kid back many moons ago. The second one was a 10 speed, also a garbage can special.

Lost interest to car when I turned 15 more or less. Then I joined the military and rode a buddies bike a few times while in Germany. Dang near killed myself on his bike coming down a mountain road that dumped you right into the middle of town.

After I got out of the army in 1987 I got married and family was more important then. Seventeen years went by, got divorced and about 3 years after that my same buddy from the military showed me an article about motorized bikes that sparked my bike interest again.

Soon I found this site and got fully hooked.

 

[pjbjr413]

Like, probably all of us, I rode as a kid for transportation, then got close to 16 and cars and trucks became my obsession. Then a few years ago I dug my mom's '67 Spaceliner out of the attic to restore and surprise her as a birthday gift, she bought the bike with birthday money when it was new, so my dad and I thought it was fitting. Tinkering on it was a lot of fun, so I bought my wife and I some old bikes, then another and another, and well, we all know the rest of the story, now my garage, my attic, my shed are all full of bikes and parts.

 

[pjbjr413]

Like, probably all of us, I rode as a kid for transportation, then got close to 16 and cars and trucks became my obsession. Then a few years ago I dug my mom's '67 Spaceliner out of the attic to restore and surprise her as a birthday gift, she bought the bike with birthday money when it was new, so my dad and I thought it was fitting. Tinkering on it was a lot of fun, so I bought my wife and I some old bikes, then another and another, and well, we all know the rest of the story, now my garage, my attic, my shed are all full of bikes and parts.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

I was the kind of kid who never had much but always loved tinkering with stuff and I we had a 2 car garage at the time so any time I saw a bike thrown out I was always dragging it home and getting it going. Pretty soon I was trading two bikes for one and getting better and better bikes. Since finding this site I have learned more about the vintage / collectable side of bikes and now I am hopelessly addicted. Guess some old habits never die.