What triggered your bicycle revival?

[sleepy]

Ah, another Buick man... I own an all original '73 GS but in recent months I find myself spending much more time here rather than my old haunt, V8Buick.com.

 

[B607]

I was a bike nut from the time I was 5 until I got my drivers license. I worked on my bikes and modified them and also kept many of the neighborhood bikes going. Had a paper route and my bike was a big part of that. My big thing was Bendix 2 speed kickbacks and I could take them apart and fix them when you could still get parts at the Schwinn dealer. The mechanic at our Schwinn dealer taught me a lot about them. After I got my license in '70, I pretty much walked away from my bikes. Around '85, I was hunting around a junk shop called "Junkie Joe's" in Cayuga, IN with my dad. Found a loose yellow band Bendix 2 speed laying outside in the mud. I bought it for $1. Got it working but didn't have a bike to put it on. Found a guy in Springfield that had old bikes and he sold me a Schwinn Jaguar (missing all the goodies) for $30. I then had to buy spokes and learn to lace a wheel. One thing led to another and I ended up with 7 or 8 fixed up Schwinns. I live in the country with lousy skinny gravel roads so don't ride as much as I'd like. We usually go to Wolf Cr. State Park and ride the nice blacktop roads when we can. Gary

 

[1918 Ranger]

This is a great thread. Really get to know a bit about you guys and place age and background with you.

I'm 39 now and things began for me 15 years ago. I was mid 20s. My aunt had this 68 Columbia Rosdster that she had kept in her garage.

At that time mountain bikes were the rave and multispeeds. This thing was a coaster brake and I thought would I want this. To be nice we took it and put it under my moms deck where it sat 13 years. 2 years ago my family and I needed one more bike so everyone would have a ride at Tybee Island GA for vacation.

Side note; we've been to Tybee for our last 10 or so vacations in a row there over the last 6 years. It is the best bike riding city in America. The roads are geared for bikes. Great place.

Over the last 3-4 years my wife's family has joined is and now we bring 22 to 25 of us each trip. The need for more bikes grew fast so I remembered that old Columbia under moms deck.

I drug it out and 13 years of moist air wasn't good. The chrome had surface rust, tires were shot but it felt promising. I steel wooled the chrome and was amazed. Went to an local bike shop and asked for 1-3/8 tires which they had no vintage knowledge and gave me a 1.50 decimal size and said that should work. You and I know it won't. After a half hour I took wheel and tire back and said ill pay you to install this bit u can. They couldn't so my first experience on vintage tires had begun.

After getting rideable I absolutely loved the single coaster. I was hooked. I then found its female sister bike on e bay and the more I saw the more I bought. I've evolved a bit over the last 2,5 years I first thought 60s - 70s were old and soon learned that wasn't the case. My interest now are prewar to late 50s. What a hobby!!! Made some good friends along the way too.


1918 Ranger

 

[Bigcam59]

I was always into bicycles, ever since riding my first two wheeler. It was my sister's cruiser, painted housepaint green, and it was so big I couldn't pedal and sit at the same time, so i'd pedal a bit, then hop up onto the seat. This was in the early 60's, and our bikes were usually bought from the local rummage sales for a whopping $5. I worked my way up to road bikes, and then my interest waned a bit when I got my license. I never really lost my interest, though.I still built bikes from junk, and that eventually led to a job building bikes for local department stores. Fast forward to 1984, and I began to hear about this new type of bike called a "mountain bike". I picked up a cheap department store model and thrashed it to death, having a ton of fun in the process. I continued with mountain biking, and one day I found an old cruiser in the trash, complete with bent wheels and splattered with housepaint from past garage projects. I gave it a home and built a pair of wheels for it. That bike was "Ole Faithful"...

I realized how much I like building and riding,and bikes are cheaper than hot rods. Old faithful is still in my stable.

and the rest is history.
PS Sorry if it was a bit long-winded. Most folks know not to get me started when it comes to bikes! :lol:

 

[kngtmat]

I rode bikes off & on every time I moved many places here in FL but mainly in the middle & on the east coast from Jacksonville to West Palm.

The last two bikes I got brand new was some BMX from whatever company with a white frame & wheel discs in 88 or 89 then in 1993 a mountain bike with yellow front shocks from the Ocala Woolworths, by what company I don't know but I saw a Murray with the same colored shocks.

I moved from Ocala to a few spots between there & Winter Haven which one place was Sanford FL I used to walk to a used car dealer in 1995 who gave me my 1994 Murray Monterey for free, after living in motel rooms from 1995 to 2000/01 when I finally got into an apartment I put my Monterey in the back that was between the apartment & someone's side yard fence until around 4 months before joining RRB I thought I should make a bicycle version of Christine so now here I am.

 

[Vonpotter]

Was big into bikes as a kid,then like most guys I got out of it when I got a car.

Few years ago, some dumb girl dumped me, and I started hanging out with some genuine RRB'ers and got back into it to keep my head on straight. Now I have more bikes than my fiancee likes to admit, I work at a LBS, started my own bike club, and have started making my own accessories and parts during my free time :mrgreen:

All in all, good things

 

[Lowlife Lucas]

I had rode bike forever, then when I was about 16 or 17 I decided that a bike from the local Wal-Mart wasn't cool anymore. After that, I started looking at chopper bikes on the web and got just any regular 20 inch bike, and built my first chopper bike. They were mostly all custom after that, unless it was a bmx bike. I turned 20 and just kind of got out of bikes, like most guys I got into vehicles. I completely dropped bikes up until a few months ago, and I'm 22 now, but I missed riding and I had been wanting a stretched cruiser. So, I done some homework on how to do one without any cutting or welding, figured out what and how I needed to do and that's how my Centrix Earthscraper came along.

 

[detroiter60]

Having children,My oldest daughter learned to ride a 2 wheeler back in '94 (age 4) I needed a bike to ride with her and that started me looking in bikeshop windows again.I hadnt done that since 5th grade when the Grey Ghost was new and the Varsity bug bit me.I saw a black '95 Classic Cruiser at my lbs and was hooked,still have it but its no longer my favorite.

 

[RichL]

I am in my 50's and I have always ridden bikes, though unlike many here, they were not art, or a form of expression for me, just a great way to tour around and get some great exercise. Last year I ran into some pics of some cool recumbent bicycles, did some searching than ran into the Atomic Zombie site. Played around with some metal, welded some stuff, bend some stuff, studied about all the components and different techniques for doing different things. In the process, I started to see all these cool bikes others were riding and building. That seemed to set a spark off inside of me... I wanted to do that too!
Than in December, before Christmas decided to do one and get it done this time, no more fooling around. It's fun, alittle bit slow getting everything going, making mistakes, finding better ways to do things, but I'm having a blast learning, than sharing the things I am doing... hopefully that will spark something in someone else like it did for me, and they'll try it too.
Very affordable hobby, I get much of the same joy and excitement I did when I used to build hotrods in the 70's and 80's, and it's a ton cheaper ;D

Rich

 

[RichL]

So, I done some homework on how to do one without any cutting or welding, figured out what and how I needed to do and that's how my Centrix Earthscraper came along.

That's a very impressive bike, especially for no welding , when you do decide to take the plunge, wleding and cutting do open more options for creativity.... but your doing just fine now

Rich

 

[Lowlife Lucas]

So, I done some homework on how to do one without any cutting or welding, figured out what and how I needed to do and that's how my Centrix Earthscraper came along.

That's a very impressive bike, especially for no welding , when you do decide to take the plunge, welding and cutting do open more options for creativity.... but your doing just fine now

Rich

Thanks
I've had a few frames that had to be welded, but my dad has welded them for me. I can do the cutting, that doesn't bother me lol. I've never really sat down and practiced welding, but I know I will for a fact when I get a bender and start doing my own frames 8)

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Practice up on welding Lucas! You wont regret it, a great skill to have!

Now why did I get back into bikes?

Well, kind of always had bikes, usually hand-me-downs from other family members as we didn't have a lot of money, the year or two I rode my sisters old girls bike to school were interesting, after that I would ride myself to the local dump and find bits and pieces to put together my own bikes, usually little 12inch "pit" bikes, did that for a bit, found a bmx, got my dad to build me some long forks to make a chopper, built some saddle bags out of wood...

Come the first year of high school I rode an old lugged 27inch racing bike, (good for out-running the bullies on their bmx's.) Picked up more bmx frames from the dump, started swapping bits with others until I had a pretty flash Diamondback bmx for the school run, by then I had also grown to over 6 feet tall so bullies were not so much of an issue. Soon the freestyle bmx's were getting big so I talked my dad into cutting the top of the seat stays off my old racer and fitting them to the bent out seat stays of the Diamondback, turning it into a freestyle... :mrgreen: Used to ride that old bike 20km (12miles) to work when I got my metalworking apprenticeship.

Eventually got a car and stopped riding so much. Fast forward 10 years or so and I'm fully qualified, won some big awards and earning good money running my own business, but I get a bad illness which is still with me today, cant work anymore... Need something to do to stop me going crazy, fixed up a car, sold it, moved interstate to somewhere we (married by this point) could actually afford to live and now I have taken back to bikes, build when I can, think about how to build when my health wont let me... Still like cars, but they are a huge undertaking compared to bike building... :roll:

Sorry for the long post!

Luke.

 

[yoothgeye]

Sorry for the long post!

Luke.

No problem on the long post Luke, I tend to do the same thing. I've heard you mention your health a couple times, is that something you can share in greater detail? When you're here, you're family.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

No problem on the long post Luke, I tend to do the same thing. I've heard you mention your health a couple times, is that something you can share in greater detail? When you're here, you're family.

Yeah sure, just don't tend to mention it much because I don't want to drag others down, I know just about everyone these days has some illness or allergy or something of their own to deal with...

I have an illness called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Myalgic Encephalomyelitis , leaves me extremely sore, brain-dead and with no energy. If you have ever had a really bad flu virus, where you can barely get out of bed to go to the toilet or anything else because of the pain and lack of energy, you can barely string 2 words together in your head and it feels like you are trying to move though a gelatinous goo with every movement, you have some idea how most days are for me. Some days are worse, some are better.

Luke.

Edit: I hope all this illness talk hasn't killed the thread! Keep posting up what triggered your bicycle revival stories people!

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Just noticed your new tag line: "That's why cycling must become hot in the future. Cheap,clean and sort of healthy (as long as you don't get poked in the eye by a bus). Wimpy"

He posted that up in the Cadillac bike thread! :lol:

Luke.

 

[yoothgeye]

Thanks for sharing.

Yeah, I read what Wimpy wrote and I laughed and kept reading, then went back to it again and laughed, and then again and knew I had to change my signature. :lol:

 

[coopieclan]

I just went on vacation in Florida.
And it hit me...
When I go to Islamorada I ride on the resort bike in the morning.
That was it! Last January I decided to buy some kind of bike and ride more.

I forgot why I bought the bike.

 

[jd56]

56....the body is pushing 66....the mind is still growing the braincells back which were lost during the rebellious years.

Married for 31 yrs and moved to Va Beach.
The better half and I love the beach but all that walking made me want a bike.
Then I saw a guy on the coolest looking Spaceliner. Wow!!!! I had to have one.
I found a 58-59 Ross deluxe middleweight with a working tanklight.....oh I wanted to show it off so bad. So weekly night cruises on the boardwalk became our exercise routine.
Finger pointers and admirers was cool....I always wanted to be noticed...its the insecurities I have I guess.

So looking cool riding on the strip was my revival.
Oh and tanklights!!!!

Not much of a ratrod bike guy but love to restore them now. Soon will get into painting and then....who knows.
Collection of tanklights has now reached about 12.

With this addicted behavior I have there maybe no end to the madness.


JD
Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[cashman]

I grew up in my parents bicycle shop. Worked on bikes from about age 10 on till the box stores finally put us out of the bicycle buisness in 1982. Fast foward to 1995, I moved on to a different job, got married, started a family. One day the director of a local theater group came in my dads shop looking for an old balloon type bike for the opening scene of " The Gifts of the Magji" that they were about to do. I had an old Schwinn still stuffed in the corner of the shop and It was just what he was looking for but wanted it a different color and needed a newspaper basket on it. I hadn't worked on a bike in several years at that point but spent working on it after work till midnight for several days till I got it done. Shortly after that I saw an aticle in USA Today about old bikes and thats when I started fooling around with old bikes again. Have met a lot of other bike nuts like me since! Wish that I could have saved some of those old bikes that I scapped before then. Thanks!!!

 

[RichL]

[quote="yoothgeye"

I have an illness called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Myalgic Encephalomyelitis , leaves me extremely sore, brain-dead and with no energy. If you have ever had a really bad flu virus, where you can barely get out of bed to go to the toilet or anything else because of the pain and lack of energy, you can barely string 2 words together in your head and it feels like you are trying to move though a gelatinous goo with every movement, you have some idea how most days are for me. Some days are worse, some are better.

Luke.

Edit: I hope all this illness talk hasn't killed the thread! Keep posting up what triggered your bicycle revival stories people!

Luke:
Good for you!

Rich