ya know "all things possible..," when --

[ron l edmiston]

owner of the mustang ranch in nevada, just elected to public office & tammy gets a call from daughter of the folks living
down the road a piece, next farm over, from my boyhood farm days, say'n "just found a ole schwin in the barn hayloft & believe it was ronnie's.."
yep sure enough was/is, but gota remember how she (bike) got in the hayloft before i lay claim to fame..

any of my fellow velo's have their first bike or oldest bike from their past --- what marque and how did you come by it or save/salvage??

happy day of thanks to all with a smile,

ronnie

[Too Tall]

Good story.
No, however I do still have the Raleigh Tourist that mom purchased in approx. 1960 and rode to work everyday for 20 yrs.

[WayneJ]

but gota remember how she (bike) got in the hayloft before i lay claim to fame..

Was the loft an option (with appropriate upcharge) at the Mustang Ranch?

Two bikes I miss everyday:

One Italian bike some guy gave to my father (for me, once I got a bit taller). He searched everywhere for tires and found none. I recall they were in the 22" diameter range (metric equivalent). I don't remember the brand, but I remember it was very light and silver in color. It went to the scrapyard eventually, because that's what my Dad did with things that seemed to have no use or value.

The same end result for my old Schwinn. This was one of those oldies with the double top tube (top one was curved), beautiful fillet brazed joints and the Ashtabula fork. It had this forged stem (we called them goosenecks, cause that's what they looked like) with handlebars that swept into a large letter U putting the grips pointing straight back atcha. The bike was a wreck when I found it (in the scrap pile at the dump), but I scraped the frame down with a jack knife, sanded it bare and did one heck of a nice job with a medium blue rattle can to make it shine. I rebuilt the wheels, which was my first experience building wheels, and the rear hub was a Bendix with the circumferential groove painted red. It was reputed to have the smoothest braking action in the world of coaster brakes. I rode that bike everywhere, mostly doing a wheelie or riding while facing backwards with my butt fitting within that lovely curve of the bars. That bike fell victim to one of my Dad's cleanups while I was away serving the country. I miss that one the most and it would be really cool to see it again - who knows ... maybe someone grabbed it from the scrap pile and it's still out there - maybe in a hay loft.

[davids]

Funny, I was talking about my first racing bike just a few days ago.

I needed some info from a colleague a couple of floors away and wandered up to her office. I found her, with her assistant, in a meeting room near her office. Leaning against the wall was an ancient black & red Motobecane Super Mirage. Her assistant had just picked it up as a commuter, and radiated pride of ownership.

I told him mine was blue on blue, but otherwise identical. My grandfather bought it for me in the summer of '75, and it was stolen off my Ann Arbor porch in the summer of '80.

[big shanty]

My first bike was a blue banana seater. My mom taught me to ride it. When I was about 9 or so my dad took me to the old Watts Bros. shop in Kane, PA and I picked out a lime green Dyno freestyle bike. 25 or or so years later (couple of summers ago) they sold the house and hired a couple of neighborhood kids to haul some small items out of the house and throw in the dumpster. Apparently one of the kids saw the old 80s Dyno (w/ royal blue California Lites) and nearly shit himself. My dad gave it to him, made his year. Thinking of some ~12 year old kid patrolling the streets and woods of Kane on my old bike makes me extremely happy.

[Mabouya]

My first bike was Made in England - I remember that for sure, because it said that on the HT badge, but I'm not as certain on the brand. Might have been a Raleigh, and it was definitely red and white. I also remember that it had rod brakes. I was surprised the first time I saw a bike with cable-actuated brakes - they seemed so wimpy compared to mine.

I can also remember my tricycle - it was blue. Gosh, I must really have been a little kid when I was riding that. It had a set screw that pressed against the "seatpost" and I can remember fiddling around with that to adjust the seat height. No KOPS with that thing...