Amos Hames 2
Dedicated Member
What was your first Bycycle. Mine was a Raleigh Budgie
Mine was a Dawes too, in sky blue and mine was second hand also. Do they still make bikes?I think it was a Dawes. It was second hand and repainted. It wasn't anything special.
When I was a tot, my parents bought me an Irish Mail. It was a three wheeler where you sat on a box between the rear wheels, pumped a T-handle that came up between your thighs and steered the front wheel with your feet. It seemed that no one had heard of such a thing. People from work followed my Father home to watch me ride it around the cellar for a couple of minutes. It made a lot of people smile. Although it was probably commonplace in the UK, I never saw another one in the US.Mine look something like this
Would be worth a lot more money now than what you paid for it Marianna.It probably was a Schwinn, since that was the standard brand in 1951.
It was a 7th birthday gift. I rode it until I grew too tall for the frame. Then my parents sold it to a younger, shorter neighbor, and acquired my taller cousin's well-used bike for me to ride.Would be worth a lot more money now than what you paid for it Marianna.
Was is rideable?Mine was a clapped out piece of rubbish they bought for a couple of bucks from the kid that mowed our lawn. I had to start somewhere I guess?
I made a Frankenstein once. I was my Father's old Iver Johnson bicycle which featured 26" wheels, a two speed hub and coaster brake. It weighed a ton, I think it was made of pipe rather than tubing. I put on ape hangers, a sissy bar with banana seat and fork extension tubes. It looked like an easy rider chopper (not a Raleigh Chopper). It was really cool, but it was a bear to ride it up hill because you couldn't stand on the pedals.I remember my little 3 wheeler with a tin box on the back that I used to ride down the footpaths to the bakers when I was about 4.
I never had a new bike ever. I always got a refurbished one of my Grandad, usually a Raleigh with racing handles. Then I progressed to making my own Frankenstein models and putting ape hangers or really wide cow horns on them. Sometimes I had to cut them down by a few inches as they were ridiculously wide and s bit of a danger on the road.
They were known as 'spokey dokeys' when I was young, by that time they'd evolved to plastic beads which which slotted over the spokes. They'd then make a hell of a racket as they dropped as I rode my bike thinking I was the coolest person around…. Don’t forget pegging a bit of card or a lolly stick so it struck the spokes when the wheel went round to make the noise of a motorbike![]()