I call them bikes
My very first bike was a small, red Schwinn with training wheels.
A few years later I got my first "big boy" bike - a ten-speed from Sears. It was blue and purple. Actually, it was a solid color (blue) and had stickers with faux paint effects on it so it looked like it had a cool paint job. It took me a while to ride this bike as it was much bigger than the first one.
Trek
In 1982, I requested a proper bike for Christmas. It was a silver blue Trek 412.
My parents were all like, "Sure. We'll buy you that bike, but because it's more than we'd normally pay for a single present, you have to raise some money as well". The total price was about 380$ which meant that I did odd jobs and chores for about four months before Christmas. It was crazy and I spent a lot time counting the dollars I had made and looking at the catalog and counting the days until Christmas day.
On Christmas day we went to my grandmother's house and I took the bike with me where we had unseasonably warm weather. I spent a lot of time riding my bike around. Good times.
I spent the next six or seven years riding that bike full time. Whenever I had money I upgraded parts of it and it looked pretty cool. I did some club rides and attempted some racing (my fatal flaw: I don't like going super fast downhill).
I still have this Trek. It lives at my parent's house and has a little rust on the bottom bracket.
Trivia: I spent a lot of time looking at the catalog before I got the bike. In the catalog was this lifestyle shot:
I knew that if I could get this bike, then I would be able to talk up the cute Elisabeth Shue-esque girls at the tennis courts. I also could grow a mustache
Trivia part II: I mean, I adored my bike, but what you really wanted was the 900-series models. Twenty+ years later, those bikes still look hot.
Trivia part III: I had a few minor scrapes and crashes with it, but my best wreck was when a friend "t-boned" me (i.e. made a right hand turn into me). It was awesome. We crashed all crazy style and then I had to ride home with handlebar tape flailing in the wind and blood dripping down my arms and legs. It must have been quite a scene.
Trivia part IV: If you were in the Blue Ridge Mountains in the 1980's, I was the dorky kid with the black Campagnolo cap and the supremely sweet Renault-Elf jersey.
Trivia part IV: If you were in the Blue Ridge Mountains in the 1980's, I was the dorky kid with the black Campagnolo cap and the supremely sweet Renault-Elf jersey.
