[ebonho]

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

My first tryst with cycle was my Dad's 1965 Raleigh, guess it was Robinhood model. As someone said above I learnt riding it by monkey pedalling. My cousin, who was working in Tata Motors in the early 80's used to visit us on his BSA SLR & offer my Cadbury Dairy Milk. That combo of BSA SLR ride with Dairy Milk mouth was simply heaven.

After 10th Std. I used to ride my Dad's 1965 Raleigh from home to Akurdi Station, park the black elephant there and take the local train to Pune Station. On the return journey in the evening pick up my Dad's black elephant after off-boarding the train and get back home. This to-&-fro 6km journey continued for 6 years.

After getting my first job in Bajaj Auto in 1998, I would ride to the company on the black elephant, but only for about a month, because after I got my first salary in hand the black elephant was replaced with a sleek, red-silver BSA Mach-1. The love affair with this continued for another 11 months because after completing one year in the company I could get an interest free loan to purchase the then recently launched Bajaj Caliber and suddenly my cycling interest died down there in 1999, when I got the Caliber.

After almost 20 years, in 2018, my cycling interest was re-kindled by one of my close friends and I got myself the Marin Fairfax SC1, which I am enjoying since last 3 years.

This 15 to 20 year hiatus as we build a family and career (and get fat and unfit) is true for most of us. I can so relate with it.

I got my Raleigh roadster when I was 10. This was the original Raleigh. With the beautiful classic heron metal head badge. Not the current Suncross taken over and resurrected ones.

Then my next bike was my Hercules Top Gear MTB when I was 29. But I barely rode it till I started again in 2016 at 46.

Then came my ACT 110 at 47.

And my CAAD8 a year later.

Cheers, Doc

[bblost]

Originally Posted by ebonho

That's really surprising. All the WFH guys are racking up huge miles here, since their timings and meetings are so flexible.

Commuter cyclist, not a hobby cyclist.

Home office distance is 18 kilometres one way. Which made it the perfect choice for cycling.

With no office to go to, cycling ain't happening.

I have never really been interested in cycling just as a means to itself.

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by bblost

Commuter cyclist, not a hobby cyclist.

Home office distance is 18 kilometres one way. Which made it the perfect choice for cycling.

With no office to go to, cycling ain't happening.

I have never really been interested in cycling just as a means to itself.

So how have you compensated for this absence of activity these past 2 years? Nearly 40 km everyday is quite serious volume, even for many recreational or fitness cyclists. Including me, many months.

[NirmalK]

My first bicycle happened to be a BSA Trailblazer. I got it as a gift from my dad for passing my 10th class. It had a unique body design at that time. Loved it to bits and rode it everywhere, even to my friends who lived next door

[MANE]

I am on the very younger side of the age group. My first bicycle was a Hercules Reflex in a Blue Black color, bought around in 2012-13 when I was around 10-11 years old. Used it for almost 6-7 years and sold it in 2019 for a preowned Hercules Roadeo Hank which I am using for leisure rides.
Have a lot of memories of school day racing and falling of the bicycle with this beast.

[KVNair]

I had my first junior cycle somewhere in 1987 or 1988. I still remember the day I went along with my father to buy my first cycle. We went in my father's company-owned brown ambassador car and reached the cycle shop. For the budget, they showed us two models. One a red Avon with a slanting bar at the front, and another a blue Avon with a straight connecting bar between the handle and seat. I loved the blue one and still can visualise it standing there in the shop. However, my father thought the red one was better, and bought that cycle for me. I used it go to school from grade 1 to grade 6.

When kids started to mock me for riding a junior cycle in grade 6, I fought at home to get a new one. Finally, I got a new shiny black and yellow Street Cat!

I just loved that cycle - Street Cat. I used it for a couple of years after which it was sold when I started using the school bus instead of cycling to school. Later, in my high school, I had a black and orange Hero Ranger ATB. I think it was also called a tribe ranger. I got a yellow coloured t-shirt and a black headscarf free with it.

In engineering first year, I had a BSA SLR and later a Mach 3 for few months before moving on to scooters and motor cycles. Absolutely, remember each cycle that I had, but that first red Avon junior is special in my memory. It is funny that I still feel I should have been given the blue one though

[papr23]

I used to ride a Hero Ranger bought sometime between 1994-1995 for ₹1500. Neat and clean design but no shock absorbers. I really used to envy Rockshox. It had cool looking curved bar ends.

This is my kids first bicycle. It's called a Balance bicycle. She's been riding it or rather pushing it since she is 2 years old. She goes weeeeeee on it!

[sunikkat]

Mine was BSA SLR in 1994, though I wanted Street cat or Hero Ranger. BSA SLR was considered as how Toyota Innova is these days, epitome of reliability 😀.
My first modification was the reflectors in the wheel and that plastic brush like colourful thing covering the wheel hubs

[sreejithkk]

I had Hero Impact citybike bought in 1992 for Rs 1300 and used it till year 2000. It was good bike, an alternative option for those who look for BSA SLR. However by 1994, hercules changed the game with their MTB series and it was MTBs everywhere. So my hero impact was a rare bike with in 3 years

[ronford]

I had a BMX bike back in late 90's. I loved it so much. All my friends learnt cycling with support wheels and had ladies cycles but not me. The first day itself I fell down and got a mark on the seat but hell to it, I used it so much and used to do all kinds of stunts.

[anandavinash]

What a interesting thread! I'm an 80s kid who grew up in Mumbai. My first memory of a cycle was 'Tobu' cycles for kids. Learnt how to ride on two wheels on a BSA Champ that my cousin in Bengaluru owned. I may have been 6-7 years old.

In 1996, when I was 13 years old, I was promised a new cycle if my scores in the final exam were above a certain number. By some amount of hard work and luck, I did manage to exceed the set number and was gifted a BSA Photon. This was without gears but a nice light cycle that came with thin roadster like tyres.

Used it for a good 7 years with many runs to afternoon tennis coaching, visiting friends and Kirana store runs for my Mum. Never really got hooked on to the cycling trend after that although a couple of my close friends have been avid bikers in the recent past.

[drive_angry]

Originally Posted by ebonho

This 15 to 20 year hiatus as we build a family and career (and get fat and unfit) is true for most of us. I can so relate with it.

I got my Raleigh roadster when I was 10. This was the original Raleigh. With the beautiful classic heron metal head badge. Not the current Suncross taken over and resurrected ones.

Then my next bike was my Hercules Top Gear MTB when I was 29. But I barely rode it till I started again in 2016 at 46.

Then came my ACT 110 at 47.

And my CAAD8 a year later.

Cheers, Doc

Mine too. My first bike was Top gear. I still remember that hideous plastic rear derailleur protector. The gears were from sis-shimano, I guess. I was first one to get in my school so much so, that it got stolen on one fine day.

I moved to Ranger Swing shortly after, which had spring in its frame then moved to mainstream hybird bikes thereafter.

[bblost]

Originally Posted by ebonho

So how have you compensated for this absence of activity these past 2 years? Nearly 40 km everyday is quite serious volume, even for many recreational or fitness cyclists. Including me, many months.

Not Everyday!!!!!


At my highest levels I was able to manage around 3 days out of 5 days in a work week.
This got me to the lowest body weight of around 90 kilos in 2016.

Then this road started becoming very busy and while that is also acceptable they built multiple speed breakers.
So there was no way I could carry my speed across the route.
It caused a significant drop in my speed.
From an average of 45 mins, it started hitting an hour and then almost 70 minutes.
So I had started reducing the cycling days down to 2 and then settled for 1.

Then the lockdown crashed even that.

For fitness I have started relying more and more on my very well maintained gym in the apartment complex.

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by bblost

Not Everyday!!!!!


At my highest levels I was able to manage around 3 days out of 5 days in a work week.
This got me to the lowest body weight of around 90 kilos in 2016.

Then this road started becoming very busy and while that is also acceptable they built multiple speed breakers.
So there was no way I could carry my speed across the route.
It caused a significant drop in my speed.
From an average of 45 mins, it started hitting an hour and then almost 70 minutes.
So I had started reducing the cycling days down to 2 and then settled for 1.

Then the lockdown crashed even that.

For fitness I have started relying more and more on my very well maintained gym in the apartment complex.

I was looking at your Strava bro.

You are still just 1000 km behind me this year, and 4000 overall

You're a busy cyclist, doesn't matter whether you think you've "bought into" it or not.

Originally Posted by drive_angry

Mine too. My first bike was Top gear. I still remember that hideous plastic rear derailleur protector. The gears were from sis-shimano, I guess. I was first one to get in my school so much so, that it got stolen on one fine day.

I moved to Ranger Swing shortly after, which had spring in its frame then moved to mainstream hybird bikes thereafter.

Mine isn't that. Mine is a limited series lot made specifically by TI for tge National games. Special shifters, derailleurs and MegaRange (chrome, unlike the newer black) freewheel. Bought it in 1999 for 3500 bucks. Beautiful metallic green. Best rolling hubs in all my bikes.

[sukhbirST]

Originally Posted by tilt

Heheheheh My first "adult" bicycle was given to me in the early 70s (I was born in the very very early 60s).

In those days we used to do what's called "monkey-pedal" to ride bikes that were too tall for us. Oldies here might probably remember this. This involvedriding the bike standing on the Left pedal with the Right leg going through the diamond-frame to be able to put the Right foot on the Right pedal and then pedal that way.

It was one that belonged to my grandfather. It was a 1940s Raleigh "sports" bike from England. Made of steel (but felt like cast-iron - it was so bloody heavy) with no gears.

I promptly removed the chain guard, the mud-guards, turned the handlebar upside down to get a more crouched riding position; and at one point even removed the brakes (yes, both of them) and used my footwear directly on the rear-tyre (just like Fred Flintstone LOL) to brake instead. I think I may have been dropped on my head as a baby.

I also bought a 60-tooth crank because I wanted to go faster while pedalling slower (the bike came with a 48-toothed crank); but that resulted in the "pick-up" being so difficult and heavy that I nixxed it after a long time and went back to the 48. I knew nothing about torque or gearing in those days heheheheh.

The bike looked like the following picture.



Cheers

Thanks for reminding me of those days in Bangalore.
Born in mid 60s and studied in early 70s in Bangalore, when front light used to be checked by police after sunset.
Raleigh had its own charm and was very sturdy.