First Ever Steel/Other Bike Owned

[Canuk]

Simple. List your first ever 'quality' steel/other bike purchased. Where from, how much, and do you still have it? What's your virgin steel story? Got photos?

Here's mine: when I was 15 someone my dad knew in the pub with was selling a 'proper bike, ten speeds, plus saddlebag' for £25. My dad gave me the money and fair play, he set me off on my own to buy it ! I was really excited. The bike was three flights up on the top floor of a really rough maisonette, and the guy who answered looked like Faggin and Catweasel all rolled into one. He did not invite me indoors, but rolled the bike out to meet me. With a kind of flourish!

It was a real state, but I could see it was like the old guys bikes in the club, with v fancy Nervex lugs and was probably 531. They taught me how to ping a tube to see if it was butted and low and beholdbThe Flying Scot 245L (1963) was mine (turned out it was part of a pair built for husband and wife, and years later I would meet the 'other half' 244L.) They were unusual in that they had double butted Huret ends with no holes in.

It was painted a horrible rattle can black but the 'The Scot' head badge was still attached. I was made up and offered the guy £20 on the spot which he duly accepted. The other fiver went towards a pair of leather cycling shoes and a pair of leather mitts.This was my main ride, taking me all over England and Northern France till I was 18 years old and could afford a Carlton.

I sold it. Idiot. And every time I see one now with the elegant wrap around seat stays and the weird 5.5mm Allen Key seat bolt, I get very nostalgic. Here's 277N which I later purchased and again, stupidly sold on

 

[Canuk]

Frame details (not 245L) but similar. From research I discovered that the pair 244/245L were built for Mr And Mrs Lenaghan from Clarkston, Glasgow. Mr Lenaghan worked for BNF and got a free transfer to the now renamed Sellafield nuclear processing plant.

It is not recorded what he thought of this promotion, or how he adapted to life in Northern England.

 

[highlandsflyer]

Wow! That is some first bike.

Mine would be a Falcon racer, which I did pay something towards. Might be some photos in my boxes but I haven't seen them.

 

[Canuk]

Frame details (not mine but same 1963 vintage) Basically, as far as I can see Rattrays brought continental frame quality and details to Scotland in the 1960's when it was still in the dark ages

 

[RobLoasby]

First proper bike cost me nothing, as it had been festering in my dad’s shed since my older brother lost interest in riding. A 1960 Sheffield Langsett with 10-speed Campag Gran Sport 54/48 chainset and gears, Mafac brakes, Lyotard pedals, Brooks saddle, and Campag hubs/Mavic rim sprints. It was originally lilac, but my brother insisted on it being resprayed green as it was “less of a girly colour”.

Took many hours of cleaning, lubricating, and fettling before it was roadworthy, but it then got used for racing and ferrying me to and from school from 1970 onwards. Schoolboy circuit racing was a pain as I could only use three gears to keep to the gear restrictions, but TT racing was a bit easier.

Fifty years on, the frame is still in the family and I keep thinking of rebuilding it one day…

 

[Canuk]

You should definitely resurrect it. You'll feel the benefit!

 

[hamster]

Viking Vision from (IIRC) 1978, 27" wheels, blue/purple frame in 531. I can't remember much more, I liked it but not enough to not sell it to a pal after a year or so, sometime over 25 years ago.

 

[Jonny69]

I had a steel Raleigh junior racer in the 1980s but got back into cycling in the early 00s when I picked up an early 90s Raleigh Strada in Reynolds 531. I guess my first taste of a quality frame was in the late 00s (?) when I bought an early 70s Bob Jackson from Old Ned on here. Rode the wheels off it for years until it finally succumbed to the potholes around here and the downtube fatigued through.

 

[jim haseltine]

My first full-size bike was my father's then almost forgotten Raleigh (a Super Sport as I learned in the last year or so) which I dragged out of our shed in my early teens and used for riding to school as it meant I avoided using a combination of 2 or sometimes 3 bus journeys in each direction. After a short while using that and with the encouragement of a couple of friends I bought a Claud Butler frame (an Electron I think) and built it up with Suntour gears and Mafac centre pulls. The Butler was later demoted to a fixed wheel hack until dying after an incident involving too much alcohol and a parked car while the Raleigh returned to my father's use when he started cycling again. The FW from the Raleigh is in a wheel on a Carlton in his garage and it's possible that the Dynohub is still knocking around in there too. Disappointingly, it seems that the frame was most likely scrapped sometime around the turn of the century although I'd not be surprised to find it hidden behind some of the stuff I've yet to move in the garage.

 

[highlandsflyer]

Frame details (not mine but same 1963 vintage) Basically, as far as I can see Rattrays brought continental frame quality and details to Scotland in the 1960's when it was still in the dark ages

Pretty sure we invented the continent; along with everything else.