First Ever Steel/Other Bike Owned

[Mike Muz]

Mine. Well it's the same as. A Peugeot Optima 531 tubed, RX100 shod bike. It broke. I saw the one below on eBay, identical apart from the wheels , so I had to buy and restore it. Pictured here outside the shop that I bought the original from. Now changed hands.

 

[N-plus-one]

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

there's a strong argument to support this, as an unintended consequence post act of Union was that the Scottish intelligentsia (whose looked down at political expediency) devoted themselves to the renaissance and enlightenment. During these periods, they did pretty much invent nearly everything (but lost the financial benefits because Whitehall "relieved them of that burden"). Funny old world, how the focus shifts!

 

[Old Ned]

After buying a Raleigh from guy in the local club (it was OK but nothing special, at least it got me started) I persuaded my Dad to 'lend' me the cash to buy a Viking Grand Tour from the local shop (Bill Hughes Cycles in Wrexham). It was in a lovely red flamboyant with black head tube and seat tube panel. Fitted with a a pair of Harden/Conloy sprints and a pair of heavy Michelin tubulars, Benelux rear mech, mismatched brakes and a (very!) cheap 'Swallow' saddle it got me into club membership (Wrexham Wheelers) in 1961 aged 14. I rode it in my first race, a club 25, in June that year and a week later I punctured one of the tubulars and had to 'retire' for a while until it got mended and I had saved up for a new one. Eventually I sold the frame to a school friend so I could buy a James Fothergill frame from a lad in the village who had also joined the club and had bought a new Eddie Soens - which I ultimately also acquired when he decided cycling was to hard and interfered with girls and beer. The rest is history.................