In this week’s instalment of over to you we are asking you to cast your mind way back to your very first bicycle.
For me, the lead image of the article explains my first bike… okay, trike. Sold as the Little Lamb, it came from Nottingham’s finest bicycle brand Raleigh. I’m not sure where my parents got this thing, but I’m sure it was far, far older than me.
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Its simple tin plate construction shrugged off abuse, while its three-wheeled format taught me the basics of balance far before the days of dedicated balance bikes — it turns out that a high, three-wheeled chassis will lift a wheel and then tip rather quickly!
Solid tyres and direct, front-wheel drive taught me the fundamentals of grip and the importance of pedaling smoothly (even in wellies). After a long and faithful service I graduated to something with larger wheels, the Little Lamb was then passed on to my sister.
The Little Lamb can’t take all the glory though, as one Christmas morning I woke to find a 5-speed Raleigh Max in my bedroom. Santa probably didn’t know it, but he’d delivered much more than a bicycle that morning. Instead, he’d also kicked off the start of a long and expensive obsession with bicycles that has carved my career and social life ever since.
I still remember its metallic green paint, twisting the gripshift like a throttle and my incredible talent for filling its tyre treads with dog poo.
That’s enough about me, now’s the time to share tales of your first bike, and you can do that below in our comment section— bonus points for any pictures!
