Cycling Weekly — January 11, 2018

We asked you...

THE BIG QUESTION

What was your first bike, and what was

your most exciting adventure on it?

My first proper bike was a five-gear

Raleigh Olympus when I was 11 years

old. I once cycled from Tooting, where

I lived, to Three Bridges near Crawley

and back, but I would get out of London

nearly every weekend and enjoy the

countryside. Now, 44 years later, I’m

still cycling.

Mark Hancock

My Raleigh Budgie. I jumped it off a

two-brick ramp off a kerb and the head

tube snapped off... styled it out and hid it

in the shed.

Jon White

Black Raleigh Record Ace 501 aero

tubing. Went everywhere in the Peak

District, I’d ride it now if it could handle

modern gears and wheels. The ride

I remember most was with my dad.

His crank snapped about 15 miles

from home, in the days before mobile

phones. Luckily we found some packing

rope in a hedgerow and used it to tow

him home.

Piotr Kinjou Prow

An Elswick Hopper Lincoln Imp and I

promptly rode off to my grandmother’s,

some 151 miles away, equipped with a

few sandwiches and a bottle of water in

my school satchel. This summer I bought

a vintage bike — an Elswick Hopper

Lincoln Imp. Nostalgia lives!

Steve Watt

Raleigh King Cobra. Biggest adventure:

going down a massive hill aged nine,

getting a speed wobble, skidding on the

tarmac on my face, lodging my front

tooth in the road and scaring the life

out of my dad who was right behind me

screaming, “Brakes, Jess, brakes!”

Jess Anderson

Gold-coloured folding bicycle from

Woolworths. Not sure it was an

adventurer but my most abiding memory

was ending up in a ditch after swerving

from a close pass by a bus and two

lads from the bus seeing it happen and

coming to rescue me and walking me

home. That was nearly 40 years ago and

we are still friends.

Nadia Lewis

First bike I can remember was a red

BMX rip-off called a Mustang. My most

exciting adventure was trying to get the

two miles home as a 10-year-old after I

sheared off the front caliper, flipped over

the handlebars, broke my collarbone and

a rib and lost the skin off my back as I

tried to pull a stoppie going downhill.

Michael McEwan

Next week’s big question...

Where and when was the coldest you

have ever been on a bike ride?

Reply to us at cycling @timeinc.com or at

http://www.facebook.com/CyclingWeekly

A 1996 Saracen Tufftrax in neon purple

when I was 11 years old — my first

adult-sized bike. I remember getting

the ferry to the Isle of Wight and battling

gale-force winds on the way back

down to the Needles to catch the

last ferry back. I was so cold I couldn’t

hold the hot chocolate in the cafe

on the boat!

Matt Whiting

Raleigh Tomahawk. It’s 1979 and the

other kids may have had Grifters or

Choppers but I still had a Raleigh!

Thanks, Mum and Dad.

Tim Nicholls

You never forget

your first bike

Photo: Tim Gainey / Alamy Stock Photo

18 | January 11, 2018 | Cycling Weekly