Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Evolution of the Bike...

Perhaps inspired by my comment on my post where I mentioned my first bike, my dad came through with some pictures of my first and second bike as well! Dad, I'm so glad you take a lot of pictures, even if I'm not glad until many years down the road :)

My first bike...with training wheels. This was Christmas of 1980, so I was 3...and by the looks of my outfit, a miniature lumberjack. I remember seeing this bike over by the fireplace at my Grandma and Grandpa's house in Brookville.






















And then the summer of '82...without training wheels! This was my era of looking like a boy. I'm 5 here.










And then at some point I got the Huffy. This is June of 83 when I was 6. The Huffy was a hand-me-down from my cousins. I don't know if they got a new bike/bikes or just outgrew this one.















I loved this bike. Marvin and I would ride bikes all the time. And that was what we called it. "What do you want to do?" "I don't know. Wanna ride bikes?" "OK". Up and down the driveway. Occasionally around the house. This picture shows us in the gravel driveway, which allowed for very fun, long skidding. We both look like we barely fit. We did everything we could on our bikes.















And now I ride this.


















And it takes special shoes, and goes much faster, and now I wear a helmet. :) But, I have realized while on the group rides I've been doing, the thrills and simple joy I got from "riding bikes" with Marvin as a kid still happens when I'm on my fancy LeMond. Maybe this is one of the reasons I love riding so much.

3 comments:

Casey said...

Awesome photos.

I am still not able to find a good photo of the blue bike I'm thinking of, but it was very similar to yours. And I am almost 100% sure it had the distinctive blue and white schwinn bike seat. When I was 6 or 7 I got a black Huffy, with the great big "banana seat", fat knobby tires with fenders, and a number plate like Marvin's. OH OH OH!!!!
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb85/davepack/huffy.jpg I think that's it! It's the boy version of your bike I think, but I would have been jealous of your awesome flag!

Steph said...

Oh that black huffy pic is awesome. Did you ever pull people behind you hanging on to that bar while on roller skates or a skateboard? We did :) I also took a jump rope and tied the radio flyer red wagon to the back of it to haul stuff around. So fun.
That flag... I'm not so sure why I had it...never rode on the road.

Butch said...

Teh flag was so we could see you over the corn if you were up the long driveway. I also think it was on one of the gas powered scooters and maybe the pink go-kart.