Bike History

Hmmm, let's see...

Raleigh Charger BMX - like a Burner but white, with black and red grips, and black plastic 'mag' wheels.
Emmelle Cougar MTB - awful, awful thing. Made of scaffolding and lead pipe. Ten non-indexed shift-by-ear gears. Had it for five years.
Raleigh Max Ogre - again heavier than a small moon, but completely indestructible. 15 - count 'em! - gripshift gears. Rode it all over Devon and Somerset, then took it to university where some scumbag bent its wheels while it was locked up and then someone scavenged it for parts.
Ancient road bike. It was red and had downtube shifters.
Cheapo rigid yellow BSO, used almost exclusively for bombing along the canal path to the pub and back.
[wilderness years]
Scott Sportster hybridy MTB - Gears that worked! Front suspension! Disc brakes! Still have it, may yet convert to a rigid MTB with carbon forks and hydraulic brakes.
GT Palomar - another yellow MTB that weighs a million tons. Used mostly for night raids through the forest. Currently dismantled and in need of new chain/cassette/chainwheels. If anyone wants it, it'd be cheap...
CAAD8 - wonderful wonderful bike. Commuted, trained, should have been on the London 100 but was killed by the accident that smashed my wrist. Sadly missed.
Boardman CX Team - commuting, splashing around the forest, alleged training.

And then there's The N+1 - don't tell the wife but sooner or later I will have to replace the CAAD8. The lightness and speed was amazing; the CX doesn't quite replace it. Current favourite is a 2014 Synapse carbon (or maybe a CAAD10).

Nostalgia Alert

1) a blue and yellow thing with solid rubber tyres and a removable crossbar

2) a yellow Raleigh something or other, probably inherited

3) Raleigh Burner BMX

4) Ridgeback MTB - one of the first ones. Early Adopter, me. My Dad still has it but mice chewed the saddle to bits.

5) Fisher Hoo-Koo-E-Koo MTB - green with U brakes -sold for...

6) Bridgestone MB3 - MTB, purple metallic, lovely butted Ritchey logic frame and a Girvin Flexstem- NICKED

7) Bridgestone MB3 - MTB, red metallic, not so nice Ritchey frame which eventually cracked - cannibalised for #9

8) GT BMX - can't remember the model but it was my brief adult return to BMX

9) Orange C16 - green with Rockshox forks - first suspension bike - sold

10) Orange Evo - Manitou forks Polished finish, first bike with disc brakes - cannibalised for...

11) Orange Sub5 - Black, with Fox forx -still going strong

12) Planet X Kaffenback - cannibalised for...

13) Kinesis T2 - cannibalised for...

14) Kinesis Crosslight Pro5 (being upgraded to Pro6)

15) Project X - WIP

TBC....

Yay, fun thread!

1) a tiny Raleigh with green speckled paint and stabilizers.
I loved this bike.

2) a blue flat pack BSO "mtb"
I bust my chin open thanks to this "bike".

3) a blue / silver cheap 20kg "Reflex Horizon" women's hybrid from Cycle King.
My town / commuting bike all through Uni). I put trekking bars on it. Wrapped them myself. I actually toured on this thing! Norwich to Oxford! And the West coast of Ireland! Sometimes I wonder if it is the most travelled Reflex Horizon in existence. It was onto its 4th 6-speed freewheel when I sold it on.

4) a blue Raleigh folding bike.
Bought to take by train to work. Now being used by a family member, to learn to ride.

5) a silver Trek 7.2fx hybrid.
First real serious bike! Came with trekking bars and aerobars, previous owner a triathlete. Rode this till my daughter was born, then fell asleep at the bars (on a segregated cycle route, I should add!) and wrote it off crashing into a crash barrier. They work.

6) a KHS single-speed.
First frivolous fun bike! Puts a smile on my face every time I ride it.

7) a Giant flat-bar road bike.
First frivolous fast bike! I don't ride this as much as I should. But it makes me happy, and took me up Hardknott and Wrynose passes, a while back.

8) a Carrera drop-bar road bike.
First drop bar bike! I ride this more than I should, winter and summer. Fits really well. Annoying to have the old style thumb button Shimano shifters, though.

9) a black Trek 7.2fx hybrid.
Bought to replace the old silver one, after a lot of searching, i realized that this was still the right commuting bike for me. (has front rack mounts and a threadless headset - an unusual combination at this price point). Except, unlike the old model, Trek have moved to a compact frame - so i can no longer mount a child seat! I didn't realize this until I bought it.

10) a Croozer trailer.
Not a bike. But lets me keep riding, even with my daughter in tow, so i like it a lot.

11) Not sure yet!

This should be fun (for me).
1. My sister's miniature red kiddy-bike (the "Bullet")
2. Red & yellow kids' BMX which served until I was about 10
3. Red steel MTB which lasted about 12 years and ended up thrown into a lake at the end of uni
4. Matt grey Cannondale hardtail MTB - heavy but a nice ride, from age 16-present
5. Claud Butler Cape Wrath MTB, second-hand, sketchy, lasted about 1.5 years before selling on, had a few crazy rides on that
6. 1984 maroon steel Peugeot 10-speed, still a commuting and touring dynamo
7. Specialized Allez Elite in navy blue, training and racing machine
8. Condor Acciaio, not ridden much yet
9. I can only wonder what will be next...

Steel 5, Aluminium 3

1978 - a little red bike
1980 - a slightly bigger blue bike (use to be my bigger brothers yellow bike and my parents sprayed it thinking I would never know...I knew!!)
1982 - Raleigh Striker
1985 - BMX, not sure of the manufacturer but it was a 'something' Magpie
1988 - Halfords Carrera Dolomate (MTB)
1991 - Marin Eldridge (MTB), first real bike
1995 - A beaten up old road bike to get me through Uni, Alamo
2007 - Specialized Epic Comp (MTB)
2009 - Trek 1.9 road bike...this is when the road cycling bug kicked in
2012 - Colnago CLX 3.0

What a great forum thread. This brought back some great memories of the bikes and adventures I had on each of them.

Long list so here goes:

1. A little blue bike - learned to ride on it and graduated to snapping the forks
2. A somewhat bigger mainly red bike - carried on belting round the street on it
3. A Dawes Flambeau - my first racer, did everything school runs, club runs, time trial, touring and hosteling both with gears and fixed, criteriums, road races, track with a fixed wheel, grass track, a fork leg broke off, then some cyclocross and the replacement forks broke, eventually the frame started to break on a head tube weld
4. Claude Butler second hand frame for racing for a while
5. Mercian Olympic second hand from Mercian and built up and gradually improved mainly used for racing eventually got stolen
6. An orange frame the brand of which I can't remember was used for commuting and touring even though it was a bit too big, mainly used on fixed wheel
7. A gas pipe Raleigh rescued from a skip - really - dead heavy with 74" fixed, Michelin Zig Zags rack and dynamo - used for all winter riding and chain gangs as well as commuting. Weighed 34lbs even without gears - great training!
8. Raleigh team replica with full Campag Record - replaced the stolen Mercian. My race bike but did almost all my training on it as well, even rode some cross events on it even though it could only take road tyres. Was a really great bike.
9. A Viking track bike - bought for only £15 and my first track bike raced regularly at track league until donated to the club for beginners to use.
10. A Carlton track bike bought for about £40 and replaced the Viking. Also donated to the club for beginners when replaced with a modern bike to use on the track at Leicester
11. A Blower track frame bought from Owen Blowers shop and raced for a number of years on tracks around the country
11. An unbranded motor paced bike raced at Leicester and Herne Hill tracks and a fair few hill climbs
12. A Harry Hall track bike bought to race on the newly built Manchester Velodrome, great bike
13. A made to measure M&B Dronfield built by Vernon to take over from my Raleigh Team Replica. This is a better fit and had all the kit transferred from the Raleigh. This is a brilliant bike, won more on this than my other bikes and still ride it now almost 30 years later!
14. A Mercian touring frame adapted with braze ons for cyclo-cross and used for several winters until finally given away
15. My first MTB an American Raleigh Heat Team replica with Sun Tour kit. Was and still is a good bike and now lives in Ireland
16. My second MTB a DiamondBack Axis Team with full Shimano XT kit a great bike which had an upgrade to front suspension when recovering from a broken collar bone.
17. My current MTB and about 20 years old now is a Marin Mount Vision with XT kit. Still a brilliant bike as works as well as new (OK a few bits have been worn out and replaced)
18. Brompton SL2-X my first Brompton which someone decided to hit with a car while I was riding it in Sheffield.
19. Another Brompton SL2-X to replace the first - did the BWC on this one and the sprint competition the first type of race for a very long time!
20. A Roux Etape 250 steel framed touring bike with disc brakes. I use heavy slow tyres and commute on this as much as possible. Upgraded wheels and have an Exposure Dyno Hub system. Love it.
21. An aluminium Ribble With Ultegra kit which was honestly never going to be rigid enough to race on and was given away

I might well have missed one or two in there and there are then lots of others that I've ridden including tandems and semi-recumbent trikes whilst I couldn't ride a two wheeler due to injury.

Yep I did miss at least one!

22. Another DiamondBack MTB that I kitted with a child seat to use while my children were still young.

Started typing and then thought "Wow!"

Fancy getting back on the track now and the new Raleigh appeals!

Well done if anyone reads all the way through this

Raleigh Chopper

Raleigh Arena

Peugeot Triathlon

Specialized Rockhopper x 3

Felt Z85 and hopefully a Felt AR4 at the back end of this year.

My full history would bore the hind legs off a donkey but it did incorporate a raleigh chopper, a grifter (built like a tank) a raliegh winner and a classic dawes - all of them largely disappeared sadly. Happy days though !

Puch single speed learnt on this
Raleigh 5 speed racer
Dawes with a three speed threaded his with a 5 speed cassette so that worked out to be a 15 speed bike with no gear overlaps
Baracuda 24 speed MTB
Current Giant Defy 5

Puch mini Sprint single speed learnt on this
Raleigh 5 speed racer
Dawes with a three speed threaded hub with a 5 speed cassette so that worked out to be a 15 speed bike with no gear overlaps
Baracuda 24 speed MTB
Current Giant Defy 5

Good thread, hopefully this takes off, makes a change from the usual forum doom and gloom.

The first bike I properly remember was a blue and yellow Raleigh Burner BMX, somewhen in the mid-80s, when I was maybe 8 or 9 years old. Pretty sure it's still in my parents' garage somewhere.

After that was some late-80s Raleigh MTB, the exact model of which I can't remember, possibly a Mustang. I may be confusing it with a friend's bike...

Next up was probably my first decent bike, either a 92 or 93 Raleigh Apex, can't remember the exact year. My brother and I both got new MTBs for Christmas, his was a Marin Muirwoods, we've both still got them. If I could be bothered to track down the parts (Girvin Flexstem anyone?) then I might think about restoring it.

(N.B. The Raleigh theme is because that's what our LBS stocked. He's still there, and I got my latest bike from him, but he sadly doesn't stock Raleigh any more.)

As per the OP, the Raleigh Apex did me until I discovered various other typical teenage pastimes and went off bikes a bit. It was brought back into service whilst I was at university in the early 2000s, but quickly got ridiculed because the frame was a pearlescent pink colour...

I then bought some low-end MTB instead, think it was a Scott, possibly a Specialized, but that got nicked whilst in my brother's custody, maybe 2004, and was replaced on insurance with a similarly-specced Scott Voltage YZ2.

I then had something of a 10 year cycling hiatus before I started commuting by bike again last summer and dusted off the Scott. It's still going strong, but largely sits forlornly in the shed due to having bought...

A Trek Madone 2.1 through Cyclescheme last December.

N+1 is already itching away though, and I've got half an eye on using the scheme again later on this year to pick up a CX or tourer-type bike for winter use.

1996-1997 Halfords mountain bike black, stolen from the front hall of our second year student hovel.
1997-2002 Claude Butler mountain bike yellow, sold to a mate for £30 even though it was knackered.
2002-2004 Trek 1400 alu road bike (first road bike, USPS colours, ) sold cause I needed the money.
2005-2007 Decathlon Mountain bike (all I could afford) ridden into the ground
2008-2009 Halfords Carrera road bike silver alu, wore out drive train, given away for rebuild project
2009-2015 Jamis Xenith carbon (first carbon frame 8.5Kg when not covered in mud, started to do sportive events) rebuilt several times, now winter bike.
2015-2020 Canyon CF SLX 6.0 with sram red

Red and white Raleigh BMX style bike I learnt to ride on (early 90's)
Black and green Raleigh mountain bike with a crazy areo disc on the back wheel. It looked amazing (mid 90's)
Red hand me down mountain bike I don't remember the make (late 90's early 00's)

Claud Butler Windermere Trekking bike (2012) bought so I could commute to work after getting a new job. It lasted about a year before I wanted something faster.

70's Trimuph Team Leader sexy as heck steel racer. Bought of ebay so I could ride with some friends. It cost me £50.

Boardman CX Comp bought through Cycle to Work Scheme. My pride and joy.

Something I learnt on; can't remember what it was.

Raleigh Rudge (1970s) 'sit up and beg' type bike. Upgraded with a Sturmey Archer 3spd! (nicked).

Raleigh Banana Racer (70s/80s - 2nd hand). School run, 'scrambling', did everything. (nicked) Bit of a 'no bike' period after that.

Raleigh Pioneer Trail hybrid (late 80s/early 90s). (Traded in).

Marin 9 spd hub geared hybrid bike (late 90s) (nicked).

Cannondale H700 Hybrid (2000). Spent a 'grand' on this with all the accessories which was pretty scary at the time. Still going strong with some 'pimping' and upgrading.....+ 3 more bikes (Giant Anthem MTB, Mezzo D9 Folder, Genesis Equilibrium 20).

First bike - late 80's technically advanced pink Raleigh complete with basket, tassels and stabilisers which I had until the age of 5. Very cutting egde, it was an experimental model that secret scientists had developed originally for the hour record, but the project was scrapped due to lack of support from the UCI.

Second bike - a blue Raleigh that changed to metallic green in sunlight, it was ACE, had that till about I was about 8. It could have been a game changer but I decided not to take up racing in case I made all the other people feel bad for being so FAST (obviously because of the aero paintjob).

I didn't ride a bike again until 2012, when I got a Ridgeback Radium to commute in London on, took up racing and now somehow have ended up with 5 more since. None of which come close in specification to the original pink-wonder.

**EDIT** - just realised my blue/green Raleigh was also bought from the same store on the IoM that Cav got his first bike! Aces. ^_^