A little trike with a metal box like a bread bin on the back red and blue as I remember. First bike was a little triumph child's bike red
Ooh I had one of those trikes. I think mine was red, and my brother's blue. In time, they went to our sisters. I vaguely remember being detailed to wheel one, or perhaps both, round to a new owner when they were eventually sold.
Crikey I had forgotten that. Yes I had one aged very small.
Moi aussi. Mine was broken when my brother's rather large friend, aptly named Tony Gammon (I wonder where he is now?) rode it and broke it. That was before we left the council house where I was born, so I was, at most, 3. I do recall it vaguely, but I remember well the incident that broke it.
After that, the bike I learned on was a blue and white Philips with 24" wheels. Of course, it was a hand-me-down from older siblings. I started riding the mile or so to school, and home for lunch and back again, when I was about 8 (1962 or 1963).
I remember my school friend Nicholas Mason coming out for a ride with my mother and me when we were younger than 10. I can't remember how he got his bike to our house because he lived at the bottom of Brock Hill, almost in Wickford, and we lived about 3 miles from him, at the top of the hill and further on. I reckon we must have ridden about 15 miles, including what seemed to me then as a very steep hill (downwards) leading towards the Bell pub in Rettendon on the A130 (many forummers will know where I mean). Nicholas rode too close to me, came in sideways on and knocked me over. I had quite a large gravel rash on one calf or another.
On another occasion, when about 14, I made my way from Ramsden Heath to Fyfield to see a school friend. That took me at least an hour and a half each way (about 17 miles, I think, so it may have been longer) on a 26" something. Possibly a Raleigh, I can't recall. I didn't take so much as a puncture repair kit with me - at that stage, I don't think I had ever mended a puncture. We didn't have a phone at home either, so if I'd had a visitation I would have had a damned long walk. I do recall taking the 1" OS map with me and navigating my way along lanes I have ridden many times since.