What triggered your bicycle revival?

[yoothgeye]

What do I mean by bicycle revival? Well, most of us as kids rode the wheels off of one or many bikes, but then at some point laid the bike down in favor of something else (cars, motorcycles, job, health, indifference, etc...).

Being that you are all here now, you either NEVER got out of bicycles or you had something to get you back in the saddle. For those of you who never took your feet off the pedals, thanks for visiting, please read the stories of others, but for the rest of us, like myself, who had a bicycle revival, please tell your story.

I'll start with mine if there are no objections...

As a kid you couldn't keep me off of a bicycle, I remember the day I learned to ride without training wheels, though my memory recalls 2 different times, though both with dad holding the back of my saddle. I started with a solid tire bike from the flea market. Had a blue banana seat bike that matched my sister's (boys and girls frames respectively). Then one Christmas I got my BMX, still don't have any idea what it was, but it had a silver frame, yellow saddle, grips, Tuff "mags", and a coaster brake. I rode that bike everywhere. Then "beach cruisers" were all the fad, so I got a blue one, and rode it till the mountain bike thing took off. Had a couple cheap mountain bikes before my nice Trek in college. (there were other memorable bikes along the way, but I don't want this to be too long).

In college I rode all over campus, all the country roads around Buies Creek, NC, and every 4 wheeler trail I could find. I upgraded to a pricey full suspension mountain bike my senior year, then graduated and got married that Summer. Being married and having a job cut my bike riding time by probably 80%.

Then moving out into the country cut it back even more, although I really only rode mountain bikes (though I had a newer BMX at the time) most of my riding involved roads and in the country you WILL get ran off the road. So that cut me back even more. It was important that I had a nice bike(s) but not that I rode a lot.

Every once in a while I'd get a bike out and ride it to the church, but those were 10-15 mile round trips for a guy who was rarely in the saddle anymore.

Then my revival came.

I got a job at a church and instead of moving outside of city limits, for the first time in 10 years, we lived in the city. I wanted something to get around town on, so I built a 1950 Columbia to put a motor on. Before the motor when on, I took it out for a shakedown ride. I don't know how long it had been since I had ridden a single speed coaster brake only bike, but the memories rushed back. I was hooked and pedaling again.

For me, the revival was the city.

Who else wants to share their revival story?

 

[kingfish254]

My revival was picking up a pair of old Dahon folders for $50 at a yard sale. I started riding those around the city and decided I wanted a modern folder. I really liked the full suspension Dahon Jetstream but didnt want to pay $1000. I searched CL around the country and found a family that had 4 of them. I bought all 4 for $1500, kept one and sold the other 3 for $1700. That was my second revival. Once I realized that I could get a $1000 bike for free plus $200 cash in my pocket, I was hooked on flipping bikes. It makes my bike hobby that much more fun.

 

[yoothgeye]

My revival was picking up a pair of old Dahon folders for $50 at a yard sale. I started riding those around the city and decided I wanted a modern folder. I really liked the full suspension Dahon Jetstream but didnt want to pay $1000. I searched CL around the country and found a family that had 4 of them. I bought all 4 for $1500, kept one and sold the other 3 for $1700. That was my second revival. Once I realized that I could get a $1000 bike for free plus $200 cash in my pocket, I was hooked on flipping bikes. It makes my bike hobby that much more fun.

How long ago was this? You can use your age if you're not shy.

I didn't mention in my story, but my revival was in 2010, so I was 34.

 

[Onewheelsqueel]

Ive been into bikes on and off my post teen years/adult life or since getting a license and car. Ive had a bike since settling down and getting married. But not always the vintage stuff. A buddy of mine got me into tanker/cruiser bikes probably 8-9 years ago. I ended up focusing on cars as a hobby instead and eventually sold my vintage stuff. This last spring I sold my '63 Biscayne and didnt have a running vintage car. I wanted something fun to ride. Got a china motor and a new Schwinn cruiser and threw it together, that thing is a blast to ride, but still not vintage. But it revived the urge to get a vintage bike. I found my '47 Columbia patina monster and a Spitfire on CL a short time later and it all went from there. Im having a blast. Only problem is it is taking some of my car cash that I should be spending on my Corvan. lol.

 

[yoothgeye]

This hobby can definitely turn into a monster of it's own, but it's a good one.

Before I came to this city I was into having a fast car and a tough 4x4 for off-road. With little kids I couldn't get them involved, but with bikes the kids can build along, help make decisions, and we can all ride together as a family.

 

[kingfish254]

My revival was picking up a pair of old Dahon folders for $50 at a yard sale. I started riding those around the city and decided I wanted a modern folder. I really liked the full suspension Dahon Jetstream but didnt want to pay $1000. I searched CL around the country and found a family that had 4 of them. I bought all 4 for $1500, kept one and sold the other 3 for $1700. That was my second revival. Once I realized that I could get a $1000 bike for free plus $200 cash in my pocket, I was hooked on flipping bikes. It makes my bike hobby that much more fun.

How long ago was this? You can use your age if you're not shy.

I didn't mention in my story, but my revival was in 2010, so I was 34.

It was approximately 4 years ago, so I was 47.

 

[Sphinx]

It was easy, I found this site and I still had some Classic Bikes in the basement. I figured I better get this show on the road before they haul me off to the nursing home or the funeral home. I'm 55, which isn't really old, but you never know what tomorrow brings. :roll:

 

[Gold Street Customs]

Walmart !!! Why ? Fell in love with a BFK Stingray, then after that I revived my 81 Cruiser five hanging in the garage, and then I started looking for old bikes I had as a kid , found the site, Then I couldn't walk thru my back yard,LOL , when my wife complains , I blame Steve !!! :lol:

 

[CRASH]

Kids. I've always been into bikes, but after I sold my MTB and my Tri bike was stolen, all I had was a cruiser that I dusted off a couple times a year. But this Christmas I wanted to go nuts for my kids since I had been deployed for the past couple Christmases, and I found this site, and it inspired me to spend more than I could afford.

:?

 

[user 135]

I built a wooden bike and found a Grey Ghost that was flipped a nice profit.

 

[yoothgeye]

A plywood crate!!!! :shock:

 

[Terry66]

My dad and I built bikes when I was kid. We built a lot of choppers. I am surprised I survived some of those death machines. My dad taught me a lot more than I realized at the time. I was an Evil Knievel fanatic and have about 15 broken bones to prove it. I had some of the coolest bikes ever as a kid. I had a 3spd and a 5spd stick shift Schwinn, I had a FireKat chopper and a whole bunch of BMX bikes!

I got more into "cycling" in high school and college. I rode everywhere. Some of my earliest dates with my wife were 25 mile bike rides to get pizza! Once I had kids, I got busy with everything else and stopped riding. Fast forward many years later, I found myself 40yo at almost 300lbs.

I decided enough was enough and got down to about 240lbs walking, hiking, dieting, etc. Then I bought myself a nice Trek hybrid and got down to about 190lbs. I am not one to half do anything, so I dropped a few more pounds and completely got into cycling. I started doing time trials, distance riding, touring, mountain biking, etc. Five years later, I am still riding and having a blast.

About a year ago, I was looking for a new road bike and found a CL ad for a 60s Firestone 500 and thought it would make a nice winter project and that was it...I was hooked on building old bikes again. I'll probably never get rid of that bike.

 

[TubatronSXT]

I started out with the usual progression of kiddie bikes up to about age 5 or 6, then I moved to focus more on video games, being a child of the late 90's/2000s. Around May of last year I saved up some money and bought a Huffy cruiser to get some exercise. At the ripe old age of 16 and 190 lbs, I need the exercise, and the hobby itself is fun. I dropped video games cold turkey and I focus mainly on my bikes and kickin out the bass with my tuba.

 

[slowriderz]

I found myself here because i was tired of tripping over my kids bikes in the garage. hahaha kiddos... whos tripping over whos bikes now!!!

In all honesty it was a bunch of years back maybe 6 or so, I decided to take all of the old bikes that my kids had grown out of and make just one freaky bike for local pub runs and such. Of course at that point it was all down hill. I hadnt ridden a bike since childhood prior to that. Always loved them but during my 20's early 30's I was mentally tied down to my career and growing family. Of course I still have both the great kids and the same job but I am learning to relax more with age. 8)

 

[expjawa]

For me, it was a trip to Yosemite in 2009, so I'd have been 34. I was visiting my sister's family in the Bay area, and we took a weekend trip to the park. They brought bikes (and borrowed one from a neighbor for me) and we spent the weekend touring Yosemite valley by bike. It opened my eyes to what a great way to see that kind of thing a bike can be. Fast enough to cover ground, slow enough to take it in. It still represents that to me, and I try to factor riding into any vacation or trip I go on.

I bought my first post-kid bike a couple months after that trip, after figuring out what I (thought) I wanted. I bought a mountain bike, because to me at the time, road bikes = old ten speeds, and I didn't think anyone had those anymore. Then after putting several hundred road miles on the MTB, I realized skinny tires still had a place. Shortly thereafter, I came across someone selling a bunch of old bikes (which I knew nothing about) for cheap. I knew nothing about them then. It all went downhill from there... :mrgreen:

 

[Rustinkerer]

I got out of bikes in my early teens, because I got intol lawn mowers and small engines. Then cars. The revival started about 8 years later, in 1996. I had my original old bike, my 56 Schwinn Corvette, sitting around. I decided to strip and repaint it again, and I was working in an auto body shop at the time. So I was able to shoot it in Dupont chromabase/clear, easy, since it was black. Later that year, the rear tire exploded in the middle of the night! It was a circa 1967 Superior ww. Sadly, at the time, I couldn't find S-7 wws, and had to setlle for blackwalls. It just wasn't the same. Eventually, Rose's dept store was blowing out Huffy Good Vibrations for about $70. I bought one, and swapped wheels, sold the Huffy w/the S-7s for $60. A year or so later, I found a guy who collected things for mission work in West Va. He didn't have the time or manpower to fix anything, so he had a pile of bikes, that needed tlc. Got them free, and fixed up & sold a few. Went on the sidelines until around 2004. A guy I was working with had a friend w/a bike rental stand at the beach. So he had a J&B Importers catalog! I had him order a repop springer, flame seat, and a few old bike books. That's how I found out my bike was a 56. That sparked the fire, and when I finally checked out ebay, I was hooked again. Bought a lot of 54 bikes for a grand, and borrowed a co. box van to go up to NJ to get 'em! Since we moved here in 08, with our baby boy, I've had little to no time to ride or work on anything. But, at some point I hope to get organized and set up a decent workshop! -Adam

 

[rusty1]

...at 64 years old, I've always had bikes since being a kid...(I still consider myself an old kid)....still rode bikes thru-out the years but not real often. When I was 60 I had a heart attack; my doctor told me to exersize on the days you want to eat,...in other words, everyday!
...since then it's become a real habit/obsession with me;...I ride virtually everyday usually from 5-10 miles a day even thru the winter; in the summer it's more like twice that. I probly only miss 10-12 days out of the year due to real cold or bad weather. No matter how the day mite be going, I always feel great on my bikes. On the days I don't ride, I feel as though I've missed out on something.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

I never really put the bicycle down completely. I did kinda slow down for a while, mostly building cars and motorcycles but after my ex took me for a ride and I was broke again I found this site and I got really big into bikes again and started learning about the different types of vintage bikes. Now I just need more storage. :mrgreen:

 

[udallcustombikes]

I was watching CNN one morning and they had a quick filler story about people in NYC riding tall bikes. I had never seen anything like them before and was intrigued. I thought "I can build one of those!". I headed out to the garage where my wife's old mountain bike had sat for years untouched. I used her bike and one of my daughter's bikes that she had outgrown. I didn't have a welder at the time so it was a bolt-together build. After a few hours of driven engineering I was riding my first tall bike. The bug had bitten. I started collecting any junk bikes I could find and was coming up with all kinds of crazy customs. Shortly after getting started I found RRB and I moved from radical customs into vintage, antique, and rats.

 

[NicksGarage]

I'm 52 now so you can figure out the years from that.

When I was a kid in a family with 6 kids at the time, my dad would go to police auctions and buy bikes and then fix them up for us to ride around. This is when we lived in the city. I remember my oldest brother once got a brand new stingray style bike with a stick shift and we were all jealous and were never allowed to touch it. When I was 12 we moved to a small mountain town and a few of the bikes went with us. We used to ride all over the place on those bikes. Once I was doing jumps with my younger brother and a friend and I did a back flip and whacked my head on the pavement really hard. Our friend did the same jump and his front wheel came off and he went head first into the pavement. Unfortunately he was seriously hurt and ended up severely disabled from the accident. After that, we didn't want to ride much. No helmets back then.

When I was 18, I worked at Toys R Us in the city selling bicycles during Christmas two years in a row. The second year I bought a 10 speed and rode that a lot. I loaned it to my brother for a while and he used to commute on it. Then the bike disappeared. Turns out he had a flat tire while riding it to work and he chained it up to a bridge railing and never went back for it and didn't tell me about it.

When I was 32, I went from doing jobs that involved a lot of physical labor to an office job. After that I started gaining weight and wanted to do something about it. When I was 34, I started walking a lot and got up to 6 miles a day but messed up my feet in the process. Then bought a mountain bike and started riding that every day. I would ride around a lake every day doing 25 miles. Once I lost the weight and started doing other things, the bike got parked. Since then I've put the weight back on and started trying to ride the mountain bike again.

The thing that has really gotten me into the cruisers is that I go camping with my 1947 teardrop trailer and go to several vintage trailer rallys a year. At these events there are tons of people with bicycles including a lot of cool cruiser style bikes. I never took my mountain bike mostly because I was towing my trailer with a small car and really didn't have the room. But I kept thinking I should get some sort of cruiser bike. Last year at an event a guy had a Felt Chief with the cream thick brick tires and I thought it was one of the neatest bikes I'd seen. When I got home, I did a search for it online to get more info and found this site. Since November of 2012 I've bought two used cruisers and have fixed them up. The Felt would have been too small for me so I bought a forward pedaling cruiser and a stretch. Now I take them down to the beach and ride them or just ride them around the neighborhood. I haven't really looked for vintage bikes because they just wouldn't fit me very well. I do really enjoy seeing the creativity people have displayed here and now I'm thinking of a custom stretch build or getting something like a Roth Reaper frame or a Basman.

I've been into old cars for a long time but it's turning out that this bicycle thing can be just as addictive and expensive. Just easier to store a bunch of bikes than cars. And now I have a larger tow vehicle for my trailer so I'll be able to bring 1 or 2 bikes with me to the next event.