Since it is Thursday, I thought I’d post a few pictures of bikes from my past in honor of “Throwback Thursday” (a.k.a., #tbt on the internet!).  During our long ride in Yuma last weekend, my SAT and I were sharing stories of our first bikes and describing those wondrous pieces of machinery that got us around in style in our respective formative years.  The first bike I owned was a pretty nifty blue BMX that I rode everywhere (I know this because my bike sported “BMX” on the frame).  I didn’t go fast, but oh, the independence that I flaunted whilst pedalling that blue BMX!

(Blurry, but it gets the point across.  I think I was about 6 years old here.)

I graduated to a white, girls’ bike that accommodated my growing height and girth.  Perhaps not as cool as my BMX, the white bike more than did its job in getting me from point A to point B.  I remember being quite fond of the front reflector, for some strange reason (maybe because I have a penchant for shiny things?).

(I had no sense of style back then.  Please excuse that!  I think I’m 8-9 years old here.)

When I turned 10, my big birthday gift was a 10-speed Raleigh.  I can’t find any pictures of it, either online or in my photo albums, but rest assured that I was darn proud of it and rode that adult bike like the big kid I was.  I had that bike for years.  My first real adult bike was one my mom gave me; she had a CCM (Canadian low-end brand) ladies’ mountain bike that she sort of-kind of-not really learned to ride.  She eventually got fed up with her lack of skills, so she gave it to me.  Again, I can’t find a photo of that bike, but here is a similar one from the Canadian Tire website (current retail price is $199.99 CDN):

(The above is a photo I took with my phone of the website.  I don’t have the technological know-how to do anything fancier than that.)

My first “nice” bike was a 1996 Norco “Tango” (Canadian brand) and according to bikepedia.com, it weighed 25.1 pounds/11.4 kg.  It felt pretty light at the time!  I had the 15″ frame (smallest one), which fit me really well, and rode that bike to (grad) school for many years. Click on this link for all the specifications.

(Going to class!)

There you go.  That is my bike history.  It was a fun little jaunt down memory lane and it’s amazing to see how far bike technology has come over my lifetime!  Readers: what bike stories do you have?