A bike under the tree... aka everyones fantasy christmas

I had a great experience yesterday.. I was at TdV yesterday chatting and generally bothering their mechanic when a mother and son came in looking for a Christmas present.

The boy was probably 12, athletic looking and just on the brink of puberty.. he still had a puppy fat face but he had the look of someone just about to have a growth spurt. (those with children will know what I mean). I’ve seen them in the shop before. The woman has 2 sons and they are building one a bike for Christmas. We discussed hubs, the boy and I talked about some sexy campy record track hubs and how he’d like to have them one day and mom and I discussed the lower end options that were more practical given that her boys continue to forget to lock their bikes up..

Then, we sized the boy for a frame. What really impressed me was how mature and realistic the 12 year old was. I don’t remember being so at his age. He didn’t seem embarrassed, or as embarrassed as one would anticipate when i asked him to gauge the stand over on a bike we tried him on. I explained why it was important to have at least an inch between him and the bar; he and mom took it in stride. I told him I would love to sell him the campy wheel set he was drooling over, and complimented his tastes, but i wouldn't do so until he’d been down to Herne Hill and had done some riding on lesser wheels first. I told him to think of it as something to achieve – when he was serious about track then he’d feel he deserved them and it would mean more to him. He liked that . I think mom appreciated that too. I explained to mom about the importance of a decent bottom bracket in enhancing the life of a bike and quality of the ride..
she left feeling more confident. The boy left with an ambition.

For me it was a fantastic 30 mins.

He's getting a bike under the tree for christmas; it's one he won't forget i am sure. I remember my first bike under the tree.. and my second and my thrid all of them were magical moments in my childhood.

Do you remember those magical moments?

Thats a such a fantastic story, and i certainly remmerber those moments but mine was a camera, its still just as magical :) im sure he is going love that bike, niceee one!

what a lovely story.

when i was six or seven i asked my father (a carpenter by trade) to make me a little snooker table so that i could play a variation of snooker with my glass marbles. it was simple and lovely with a wooden top and six pockets. it gave me so many hours of fun. i wish i still had it, but i have the memories clear in my mind which are just as good.

Nice story. As the UK cycle sport scene grows, this will probably happen increasingly. Sounds as if the boy if well into it.

The first magical moment for me only occurred when I bought my first half-decent bike myself when I was 17. I'd mostly had crap bikes up to that point. I imagine it must have been a magical moment to get my first bike (not really crap, that one, perfectly adequate for a four-year old) when I was 4, but I can't remember anything about it. The most magical moment was learning to ride it--I'll remember that forever.

I remember being shocked and upset when I was given a really horrible rusty piece of crap for Christmas (could have been a birthday, can't remember) when I was about 4 or 5. My dad said I could have a new one as soon as I learnt to ride the bad one. Needless to say I had my Raleigh commando a few days later, it wasn't new but it was the coolest bike I'd ever seen. I'll never forget all the hours I spent trying to ride around the flower bed and then suddenly shouting as loud as I could for my dad and showing him the laps I could do both ways around. Probably the best present I've ever had.

Ah this is the best sunday ever. I have loved this story.

I don't actually remember getting the bike I learnt to ride on. I think I was too young. I remember my second bike though.

It was for Christmas, my dad got one 'from santa' too. They were exactly the same bike, his was just a larger frame. They were mountain bikes, but I lived in a village then and you needed them!

We went for a really long ride all boxing day, though the day was short cus it was winter. We rode through the countryside, bits I'd never seen before, quite far away from home. We even rode through a ford! As a 10 yearold that was awesome. like crossing a river or something.

Christmas '84.

And still mine.

How on earth have you kept that in such good nick?

Christmas '84.

And still mine.

A real beaut!
Best thing on that is the pedals. And the way they used to imbed themselves in your shins ;)

Restored. It used to be chrome until it spent a couple of years at college in Newcastle. My first restoration & my pub bling.

Best thing on that is the pedals. And the way they used to imbed themselves in your shins ;)

Ahhhhhhhhhh... Bear Traps.
Nnnnnnnnggggggg...

grimaces in stifled pain

Loved 'em.

I can still remember when I got my first bike, it was a second hand BMX... My brothers taught me how to ride in a bike, first holding the bike from behind so I wouln't fall and then just letting me go on my own. I didn't notice when they did it by frst time.. I just kept riding until I noticed that nobody was holding me!!! Then I stoped, looked back and saw my brothers smiling...
I perfectly remember that day!! my next two bikes were left under the xmas tree in folowing years... they will always be the best presents ever!

Now I have to take some pics of my fixed gear bike that I can send by email to my brothers....

coupla weeks ago I spent the day running round a park with my 5 year old cousin on her bike. the grin on her face when she realised I wasn't holding her up anymore was amazing.

I had a pretty special moment recently when I passed on my first (half) decent bike (bought only a couple of years ago... I always rode handmedowns in my youth ... once had a Kuwahara in great nick for a while though as a student...)

My brother called me up, ecstatic, after riding for ONE day ... blathering on about how one gear makes such good sense and couldn't believe he'd doubted me when I'd told him he didn't need gears ... said he'd forgotten something at home having ridden to his campus at UEA, and was secretly pleased so he could ride all the way back to town, and back to University again ... and spend another half an hour in the saddle.

What a great birthday present that was.

coupla weeks ago I spent the day running round a park with my 5 year old cousin on her bike. the grin on her face when she realised I wasn't holding her up anymore was amazing.

Ditto! Only my kid's a lad. I got wicked film of him the very moment he did it all on his own (mounting, riding and nearly dieing under a cab as he sailed off out of the park and off a kerb). As he's riding round and round, bizarrely he's singing nursery rhymes at the top of his voice....

I'm getting a fixed gear hub. Built into an old 501 or 531 racing frame.

I'd like it to be pink framed and very assuming.

So some poor kid's going to wake up to a pink Mercian with a barbers pole on Christmas Day? ;)

Once as kid I really wanted a BMX for xmas, BUT I got a fuckinh batman keyring....

A BATMAN KEYRING FFS.

Times must have been hard...

We tease my old man regularly about asking for a boat as a child... and getting a lilo.

acs z-mags
never knew acs did skyway - a - likes

nice mongoose
had the californian myself back in the day
what a bike

all my mates were getting BMXs like Ultra/ Mag/ Burners when I was 13, my old man wouldnt get me one because of the 'trend' (this was o.k actually because he let me ride an old fixed that was waaaaaaaaaay too big for me)

anyway, I did some BMX session the other day, and all I want for x-mas now is a BMX!

So some poor kid's going to wake up to a pink Mercian with a barbers pole on Christmas Day? ;)

nah, that would be mean... he's too wee for it.

Best Christmas present I ever got:

Alas now sadly missing from my life after I sold it for £50 a good few years ago

i remember getting a Peugot racer for my 10th birthday. I missed Christmas dinner because of the sheer elation of riding a bike with drops.... i thought i was like lightning

This should arrive in time for Christmas, a present for myself: