First bike I loved

I wouldn't say I loved it but this is the first bike I used properly and felt any connection too

(yes the seatpost is backwards, tt setup innit)

^ why's the Grifter got a dork disc if it has an SA hub?

I'm pretty sure mine did too, standard issue on bikes made by peeps that knew no better?

Cheers for the explanation of 'bike gives me the shits' - hippy, if he (Balki ? male/female) had no saddle it'd have given him a bit more than the shits but by his own admission he is an Aussie so .....maybe thats their thing?

only joking, 'bike gives me the shits' fella ;)

Gah... Aussie turn of phrase which translates loosely to "makes me very, very angry". It has nothing to do with poo.

.

angry?
'the shits ' here means scared i think
and has something to do with poo

That 'shit me up' = that 'scared me' - in my neck o the woods anyhoo

In use: "I've got the shits with the fuckwits delivering junk mail even though I have a sign telling them to do otherwise."

That 'shit me up' = that 'scared me' - in my neck o the woods anyhoo

Thats fucking disgusting though

"I'm feeling seedy" doesn't have the same meaning here either. The bloody English ruin English.

so whats seedy in oz?

does seedy in Oz mean i've shit myself and it feels all seedy in my pants?

i.e. i've eaten loads of raspberries for my tea

does seedy in Oz mean i've shit myself and it feels all seedy in my pants?

after eating abowl of grapes?

lol

hippy... please forgive me for what Im about to do...

In Oz, it is not uncommon for for a person to refer to an attractive member of the opposite sex as "a bit of a spunk", which does not mean the same as it does over here.

:(

Anyway, better talk about some bikes or hippy will merge this with the Why are Aussies so awesome thread.

up for a bit of remininscence before bed.

First bike I really got to grips with was a 5 speed down tube shifter Universal racing bike,
I was 7. It went f-a-s-t-
used to cane it around the estate, came off several times, once resulting in being carried home covered in blood from knees and arms,
didnt have helmets then.

I loved my mates Harry Hall after that at 12--it had chrome spokes and really narrow wheels,
my raleigh was inferior in my eyes, that fuelled the desire to get something really beautiful along the same lines which I now have in the shape of a blue Coppi.

When I rode dads shitty fixer at 15 that was it though, didnt need anything else then other than adrenalin and the knar, love got relegated to a lower instinct, pretty much stayed the same ever since.

(Balki ? male/female)

A female Balki would be a bit of spunk all right.

2 pints of strongbow and she'd be anyones.

This is the first bike I have truely loved and don't think I will ever be able to sell. Other's have come and gone, but this is the one that I keep coming back too:

She is currently getting a freshen up with Chorus 11 and Shamal Ultras, then the polished Veloce can go on a suitable old steel Italian frame when I find something just right.

How do you define it?

For me I loved having my first bike, I loved cycling round on it, I loved getting into scrapes... but did I actually love the bike - probably not.

Ditto second bike. Third bike was my first 'adult' bike when I got into mountain biking, then I had a few odds and sods bikes, then my first commuter bike as I got back into cycling in London.

It was probably my 2 Hip Pork BMX that was the first I actually loved as a work of art / bike to enjoy - before that bikes were tools, I loved that they did the job but I'm not sure I actually loved the tool.

Does that make sense?

For me it means feeling genuinly heatrbroken if you lose it.

When I wasn't able to take my peugot racer (See post #1) back to UK for various complex reasons i really felt a huge loss. It isn;t rational feeling this way about an innaninmate object. I know that i'll feel the same if anything happens to my surly steamroller which I have had for 5 years.

Perhaps there is something in the words of Flann O'Brian

"The gross and net result of it is that people who spent most of their natural lives riding iron bicycles over the rocky roadsteads of this parish get their personalities mixed up with the personalities of their bicycle as a result of the interchanging of the atoms of each of them and you would be surprised at the number of people in these parts who are nearly half people and half bicycles...."
— Flann O'Brien (The Third Policeman)

My Burls. The first bike that made me say it out loud.

I still own the first bicycle frame that I ever bought for myself. It's been built in various guises and utilised all the way through the last decade or so in the things which make me happy from mountain biking through street riding and finally as a polo bike. I could never bring myself to get rid of it, though I did once believe I'd found a suitable cause, it didn't prove to be the case. That was until last week when a very close friend told me that his bicycle had been stolen. With the help of a couple of a very generous person and an amazing housemate It looks like he'll have a rideable bike by the end of this week. The friend in question is over the moon. As such, my first true love will live on and continue to be loved by someone else.

^sweet story object that is a good way to avoid hearbreak
(though wouldn't work too well with a human object of love - give her a breast implant/him a penis enlargement and give her/him to your best mate)

This one:

Until it crumbled.

A chrome Speedwell BMX that I went halvies in with my folks.

I loved it but it was too small and a bit crap after 15+ years. I didn't want to see it go for $20 on ebay so I donated it to a Special school when I moved here.

My yellow S&M Holmes, with S&M ditchforks and a gold Redneck stem which I built up using other parts from my old Haro Race when I was about 15. The frame was so much better than any of the other componants (terrible Redline wheels and a bent one-piece crank). Used to ride it to school every day, up the trails at lunch time and street at weekends. Ahhh, the memories....which i'd held onto it now...