I am sure most of us had a bike of some description when we were kids. It was the longed-for present by the tree or at the bottom of the bed on Christmas morning!!
It may have been a small bike with removable training wheels or a trike, but there was nothing like that feeling when you finally got those training wheels removed or your first proper bicycle and could head off on your own!!

My first bike was a brand new yellow one with training wheels and solid tyres. I remember seeing it in the living room one wet Christmas morning and I couldn’t wait to go outside in the awful weather to ride it up and down the drive at the back of the house.
And it wasn’t long before those training wheels could come off and I was away!!

My second bicycle was second-hand and a combination of metallic red paint and rust!! The front brake worked fine but the back one hardly at all and as we lived on the Welsh borders with steep hills, it could be rather hair-raising when you were hurtling down a hill on the narrow lane we lived down only to find a herd of cattle coming towards you. It was either slam on the brakes and go head-first over the handlebars or as I did, head for the hedge and hope for the best!!
And of course, this one didn’t have solid tyres so I had to learn the disappointment of flat tyres and also the skills of finding a puncture in the inner tube using a bowl of water and then applying the little rubber patches before the long job of pumping it back up again using a hand pump!!
And then the joys of buckled wheels as well.

And our school held Cycling Proficiency courses, but I couldn’t go as my bike was not remotely up to the standards required to take part in that!! 😂 And anyway, I learnt the hard way about hazards such as oncoming cows!!

We didn’t have a car as neither of my parents could drive, so walking or cycling was the only way to get around locally when I was a kid. We had a bus service for trips to the nearest town.
I remember my parents using a bike to go to our “local” shop about two miles away.
It had a basket on the front and room for more shopping behind the seat.
If I had to go there for any provisions, I used to hang the bags on my handlebars.
No Health & Safety in those days!!

The first bicycles, called velocipedes - were very basic affairs: a wooden frame, no brakes, iron-rimmed wheels, pedals attached directly to the front wheel, which was also the wheel used for steering, and no padding on the seat. They were known as “boneshaker” for a very good reason!!
Over time, the front wheel grew larger to allow a greater speed and the rear wheel smaller and so became the familiar Penny-Farthing bicycle.
But because they had no brakes and steering was difficult, to say the least, a lot of accidents occurred with these bicycles and they were not suitable for riding by women or children either.

1885 saw the first design of the “safety bicycle” with a rear-wheel chain-driven pedal system and equal-sized wheels. And in 1885, John Dunlop’s pneumatic tyres made the whole experience a lot more comfortable. Decent brakes were a welcome addition too.
The diamond-shaped frame of the early bicycles continued to be used by men but a step-through design was brought out in 1890 which allowed women in full skirts to mount and ride in safety.

The modern bicycle comes in many forms: from the simple pleasure cycle, through the lightweight racing cycle, the rugged mountain bike, to the small but agile BMX bike.

So, do you have a bicycle of any form that you still use?
Did you have one as a kid?
Have you done any long-distance or competitive cycling at all?
Did you take a Cycling Proficiency course and if so, did you pass?

Please share anything you like about bicycles, cycling etc: memories, pictures, gifs, music or videos.