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Let's See Your First Bike That Started It All

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All I can tell is that it's an early Jellyfish... all clear with red & blue hands & yellow second hand... I had a rare green coil 1st gen Jelly Fish myself, and thought I was hot sh*t. Of course I ended up dealing in rare "vintage" Swatch watches in about 1992 and made quite a nice little living off them for several years.

Back to topic; the vintage bike that really started it all for me was a 1941 Colson steer from the rear tandem that hung in the local bike shop. I lusted after it from the first time I saw it at about 12 years old in 1974. I actually know where that bike is today, and will hopefully see it restored this year... a local guy I know got it.

Next was a 24" Higgins, plain Janer but all orig paint that I got from that same bike shop in 1978. I started a bicycle club in high school with it. Got about 4 members as I recall.

Then in in 1980 I got my hands on my first full size 26" ballooner tank bike... a bastardized, early 50s AMF Hiawatha with mismatched parts... I "restored" it in black and red, but not to spec... I built what I called a "hot dog"... the equivalent of a hot rodded car. I went with a full-on Indian theme, replete with tomahawk neck, and hand painted & striped Indian head on the tank. I even recovered the seat in leather myself!

I still have this bike and will probably never sell it. It's a great rider. Needs to be cleaned up, but I hope to ride it at the next Foothill Flyers ride. It was my first bike restoration. The remaining bikes in my collection are mostly original, but back in the early 80s, everything got restored, whether it needed it or not. ;o(

The Firestone Super Cruiser was the next full dress tank bike I got... it was orig. paint and complete. I kept it until a year ago.

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Mine was a 1940 Westfield, in 1990 ,A local bike ,ad in paper HAD TO DO A SEALED BID $101.00 .I had to out bid my friend by 1.00.Bought from original owner ,bike was stored upside down in an attic. Seat had a flat spot on the nose. Came with a nice prewar Stewart Warner Speedo,Gillette Bear "war tires" that were synthetic, made out of soy bean. Cool looking ,but rode like crap..Bike
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is long gone ,Guy I sold it to still has it. I kept the speedo and the seat ...1990 was the year I got bit ...That is the original ad from the paper.
 
I don't have a photo, but the frame is still out back. my first bike I shared with my little brother who is 2 years younger. it was a girls Western Flyer 20". I remember complaining that it was a girls bike, and my Dad welded a bar across the top and said, there, now it's a boys bike. my dad was an old farmer and as long as it ran, he saw no reason that we needed anything more.
now, there was another bike that always fascinated me as a kid. again, it was a bike that had been welded together, and has been reconfigured yet again, this final time by me. our small town had two parades each year, the first was a pet parade, where all the kids walked dragged or carted their pets down the main drag in town. you'd find dogs cats rabbits, horses chickens sheep, basically everything you could find in a small country town back in the 60s and 70s. the next parade was called the Almond Blossom Festival, and though most people don't understand why, we still have it today. way back in the day, my tiny town of Quartz Hill, and the surrounding area grew most of the world's almonds. this photo is of my parents, sometime back in the early 70s riding the bike when it was a tandem in the Almond Blossom Parade. in later years, me and my brother rode it in the same parade, as had my older brother and sister.

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this is it the way I reconfigured it back in 2008. I basically took out all the girls bike stuff, used the front half and the rear triangle and put it together as a Ratrod Bikes build off bike.

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this is the one that got me back into old bikes. my dad still had this frame out back and I decided to build it up. as you can see, it wasn't stock, but it also wasn't wild, that's not my style. in a way, if the original question had been worded differently, this would have been the bike that made me consciously decide to get into collecting, but as worded it wasn't the bike that started it all.

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Grew up in a family of collectors. So as a little kid, I'm unsure how old I was exactly, somewhere between 9 and 13, I bought this girl's chopper from a family friend's daughter who didn't think the bike thing was cool anymore. I can't even tell you how many miles this baby and I traveled together. I chased after all the older cool kids, scaring my mom as I flew into traffic to keep up. I remember putting my feet up on the frame while cruising around and feeling so cool. I knew I could get lectured about hurting the paint, but heck, she was MINE and no one could stop this free wheeling girl. Haha.
I still have her in the basement at my parents house.

This isn't her specifically, just a similar one, as she's in another state, but it reminds me I need to take her out for a ride next time I visit!
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