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So, what was your first real bike? Do you miss it?


GuyP

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I'm still mourning the loss of my bikejacked, pristine 1988 Bianchi Columbus SL. To take my mind off it, I have been cruising eBay looking for a suitable replacement vintage Bianchi, for those great days when you just want to ride - nowhere in particular, where speed's not what it's all about, a classic entirely suited to all day riding, like for the 400Km weekends my mates and I get up to about twice a year.

 

I recall my first new bike, a 1987 Peugeot Classique. Tange 2 tubing with 7-spd Suntour Superbe Pro and Rigida rims. Toeclips and all. It had a beautiful blue and white paintjob. Yep, I loved that bike. That's the bike I replaced with my new Bianchi in 1988.

 

Funny thing though, as I started looking for 80s vintage Bianchi's to replace my pride and joy, I stumbled across some good old Peugeot PX10 and PY10 models (the latter being the hen's teeth works models), and thought back to my beloved Classique. As I result, I find myself now looking up Peugeot's instead of Bianchi's!

 

So the question is, are you just as attached to your first real bike as I seem to be, and what was it?

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loved the Suntour grouppo!! Looked damn fine on my Red Merckx (1986 ed). Had the Mavic GP4 rims. Rolls saddle.

 

Unfortunately crashed the bike in '95.

 

 

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Alpina - Columbus tubing, Shimano 105 Gruppo, custom black paint-job with a neon green fleck. Beautiful bike. Ended under a truck, with me close by in a storm drain...

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I had a Cosmos. Not a very good frame though. 10-10. SRX group set.

 

Man I loved that bike. Sold it to buy my first electric guitar.

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Geez, what's with all those crashes! Nasty!

 

Yep, the Alpinas, Zinis, DHCs, Hansoms etc... I wonder what happened to Gotty Hansen, esteemed frame-builder...

The Cosmos bikes seemed to have only been around for a year or so in the late 80s

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I miss my Sancini. It was Columbus SL tubing in pearl white with blue custom decals. It cost me R1999 with 7spd 105 groupset. It cost me R1400 to convert to 8spd STI.

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I miss mu Sancini. It was Columbus SL tubing in pearl white with blue custom decals. It cost me R1999 with 7spd 105 groupset. It cost me R1400 to convert to 8spd STI.

 

Wow, didn't know the Sancini came with such a great tubeset - was it an Italian bike?

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Wow, didn't know the Sancini came with such a great tubeset - was it an Italian bike?

 

No, they were made in JHB. You even got them with SLX tubing aswell.

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Um, a blue Raleigh single-speed that my Mom painted blue with white mudguards - household enamel! The ultimate road / MTB, completely thrashable down in Delta Park when it was still an undeveloped / abandoned sewerage farm. Then something unidentifiable in red with 3-speed Sturmey Archer and (I think) chrome mudguards that I took off because they weren't cool or groovy in those days. A concurrent 3rd was bizarre: an electric bike that I won in a competition - a huge batery on the crosbar, and a motorcycle starter motor that drove with a grinding wheel on the front tyre (dikwiel). Geek deluxe! Then a Peugeot Sting - basic but lovely (remember when it was stylishly necessary as a teenager to ride with the drop handlebars turned up?). Then my Le Turbo that I've had since the mid 80s. Aaaah!

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Then a Peugeot Sting - basic but lovely. Then my Le Turbo that I've had since the mid 80s. Aaaah!

 

Peugeot Sting and Peugeot Champion - Geez how I wanted one of those, any of them in the 70s, while I rode my Chopper!

How could I forget about Le Turbo - with Mavic MA2 rims?

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A red & white Centurion Tri2000, beautiful bike. For a very short time was the first one to have STI's and clipless pedals, Shimano 105 and was it a biopace? chainring. Loved that bike! My boyfriend donated it to the gardener a few years ago, while I was overseas! Needless to say he spent a few nights on the couch....

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They are Mavic, but from the mid 90s (after one bike shop convinced me that tubbies were the way to go, and then another convinced me a few years later that they weren't ...). I took the sticker off sometime in my "I don't do labels" phase. In the 70s Peugeot Sting was R109, Peugeot Rapport was R119, and I think the Le Jeune came in around R500! The Pinarello Dogma of its day?

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A red & white Centurion Tri2000, beautiful bike. For a very short time was the first one to have STI's and clipless pedals, Shimano 105 and was it a biopace? chainring. Loved that bike!

 

Oh yes, I remember those too - Tange 1 tubing, and it was Biopace! Pretty good stuff, also aspirational!

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In the 70s Peugeot Sting was R109, Peugeot Rapport was R119, and I think the Le Jeune came in around R500! The Pinarello Dogma of its day?

 

Where has everyone put all those great old bikes - they're not in Junkmail or anywhere on the roads - I would love to get hold of a few and remove another car from its garage at home!!

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My first (mountain) bike was a Diamond Back Ascent, 1994 model in Candy Red. It was kitted with a full Shimano 7sp STX groupset, and mostly Avenir branded components. It had a rigid chromoly fork to go with the Tange cr-mo steel frame. Cost my dad a whole R2499 back then, and made me the happiest 13 year old kid in the world! Man I loved that bike, i used to ride everywhere, with my best mate Dave. I even fitted a Topeak pannier rack and panniers to it and then we used it to get cash delivering the newspaper.

 

I remember the day i snapped the chainstay on a small jump in the local park, but luckily after a few weeks my LBS managed to get the frame replaced under warrantee. They sent me the titanium coloured 1995 model, and we fitted a Manitou Mach 5 Comp fork to the bike at the same time. I really wanted a Manitou 3, but it really was way out of my budget and at the time cost the same as the whole bike did!

 

Had the bike till 2003 when i got back from London, but then I brough home a brand new Cannondale mountain bike, so my Diamond Back was never ridden by me again. I also found cracks all over the frame, so i decided to toss it. Still have a box somewhere full of old used 7speed STX and LX parts, so if anyonw is looking for bits from that era, just drop me a line.

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