[adisan]

It was a BSA-SLR. Had it for about 6-7 years before selling it to a neighbour's friend.

[vedirah]

It was a state of the art red Hero Ranger Swing. So many memories with it!

[Bhupesh_2628]

I used to ride BSA Rocket & my brother used to ride Hercules MTB Ambush.

BSA Rocket:

• It was really lightweight.
• Performing light stunts on it.
• I remember I easily rode & crossed a steep uphill road in Kochi.
• Used to change all brakes.
• Painting of mud guards.
• Used to style & position mudguard so as to have an Adventure Bike look with raised front mudguard.
• Insertion of reflectors in the tyre rims.

Hercules MTB Ambush: According to my brother:

• Best lightweight bicycle.
• Smooth ride quality.
• He used to change handlebars in various positions so as to have a distinct look.
• Solid build quality.
• The top tube was so flat that anyone can comfortably sit on it. A unique top tube at that time!
• His friends used to like it a lot & they always ask him for a ride.

[Cyborg]

My parents bought me a Speedking semi-racer for Christmas, it was a time I believed in Santa Claus Later I learnt it was bought for 400 rupees from the military canteen in Bombay. There were two cycles available at the time, the Speedking and BSA SLR. Many happy memories associated with it but unfortunately no photographs.

Cheers

[ashwanth]

Hero Kid.

BSA Champ - It was a very old late 1980s model, was in the loft, my Brother's. This was taken and assembled when I outgrew the Kid.

Hercules MTB - my Brother's. Love the sound the brakes made while just short of a full stop.

Rockshox (my ride to school nearby) - Actually I can't recall this with confidence. It had twin fork-like suspension on both ends and both of these jammed after a few years of use.

AXN - my ride to school nearby, stolen on a rainy night (the watchman of my apartment dozed off after a 'quarter')

[saitvsk23]

Brace yourselves, users. This is gonna be quite a lengthy post.

I initially started off on tricyles, my dad says i had 3, because they kept breaking because of my usage! Then later on I got a BSA Aqua Zing. I remember the name very clearly because no one had that model. It came with those 3-color wheels, and i had learnt how to ride without training wheels on that very cycle. I had learnt it all by myself without any assistance, just by riding along with a girl in my apartment who had a similar cycle as mine. It had wide handlebars, resembling ape bars on a Harley, hence giving me that "Yamaha Enticer" kinda look. Used that for just a couple of years till the next one came along.

It was March of 2008, I believe. By that time I was 5 and my house was filled with numerous bike toys. Scale models, pull-back models, RC models, belt operated toys, you name it, I had it. And in addition to a brand new Family PC added to my craziness about motorcycles. Windows XP, a good internet connection, those were the days! Every webpage looked appealing because of Flash components running on them.

Coming to the topic, I was out with my mom one day, to a nearby kirana store. This store also used to sell weekly and monthly printed magazines. One such kids magazine was Chandamama Junior, published in English. I never preferred the Champak books, maybe a copy of Tinkle rarely when at home, and a must when doing train journeys. So i asked my mom to buy me a copy of that book, and she did. Opening the magazine, on the left page (right behind the cover page), there was this advertisement for a kids' bicycle. It was something i had never seen before. It had a battery operated LED headlamp in a headlight cowl which resembled that of a Pulsar's cowl. And it had this audiobox on the right grip, which basically mimicked a motorcycle throttle. It made a very 2-stroke-ish sound when twisted. I used to play a lot of Motocross Madness 2 back then, so the sound was another huge plus! I'm having a grin right now, thinking of that cycle. It further increased my love for motorcycles.

I had asked my mom to buy it for me. My mom had promised to buy it for me on the day of my birthday. One day my mom had called up the cycle store (Jai Ganesh Cycle Store, MG Road, Hyd) asking about this cycle. They said that it was not a common model and had to be ordered. We did place an order, and on 23rd of March, me and my mom went to that store. The cycle arrived in a huge cardboard box, resembling that of a TV box. The experience was very similar to how superbikes are assembled at dealerships these days. I had my superbike moment back then itself! It was all assembled, they asked me to take a test run, there was a slight steering error and i had informed them of the same, and it got solved. Brought it back home, and i was the proudest kid! It even had a sippy bottle holder.

I had enjoyed every bit of owning that cycle, and then in 2010 I had upgraded to a black Atlas Contnder, just because 2 of my friends had that same cycle in matching red color. When i wanted to buy it, they didnt have it in red, so had to settle for a black and silver combo. I had done so many skids on that cycle, so much that my elbows can speak for all those scrapes on them! These skids also resulted in so many torn 3/4th shorts of mine. Come 2012, i out-grew the Atlas and was looking for something better. I intially wanted a Hero Ranger DTB, because it had that unique Dirtbike-ish look, with those 18-speed Shimano gears setup and dual suspension! My dad rejected it because those gears would be too flimsy and would stop working soon. Hence i had to settle for a Hercules Atom 26" model. That also was no less in the looks department. It was taller, and i had to get used to riding and stopping it on a dime.

I had a nasty fall from the Hercules. It involved me getting unconscious, thn my mother getting all paranoid, and ended up going through a CT scan after wards, when i regained my consciousness. That single event sealed my cycle journey for good.

From then on, it was my mom's scooter, my dad's commuter, and then my CBR.

Attaching a pic, that's very close to me.

[saitvsk23]

Originally Posted by saitvsk23

Brace yourselves, users. This is gonna be quite a lengthy post.

I initially started off on tricyles, my dad says i had 3, because they kept breaking because of my usage! Then later on I got a BSA Aqua Zing. I remember the name very clearly because no one had that model. It came with those 3-color wheels, and i had learnt how to ride without training wheels on that very cycle. I had learnt it all by myself without any assistance, just by riding along with a girl in my apartment who had a similar cycle as mine. It had wide handlebars, resembling ape bars on a Harley, hence giving me that "Yamaha Enticer" kinda look. Used that for just a couple of years till the next one came along.

I forgot to mention 2 things in the above post :

1. I would turn 6 years old on the 23rd of March 2008, technically still being 5 when all that happened.

2. The cycle was called BSA Mobyke. Yes. The "Mo-bike" term was stylised as Mobyke.

[abh411]

I had the Hero Ranger Swing as my first full size bicycle, it was a looker hands down in purple. It had the X factor and had all the bells and whistles for those days 😆.

[Samfromindia]

Originally Posted by abh411

I had the Hero Ranger Swing as my first full size bicycle, it was a looker hands down in purple. It had the X factor and had all the bells and whistles for those days 😆.

If I remember correctly, Swing was launched in a shade of green and later when Purple was out, it looked better of the two and was in hot demand Afterwards Hercules copied the concept with EZ-Y whose colorway & design attracted me the most.

[thevwguy]

Originally Posted by NirmalK

My first bicycle happened to be a BSA Trailblazer. I got it as a gift from my dad for passing my 10th class. It had a unique body design at that time. Loved it to bits and rode it everywhere, even to my friends who lived next door

Thanks for sharing this - was scrolling through pages to see if anyone had this. Brought back memories. This was quite unique during its time - 97/98. After this was when the “geared” bicycle frenzy took over.

[rajeevsulu]

I had a blue BSA-SLR. It was so much fun. When you are young, you don't bother about things like sweat, pain, summer heat etc. You just pull out your cycle and hit the road. The enthusiasm we have when we are young is very high. So many good memories

[rohitoasis]

Had a hand me down BSA SLR from my sister. I remember being distinctly conscious about it being a ladies model especially when all my batchmates had the likes of Ranger swing and all fancy stuff. But most of the geared cycles back then used to have chains sliding off the gears. Mine fortunately never had that issue. What a reliable beast she was. It was handed down to some other relative and i am really not sure where it is now.

[tin lizzie]

Hi folks ,

Its an interesting topic for someone who was affected by polio in the left leg at 4 years of age.
Since a very young age i understood that there are some things which i will be able to do and some which will be challenging for me, cycling being one of them.
I was around 8 years old when two of my cousins (similar age gp)were ramming there bmx cycles into a metal garage door which was at the end of an incline , overlooking the backyard of the house .Till that time i was thinking that i wouldn't be able to paddle the bike with my weak leg , but the incline gave me courage enough to at least get the feel of riding it .
After a couple of falls i got the hang of it and enjoyed riding the bike coming down from the incline and learned balancing it(without paddling ).
As luck would have it , one of my female cousins had a lady bsa slr bike .
Again i had a new idea that if i cannot put my left leg over the horizontal bar of a normal cycle i may have enough strength to manage a female cycle.
One fine morning i took the cycle to an isolated spot and started pushing it with my normal rt leg. Had my fair share of falls that morning, but enjoyed the ride (without paddling again).
ONE WEEK of cycling without paddling, i once tried to paddle with my normal rt leg , and to my surprise the paddle came back to its normal position , even though my left leg did minimal effort.By reflex i had already paddled again with the rt and hence the bike kept moving on.
IT WAS THE GREATEST MOMENT OF MY LIFE TILL THEN.
Henceforth i would often ride my cousin sisters cycle quietly every morning without anyone knowing about it.
My father had tears of joy when i had enough courage to show him that i could pedal .
Hence came my first childhood cycle , THE AVON BUKE SLR

[DivyanshuDiv]

Trying my best to recall.
The first one was a tobo cycle.
Then I got my BSA RocknRoll cycle with shockers at the front.

Finally, after deciding that I'm going to work hard on my fitness, 7 years back, an impulsive decision was taken to buy an MTB, which was Peak P275.

[pedrolourenco]

Originally Posted by GTO

the most memorable was the Concorde.

The bike 1 always dreamed of owning. It had 2 main competitors at that time; the Hero Hawk and the BSA Mach 1 / Mach 10.

Originally Posted by abhishek46

i wanted a BSA SLR.

Originally Posted by tilt

Raleigh "sports" bike from England.

My first bike was my brother's Raleigh Sports. It was briefly made in India long before the BSA SLR.