To celebrate the upcoming Father’s Day, I thought I would tell the story of how my dad inadvertently made me fall in love with the bicycle. My story is not the only one of its kind, but it’s a nice bunch o’ memories, and I thought you guys might enjoy it. Plus, it was fun to write.
I couldn’t find any original photos of the bikes mentioned in the story, so I sourced a few from various internet sites, and they are credited accordingly.
The time of year is a bit fuzzy; my mind instantly thinks Summer, but that’s probably just nostalgia romanticizing this memory a bit. Or… it could be that as a child growing up in sunny Southern California, every day in my childhood memory bank is a beautiful summer day.
I do know the year was 1971, and although I’ll age myself, that makes me a plucky 6 years old when I received my first real bike. It was called the Schwinn Apple Krate. Looking back, it might have been a little more bike than I was ready for. But back in the “good ol’ days,” it was a common practice to buy bikes a little big, so your kid could “grow into” it. I’m pretty sure that was Dad’s mindset when he brought it home for me.
Man, that bicycle was a work of art.
Built around the popular Sting-Ray platform, it was like having a hot rod for a bicycle. I’m sure all of the other kids in the neighborhood were jealous, but I did give them all turns to ride my new beauty.
She was shiny, candy apple red, with a “sissy bar” and a red sparkly banana seat that had a racing stripe down the center. Mounted in the center of the top tube was a 5-speed “car-like” stick shifter. The bike had a small 16″ front wheel and a chrome springer front fork, while the rear 20″ wheel had a dragster-type “slick” tire doing the work.
My bike also sported a full set of shiny chrome fenders. To top it off, she had a pair of full-blown ape hanger handlebars, in chrome with red sparkle Schwinn grips.
Everything Changed for Me
This bike was a sight, absolutely stunning, and it changed everything for me, as that was my first real bicycle. All thanks to my dad. When I say first “real” bike, I mean the first quality bicycle, from an actual bike store. The Krate wasn’t like the others from a department store.
I had fun on those department store bikes as well, but the Schwinn…man, that was a machine to be reckoned with. It was serious. That one, single bike started my love affair with the bicycle.
As the days rolled on, I rode the Krate everywhere. I was on it every single day. She took me everywhere. I noticed my neighborhood grew as I explored places I had never gone before.
Almost as much as I was riding it, I was cleaning and polishing it. This usually happened when my dad would be washing his car on the weekends. He always told me to be grateful for the things I have by taking exceptional care of them. So I did. All of the time. That bike gleamed in the Southern California sun every day I rode it. I was so proud of it.
A New Neighborhood = BMX
Moving on, it was 1972 when my family moved. The house we moved into was the first house built in the whole neighborhood, so there were a lot of open dirt lots everywhere. And with all of this dirt around, something started to change in the way I rode.
As I was approaching 8 years old, I wanted to ride in the dirt more. And, wanted to ride faster. Plus, I was longing to jump things… like, I wanted to jump everything.
So I did.
And after a year or so of really honing my dirt riding skills, I discovered this little bicycle movement starting to catch my attention. You may have heard of it, it was called Bicycle Motocross or BMX as it’s known now.
Stripping the Apple Krate
In the very early days of BMX…people were racing their Sting-Rays! And hey, wouldn’t ya know it, I had one of those. So I talked to my dad, and we started stripping the Apple Krate of some of its parts.
It was cheaper than buying a whole new bike…and mine was in great shape and ready for the challenge. So boom, the fenders… gone. A new fork was added, allowing the 16″ front wheel to be replaced with a 20″ front wheel to match the rear.
New dirt-specific, knobby tires were mounted on both front and rear wheels. Gone was the rear 5-speed freewheel (and top tube shifter!), only to be replaced with a single-speed 16-tooth freewheel.
The coaster brake stayed, and motocross-style handlebars replaced the ape hangers. The banana seat was also removed and replaced with a single “performance” saddle.
I raced her like that at the Orange track for a while… I don’t remember exactly how long. But it was every Friday night for a good year or two. As much as I loved her, she wasn’t cutting it at the track. She was heavy and not strong enough to take the beating BMX dishes out.
And new BMX-specific bikes and accessories were quickly arriving on the scene.
In Comes the Webco
My dad and I started talking, and I convinced him that I needed a new BMX-specific bicycle for Christmas. My dad took me to the original Village Schwinn Bike Shop in Yorba Linda, and I picked out a beautiful, shiny new Webco BMX bike. Bright red with black Skyway Tuffwheel mags.
It was purpose-built and looked killer. I got her on Christmas Day… probably the most fantastic Christmas Day of my young life.
I was noticeably faster on the Webco. We were still going to the BMX track every weekend. I was having a blast until that fateful day in 8th grade when I came out of school to ride my bike home, and all that was there was my bike lock… cut in half.
It was devastating.
I rode that bike everywhere. I raced on it, explored on it, rode around the neighborhood with my kid sister on it, and visited my friend’s houses on it. Sometimes during Summer vacation, it felt that I would get up, get on my bike, be gone riding ALL DAY, and return only for dinner.
I didn’t know what my life would become without it.
Dad Saves the Day?
I went to my dad again when he got home that night and told him what had happened at school earlier. He saw how sad I was. He said he’d take care of it.
Wait, what does that mean? Was I getting a new bike? Was he going to find the thief and kick his ass and get my wonderful Webco back? I didn’t have a clue.
So I walked to school the next day, wondering what my two-wheeled fate would be later that day. What will Dad do? It was a mystery. I don’t remember, but I’m sure I couldn’t concentrate in school that day.
When I got home from school, my mom confirmed that Dad would be bringing me home a new bike. What!? Really? Well, when will he be home? I was losing my mind with excitement.
Those, to this day, may be the longest 4 hours of my entire life.
Enter the Schwinn Varsity
Suddenly, I hear the garage door open and hear my dad’s car pull in. I run downstairs when I hear him come into the house. I hug him, say hi, and head straight out to the garage to see a shiny new…
Schwinn Varsity 10-speed road bike?!
At this point in the story, I should let you know that my Dad and I had a pretty tumultuous relationship. When he brought the Varsity home, he informed me that he thought it was time to put the BMX away and “grow up”. That hurt. I loved racing BMX, and I was good at it.
But, as hurt as I was, the fact that he went out of his way that day to get me another bike wasn’t lost on me. I was disappointed, but still grateful.
It was a nice bike for the time. Reluctantly, I turned to him and faked a smile and told him, “Thank you so much, Dad, it’ll be fine.”
That weekend, I rode the bike to the local homemade BMX track and proceeded to ride and jump that 10-speed all over the place, trying to break it. Unfortunately, as you may or may not know, a Schwinn Varsity is built like a Sherman tank. I couldn’t break it. I tried, but I couldn’t.
My Beach Cruiser MTB
It’s 1980, and my mom and dad have split for good. I live with my mom and sister. My Dad had gotten my sister and me each a Schwinn Beach Cruiser about three years before they split. But at this point, I had lost interest in riding my bike. Mostly because I had been skating more.
But then, I hear about these guys taking old Beach Cruiser-type bikes and riding and racing them in the Northern California mountains.
They were modifying them with stronger forks and handlebars and calling them “mountain bikes”. And, hey!! Wouldn’t ya know it? I have one of those beach cruisers, and I can do that with my beach cruiser!
So I did.
I changed to lighter alloy rims, a lighter alloy three-piece crank set, new tubular forks, a BMX stem and handlebar, and a “hairpin” Brooks leather saddle. What a blast that bike was, I rode that thing everywhere on and off road.
I loved my bike again.
In 1988, I bought my first real mountain bike, a Shogun, with Shimano, 7-speed “push-push” index shifting… and as they say, the rest is history.
Thanks, Dad
To summarize: Every bike I owned as a small kid and into adolescence was a top-quality bicycle.
Nope…let me rephrase that.
Every top-quality bike I owned as a small kid, all the way through adolescence, was given to me by my father. Every single one. From dear ol’ dad. My dad and I didn’t always have the best relationship, but bicycles were a common thread that kept us linked together. My dad always made sure I had a quality bicycle to ride because he knew how much that meant to me.
He worked hard to earn the money to do that. And he knew that it was, more often than not, money well spent. He also taught me to value and take care of the things I own.
Now, I’ve raised all of my children to love and cherish bicycles. Not only as something good for your health, but more importantly, as something good for your soul and your mental health as well. Appreciating a quality bicycle is something that is being passed through the generations.
So hug your dad on Father’s Day. And raise a glass especially high to the dads that let their kids be kids and ride like the wind.
And finally, here’s to you, pop… to the memories and freedom you’ve helped me achieve throughout my childhood on the quality bicycles you had bestowed upon me.
For that, I am forever grateful.
And here’s to me, for learning from you how to do the same for my children with their bicycles, while focusing more on healthy relationships as well.
Cheers to all the dads out there, Happy Father’s Day!
