My first knobbly tyre bike

My “Knoppebandefiets.”

The plate number was the right one all along!

I was a rabid cyclist at the age of 5. It was the year 1979 and it was Christmas.

Santa (my dad minus the Santa costume) wheeled in the most amazing bike I had aver laid eyes upon- in fact, it was a little motorbike. Minus the engine.

It was black with yellow plastics: Mud guards, a number plate, (#1) even a little bottomless petrol tank. The suspension was HUGE. (ok, I was 5) Double coil springs in the rear and the front end looked JUST like a “Scrambler”. Except, after a few years my dad bolted the lions’ head of our Peugeot hood ornament on the front mud guard.

The bike had a long banana seat and a cutting edge back pedal brake. But most importantly- it had knobbly tires. At last, the “knoppe bande fiets” I had been dreaming about.

Of course, the bike was way too big. The frame had some ridiculous guarantee, so my parents bought the bike a few sizes too big as it “would last forever” and I would “grow into it”.

I remember not really being able to ride it properly for a while. (even though I was a little Greg Minnaar on my little purple 12” tire bike)  But soon I had built jumps in the back yard and went “skidding” with the other kids on an open piece of dirt behind George the Greeks corner Café.

I loved that bike and went everywhere on it. After years of faithful service and many a scuffed knee or elbow it got stolen. Probably ended up in Bike Heaven. Also known as  a “Township”.

By then the BMX mania was in full swing, and after a respectable mourning period, a birthday became a visit to heaven with a shiny Kamikaze BMX with a Chrome Molebdium frame, a number “88” racing plate, bear trap pedals and yellow tires. But thats another story in itself…