As the 1964 CCM Ladies one-speed gets rebuilt, we would love to hear your bike stories.

Here is one from Nancy Gwin. Nancy grew up in New Toronto (now Etobicoke) where her parents ran a variety store on Lakeshore Road. She recalls the powerful and mixed emotions of getting her first bike as a present for her 8^th birthday.

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Oh man, I wanted a bike.

All my friends had bikes. I was almost 8 years old and ‘But dad, everyone has a bike’ was getting me nowhere.

My dad told me I could have a bike when I could ride one. ‘Hmmmmm,’ I thought. ‘But first I would need a bike to learn to ride one. Now what?’

My friend Joanne had a bike, a beauty, a blue CCM with a front basket and a bell and streamers from the handlebars and I lusted after it. It seemed everyone’s bike was a CCM.

Joanne lived on 21^st Street, a block away from the variety store my parents ran at Lakeshore and 22^nd. This was a true variety store. We sold penny candy, comics, magazines and newspapers, cigarettes, milk and bread. We also had a milkshake stand and a gift section. Out front there was a bike rack with an advertising sign on it. Our family lived above the store and the kids helped out in the store.

Joanne and I went to 20^th Street School together. We were friends, so she let me learn on her bike. We went a few houses down from her place to ride up and down on Mr. Fisher’s driveway. His driveway was paved asphalt and made for a smooth ride.

Well, I practiced, fell, coasted, practiced, pedaled and learned how to ride a bike. Now… How to get my dad on board? I told him I could ride now, and please could he get me a bike. He was thinking about it and I knew enough not to ask again.

Finally, it was my 8^th birthday. I came home from school for lunch and there was a bike outside the store in the bike rack. There were no customers in the store so I thought this might be for me, except… it couldn’t be. It wasn’t a CCM, it didn’t have a basket or a bell or streamers. It was some other bike from somewhere with a crest and strange initials I didn’t recognize.

I thought, ‘That can’t be for me because it’s not what I asked for.’ I had asked for a CCM with a basket and a bell and streamers from the handlebars. ‘Whose bike is outside?’ I wanted to know.

My parents were watching me as I slowly realized that this was my birthday present. They had parked it outside the store to surprise me. A beautiful dark blue girl’s bike, a one-speed – or “no speeds” as we would say – with a coaster brake. Not exactly what I wanted, not exactly what I asked for, but oh boy, I had a bike. And I knew I had to learn to love it.

Joanne and I and our neighborhood friends would ride our bikes up 21^st Street, across Birmingham, and around behind the Lion’s Arena. We would ride to the train tracks and back, and along Lakeshore Road to the Library. Eventually, I got streamers, a basket and a bell for my new blue bike.

In high school, I would get up on a Sunday, grab some food from the fridge, and go for long rides. I rode all along Lakeshore Road to the ferry docks at Yonge Street and back.

I had that bike until I was in my early 20s – when Peter and I moved to Nova Scotia. We drove out, so we didn’t bring much along and I gave my bike away before I left – the one that wasn’t a CCM but that I had learned to love.