Were You Able To Ride Your Bike To A Favorite Hobby Shop Before You Could Drive A Car?

My biggest bike challenge was that my bike was only a single speed bike until I got an upgrade to a three speed bike in high school.  That bike got stolen in college.  Now I have a 21 speed bike that I have owned for 26 years but no local hobby shops to ride it to!

I also remember the Raleigh bikes, and a number of my friends had them.  They were quite nice,  William1 mentions the Schwinn bicycle catalogs, which I also enjoyed looking at -- particularly the new Varsity Racers, and the 10 speeds -- way out of my price range.

When I made the long jaunt to the hobby store mentioned in the original post, I tended to use my Varsity Racer because  of the distance, and the longer, less traveled roads.  Sometimes I would visit the hobby shop after delivering my papers, since the far southeast portion of my large route was closer to the shop.  And, I had my paper bag ready to avoid a "Deadhead" home!

First rode my bike (Schwinn Black Phantom) over to Amer's Hobby Shop (long ride) and others, and subsequently rode my Allstate Moped to the same destinations.

After learning to ride my new Montgomery-Ward Hawthorne by crashing into the fence across "Depot Lane"from our back yard , my railroad bicycle experience began by pedaling down the said gravel lane to hang out at the RR station. After moving to a larger Louisville, Ky. "bedroom community", the RR station was too far to ride to and l only made it to the area once, to visit relatives.  But, there was a tiny store on the town square that stocked airplane kits, Highway Pioneers, and to place on my layout roads, Matchbox vehicles.  That became my frequent bicycle destination, maybe what l then thought was far, but a few blocks from home.  A real hobby shop required a bus or car ride into Louisville.

YES!

My first true train shop was in the basement of a Famous local man.

George Stoup 11th street in Oakmont Pa.

He was a service station for Lionel up to the early 1980's

I would ride my bike to his house ring the bell to enter and see the train display room full of shelves filled with Lionels newest offerings and isles of boxes Track and used items.

The interesting fact about George was that he had CP when you talked to him or in his daily activities his CP made him shake and move uncontrollably

But when he worked on trains or did electrical repairs, he was smooth as glass.

From Broadview, IL to LaGrange Hobby shop, using a combo of bike trails and city side streets.

The HOBBY MODELS store in Peoria, IL was the downtown vendor for my American Flyer trains placed on the 32x4-feet layout in the basement of the Mottler homestead (located on the east bluff of the city). The store was also a dealer in SHOP SMITH multi-purpose machinery for woodworking.

I rode my bike to the store many times in the early 1950s, a long-ish trip that most "helicoptering" parents today would probably prohibit. My grandmother and my parents indulged my interest in trains at birthdays and Christmas. I saved money earned from lawn mowing, leaf raking, and snow shoveling for nearby neighbors and applied the cash to an AF PRR steam switcher. Through a spiffy rectifier wired to the tracks, it would run on DC while other AF trains ran on the same tracks with AC power.

Although the switcher wasn't the most expensive of my four AF trains, it was a memory maker because I earned it with my own money.  I had a Brownie camera then; I now wish I had thought to use it to capture images of the layout.

Mike M.

Todds was the only Hobby shop we had in Upper Darby Pa and only about a 15 minute walk from my house. I would sneak on the Market St EL to visit the hobby shops in Downtown Philadelphia when I was about 11 or 12 and legally when I was like 14 or 15 lol.

I guess I could have ridden my bike to a hobby shop but never did.  My dad would drive me after work