What was your first "Ten Speed" derailleur bike?

My first ten-speed was left for me at university by a friend who had just finished. It was in a terrible state and I didn't ride it until I had taken it home and tidied it up. I never found out what make it was. It had a Simplex 'suicide lever' front mech and pull chain RD. The knob broke off the shifter and I epoxied on a replacement made from copper tube. I still have this. I had never cycled more than about five miles but one Easter I rode 65 miles from London to Southampton in a day and then went on a tour of Brittany and Normandy with a friend who owned a Viscount Aerospace (fillet brazed frame). We did about 540 miles in a week. A couple of years later I sold it and bought a Viscount.

Mine was the Viscount Indy 500. A nimble bike, it handled very well, mainly Shimano components. It was a Christmas and birthday present from my Mum in the winter of '81. From memory it cost £95. I rode it into the ground (not literally), and I am ashamed to say that I trashed it through poor maintenance and then left it outside one winter at my aunties. I passed my driving test at 18 and forgot all about it. Returned and it was essentially a rusty pile of junk (it had steel rimmed wheels too). For a two year period, I rode it everywhere and was never parted from it.
Fast forward 30 odd years and I had a spiritual reunion with an identical model that I bought , just for the thrill of riding it on the same routes I took as a teenager. And it felt great!!
IMG_4887 by Sooper 8, on Flickr

I think I missed a lot by not really riding much in my 20s and not until after 30 really, though I rode as a kid. I had a bike accident as a kid where I needed to get some stitches, so I kind of stopped riding. Anyway, fast forward, one day I was driving and for free was a woman's bike of all things, a Montgomery Wards Hawthorne bike, similar to this, I kept the white saddle even:


And it was a lady's bicycle but I didn't care and I probably did not know better and I had so much fun on it, at times, on the bike, we get into it so very much, my model and frame,  my hub, my derailleur type, ideal wheels? But this was all about the freedom of it (and ultimately, for most of us, it still is about that, on the bike). I'm sorry now, though it is years ago, I ever gave it up but I guess I thought I was moving up and probably did not quite appreciate it. I'd wake up and go look at it in the morning and it was something like magic seeing it gleam. In that mode, for a few years, I was into roadster 3-speeds and enjoyed the leisure of them and have since moved into road bikes but I do have a classic English roadster still, it is in ultimate disrepair and would need quite a bit of work to fix it. It is so heavy I use it to chain my bike up if I park outside. It must weigh at least 40 lbs and there is no way, if my bike is u-locked on, that someone could easily take it. I'm sure, it can be done but around here, it would take quite a bit of effort and in this neighbourhood, crime is not much of a problem.

My first 10-speed bike was the fillet-brazed International I acquired a few days after DFR!

Back to the original post, I found this JC Higgins on craig's list Los Angeles.
losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/bik/5479290038.html


I believe here in the US those are called "balloon tires". So, other nice photos of this. I have always heard of the JC Higgins brand.

(edited, deleted the image)

My first 10-speed derailleur bike was/is a Viscount Aerospace Sport, which I bought in April 2013. The rest is history. :-)

Up to that point, I had ridden mainly 3-speed/SS sit up and begs, and MTBs for about 10 years. Nothing fancy, just cheap and cheerful heavy workhorses to get me round. Never owned a road bike, but always wanted one as a teen.

There was bike named Hosteler from Austria....

Hosteler was also a model name used by Viking of England.

Actually Hosteller, as it was English.

Thank you for all of the responses and, I certainly don't mean to derail the thread talking about the Hostelers (Hostellers per Viking and actually, Gitane too).

Apparently, Hosteling seems to be to the '60s (going to a Hostel on bicycle), seems similar in that before, a number of bicycles were called "Clubman" and it denoted their purpose.

One of various Gitane Hosteller threads at the Gitane USA forum, it appears Hosteller was actually a quality frame made bike with at least the main tubes Reynolds 531, double butted or straight gauge I forget. gitaneusa.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2684&highlight=hosteller (these can go back to 1964ish it sounds like)

Wheel Goods Corporation out of Minneapolis imported both kinds, at least per the "experts" I believe that is in the bikeforums.net thread.

Some say these French made Hostelers were made by Gitane; like this ad: minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/bik/5482619591.html (big bike but other wise)

minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/bik/5504284820.html Man's Hosteler, on there a long time. I've gone from questioning the quality of these bikes to thinking, they are probably fairly good quality if still low end entry.

minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/bik/5496709130.html Hosteller Mixte. This one has a photograph with the so-called pin striping work.

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But away from those above, here is actually a good thread on hostelers with a picture of a girl on one of those light blue Hostelers: forums.mplsbikelove.com/forums/topic/hosteler

I guess they do have a degree of "pinstriping", 'highlighting" on them, I think Raleigh Lady's superbe's have highlighting I have seen.


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Hosteling on bikes I think use to be a "semi-big" deal to do; and maybe similar in significance to the old cycling clubs pre-World War II.

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Anyway, a foray into a rather obscure type of bicycle; but pretty nice. As said, I know, for us here, England has quite a number of handcrafted bikes and bikemakers in the day (Petworth was mentioned the other day) that most of us generally would not know about.