My bike was a three-speed English "racer", purchased during my second year in college in November 1964 for $44. Most of the money was earned by myself in my spare time, but I had to get my mother to help me out a little. At that time, bikes were rare on a college campus. My reason for getting a bicycle was a little strange. A friend of mine convinced me to take a summer job selling door-to-door and suggested that I should use a bicycle to travel between houses. The job didn't work out, but was in my brain. That fall, I borrowed another student's bike and rode 45 miles on the first day, but his bike soon had a flat  which he didn't like fixing. So I had to buy one. I immediately started using mine almost every day. Before getting the bike, I sometimes walked 28 miles to my parents' house. Now the bike gave me a quicker method, but my first trip took four hours due to strong headwinds that had me fight for every foot. Once I made a trip of 100 miles in one day. I decided to use the bike to go camping in the Smokies. During the trip, I recognized the need for handlebars and more gears, so I bought a ten-speed after just one year though I loved this bike. The first bike "hung around" for a couple of years, and then I gave it to my sister's kids who let it become part of their lives. What can we learn from the passage?
His mother gave him some money when he bought the first bike. The first bike was a gift from his mother. He bought the first bike for racing. He wanted to buy a bike because all his classmates had one.