[Johnny406]

[form74]

Ain't that the True.

Bicycle Helmets were non-existent then.

[hurryinhoosier62]

We lived to talk about, too!! Imagine that........

[salem1912]

My bike never had a chain guard.

[PonchoV8]

A boy can't build a bike with a chain guard on it.
Johnny Dombrowski was the funniest kid we knew. We were jumping concrete blocks and he grabbed his sister's bike and told us to stack 6 blocks up. He made it and broke the bike's frame at the same time. It didn't look like fun as he staggered home.

[Johnny406]

Originally Posted by salem1912

My bike never had a chain guard.

I remember my semi banana seat Sears Free Spirit bike w/o a chain guard. One time my pant leg took the chain off on a pretty good decent so I rode up a driveway and laid it down. It took nearly two lawns to stop. The good ole days...

[1969GTO]

I was the wheelie champ on my street with my Huffy Sting Ray bike,banna seat and sissy bar,cheeter slick.
pulled a wheelie one time and the front wheel came off,I passed by it,forkes hit the ground...I flipped.
Also went to pull another wheelie and the goose neck on the handle bars broke off.....not funny (

[fiedlerh]

Thought it would be a good ideal to ride my bike under the monkey bars at a high rate of speed, let go of the bike and then grab onto the monkey bars. Instantly lost my grip and landed on my face in the dirt. Still have the scar on the inside of my lower lip.

Another time we had gale-force winds and my bike had a speedometer. Got it up to 45 mph. Fortunately did not crash.

[Qball]

Originally Posted by fiedlerh

Another time we had gale-force winds and my bike had a speedometer. Got it up to 45 mph. Fortunately did not crash.

Man! That's really bookin' on a bike!

My buddies and I loved cobbling up make shift ramps for jumping. One of my buddies broke the ramp as he hit it, flipped over the handle bars and got a nasty road rash on his arm. Good times!!!

[4dblnkldude]

Yep, riding BMX was all we did from the age of 10-15 or so. It was a daily occurence to have 30-40 kids jumping ramps in my old neighborhood. There was always tons of wrecks, and a few hospital visits. Then the movie RAD came out and all hell broke loose, even the kids that werent into BMX got the latest redline or hutch. The good ole days before I had bills, drinking water from the nearest houses hose and coming home for dinner and right back out again. I'm gonna make my kids watch that movie.

[400 4spd.]

Originally Posted by 1969GTO

I was the wheelie champ on my street with my Huffy Sting Ray bike,banna seat and sissy bar,cheeter slick.
pulled a wheelie one time and the front wheel came off,I passed by it,forkes hit the ground...I flipped.
Also went to pull another wheelie and the goose neck on the handle bars broke off.....not funny (

Yes it was. You just didn't see the other guys laughing.

I didn't need a sissy bar. I did my wheelies on a full size 26" bike.
I do have to admit, I wanted a Sting Ray with the cheater slick.
In fact, last week I looked into buying one of these from a guy, but it was sold before I contacted him. It's a Schwinn Mini-Twinn. Only 400 were made, all in 1968.

[68lemansman]

When i was a kid I had the same kind of big wheel thats in the picture. I also had a green machine which was the best big wheel that was ever made.When i finally got a bike I would race everyone and anyone i could. I also used to take old bike parts and build one bike.I wanted a jacked up looking bike. So i took a 10 speed and put a small tire on the front and left the big tire in the back. Every kid loved the look of it!

[1969GTO]

it's funny reading these stories.
I am sure I as most of you at that time thought we had the ONLY ONE LIKE IT, 26in with a small front tire,road the farthest wheelie, could make the loudest skid sound on that fresh tard road that summer.
When in fact we kids from all over were doing the same thing. We were all on our own planet.....it was fun and it was good )

[68bird400HO]

Wow, that Green Machine has honeycomb wheels....

[Johnny406]

I had a Big Wheel, my sister had something similar, it was green and black and better built than a Big Wheel (not a Green Machine). The neighbor boys who were at least 5 years older than us would drag race my sister and I by running while pushing us down the cul-de-sac. Later we had bumper big wheels until my Big Wheel was so busted up the front wheel was in two and the bottom was dragging w/o me on it. Remember when we could shoot cap guns until our fingers were ready to fall off. We didn't go thru rolls, we went thru boxes of rolls. Jumping off the roof with Hefty chutes was common as well.

It was funny but last week my oldest (6 yr old) wanted to ride home in the back of the truck with our new tree and I told him nope, the 70's are long gone...

[Johnny406]

Originally Posted by 400 4spd.

It's a Schwinn Mini-Twinn. Only 400 were made, all in 1968.

That is cool, I never seen one. My first bike that my grandpa gave me was a old AMF with the small saddle and solid rubber tires. You could feel every atom and molecule you ran over. I wish I knew what happened to that bike.

[Formulabruce]

how many guys came home with permanent CHAIN marks on their jean bottoms? hehe

[Johnny406]

I'm still stuck back in time, this pic is of me doing a warm up lap two days ago (SAT).

[tharkun8]

ahh the 70s..

( I still have nightmares of purple corduroy pants )

for those of you who want to stroll down memory lane..

heres an archive of 70s fashion and toys..

I remember playing with a bunch of those toys.. my best bud
back then had almost all of the Fisher Price adventure people sets
hadnt thought of them in 20 years til I found this site.

http://www.plaidstallions.com/psindex.html

[69 T/A]

All of my bikes were hand made in one way or another, what drove me nuts were the 3 early Shwinn 3 speeds my friends had, they sat there for 15 years or so. I seen those parents every day, I never had the guff to ask them if they were for sale. One guy lost his life, one lost a leg both in the 'Nam and the other turned to drugs.