stooka Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 My old Stingray had a sissy bar that easily divided low flying clouds! That sum bitch was up there!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tinnitus photography Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 It may be time for the men to talk about their rad jumping over things on bikes stories now. unfortunately i haven't been on the downhill bike the last two summers, but here's a shot a few years ago of me @ Diablo. fun mountain! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Analogman Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 I never experienced that sort of thing. We use to go around and acquire pieces of wood and bricks and make ramps out of them. I think we were trying to be Evel Knievel or maybe The Fonz. We didn't jump any sharks though, a few snakes, but no sharks. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Moss Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 Evil Knievel was responsible for injuring many a kid. We would have been a whole lot better off if we didn't feel like we needed to have a landing ramp. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
calvino Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 I was always too much of a chicken to do any of that ramp stuff. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GtrPlyr Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 We use to go around and acquire pieces of wood and bricks and make ramps out of them. I remember doing that too. There'd always be someone trying to get a kid to lie on the ground behind the ramp. We also used to take our bikes to a BMX course someone had built in a big field behind a science and research complex. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Scott Gyrrr Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 I had a pale blue/grey Raleigh Grifter. Thing weighed a shit ton. I think it had 3 gears and wasn't cool becuase BMXs were just coming in. Growing up i lived on road called Hazards Rd. It went down hill and into the sea via a gravel boat ramp. This was fun. In summer we would just ride straight into the sea at high speed with our togs on. Also there was a dirt bank to the left of the road just before the gravel part which made an excelent jump. I mastered the 360 on that sucka. Great memories. Oh yeah, for christmas one year my cousin got an E.T Kuwahara!!! This must have been about 1983 I guess so I was nine and he would have been 7. I don't think I have ever been so jelous in my life. It was hours before I got a turn on it. Thing was light as a feather. So jelous. At some point I got a BMX but I can't recall what it was. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ms. yvon Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 I took all the junk off The Bandit and turned into a chopper bike. I remember saving up to buy the blue metal flake paint that I used to repaint it. I wish I had a photo of it.me, too! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cryptique Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 Awwwwww yeah. That's me on the right, my brother on the left. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cryptique Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 Another shot of my bike. It looked a little ridiculous, what with the bicentennial banana seat, the fenders, and the stumpy handlebars, but it was the fastest bike in the neighborhood. I routinely beat my brother (3 years older) in bike races. And A-man, I didn't have that Knievel bike, but someone in my neighborhood did. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
welch79 Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 I think we were trying to be Evel Knievel or maybe The Fonz. We didn't jump any sharks though, a few snakes, but no sharks.i got a good, unexpected laugh from this line. thanks and well played! as far as my story with the bike, in 1981 at 20 months old, i placed my right hand into the spokes of an exercise bike (the old-school kind with the spoked front wheel) being ridden by my grandmother in my uncle's playroom/workout room. long story short, i have nine fingers. thankfully, this early-life nightmare didn't cause me to shy away from the most efficient machine ever built. i ride thousands of miles on my bike each year. it's a cool story to have actually, and i have fun making up tales about how i "really" lost it. you should see my "finger removal trick." very believable. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
kidsmoke Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 Awwwwww yeah. That's me on the right, my brother on the left. Those are some rad bikes, Tom! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
kidsmoke Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 i got a good, unexpected laugh from this line. thanks and well played! as far as my story with the bike, in 1981 at 20 months old, i placed my right hand into the spokes of an exercise bike (the old-school kind with the spoked front wheel) being ridden by my grandmother in my uncle's playroom/workout room. long story short, i have nine fingers. thankfully, this early-life nightmare didn't cause me to shy away from the most efficient machine ever built. i ride thousands of miles on my bike each year. it's a cool story to have actually, and i have fun making up tales about how i "really" lost it. you should see my "finger removal trick." very believable. AAAaaaarrrgggghhhh! You have successfully caused me to cringe. And wrap my hands up in tight balls. Your poor grandma must've freaked! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Analogman Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 i got a good, unexpected laugh from this line. thanks and well played! as far as my story with the bike, in 1981 at 20 months old, i placed my right hand into the spokes of an exercise bike (the old-school kind with the spoked front wheel) being ridden by my grandmother in my uncle's playroom/workout room. long story short, i have nine fingers. thankfully, this early-life nightmare didn't cause me to shy away from the most efficient machine ever built. i ride thousands of miles on my bike each year. it's a cool story to have actually, and i have fun making up tales about how i "really" lost it. you should see my "finger removal trick." very believable. I almost lost a few due to trying to play The Rifleman with a BB gun once. I'd like to find an old bike like cryptique had. I think there have been some remakes in the past few years of banana seat bikes. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PopTodd Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 This MAY have been it:Hard to remember if that was the exact one, but I do remember that it was definitely red, white, and blue. It had a banana seat. And, it was a second- (or even third-) tier brand.I do think that this was it. Except the seat had red, white, and blue stripes, too. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jff Posted February 22, 2011 Author Share Posted February 22, 2011 Luckily for me, when I was in my BMX phase there was an office park under construction near my neighborhood. For a few years most of it was dirt fields. Some motorcycle guys built a huge moto-cross track complete with large berms and a variety of jumps in one of the fields. My favorite/scariest jump was in my backyard. We tore the slide off my swingset, and propped it up against a log. On one side of the landing area was a huge boulder that jutted out from a steep hill, and on the other side was our pile of grass clippings. So the options were to land a VERY rad jump, get mortally wounded by hitting the boulder, or tumble down the leaf pile. Somehow, I've never broken a bone. I did land on my face and break my tooth just by riding across the street once, though. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cryptique Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 My parents let us borrow bricks and boards and we set up jumps on the sidewalk in front of our house -- both takeoff and landing ramps. Those ramps got pretty far apart after a while. Amazingly, no memorable injuries resulted. We lived on a cul-de-sac with woods at the end of it, and in those woods there were some great jumps that someone had constructed by creating mounds of earth. Some of them were really scary, but I don't remember any of us ever getting hurt. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
embiggen Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 mine was a pink bike with a banana seat that had butterflies on it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
embiggen Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 mine was a pink bike with a banana seat that had butterflies on it. sort of like this with regular handlebars: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Moss Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 sort of like this with regular handlebars: Yes, but did you take that off of any sweet jumps? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
embiggen Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 no, but I rolled down gigantic hills without holding onto the handlebars. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Moss Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 no, but I rolled down gigantic hills without holding onto the handlebars. That counts. I was never good at that. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jff Posted February 23, 2011 Author Share Posted February 23, 2011 That counts. I was never good at that. Me neither, and as a result I sometimes get kind of angry and scared when cyclist commuters ride hands free in the narrow city streets around here. One medium sized pebble and your life is over. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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