My earliest ride

[427TJ]

Man, that photo of the Stingray damn near brought a tear to my eye! My Scrambler's seat was exactly like that--black tuck and roll with the white Schwinn lettering. What a classic bicycle and a true American icon.

Yeah, I can't remember the name of the mag wheels that came out in the mid '70s. I think the one I had was made of very strong plastic, as it was overall black and very light. All I had to do was lean back and give the bars a little pull and a slight push on the down pedal and that front wheel came right off the ground. It was even worse with my paper route bag over the seat with 50+ newspapers.

[Steve_Hoog]

The wheels are a blur to me too, but I remember the first Mongoose came out in the mid 70's had some type of cast 5 spoke. Seems like they were a little on the heavy side.

Wheelie riding bikes they were!!!! I was able to ride them continuously, even mastered making turns and going up hills.

I left my blue bike at my dads house after going to college, I think they sold it in a garage sell for $10. They called an asked before doing it, I was so involved in cars by then (and beer drinking) I couldn't think of a reason I would ever need it again.

Now my daughter thinks it's the coolest thing since hot wheels so we bought her an old frame and she's sanding it down for fresh paint. Says she wants to paint it blue.

[indyjps]

may be a little too new for you guys but my ride was a profile frame and fork, redline three piece crank with sealed bearings, bear trap (ouch my shin) pedals, pedal traps when racing, shimano rims, stainless spokes, bullseye sealed hubs, uni seat and bars, dont remember the brakes manuf. but it was the first bmx center pulls. ill see if i can find pics.
i kept breaking center of redline cranks so i had a machinist in town make me one out of 4340 and heat treat it, didnt know anything about steel selection @ the time but he was building race cars and welded up the diamondback frames i kept snapping. after that i started snapping off the crank arms. pretty cool that the same machinist narrowed the nine inch for my first car, he remembered the bike.

[SOM2001SS]

[ QUOTE ]
may be a little too new for you guys but my ride was a profile frame and fork, redline three piece crank with sealed bearings, bear trap (ouch my shin) pedals, pedal traps when racing, shimano rims, stainless spokes, bullseye sealed hubs, uni seat and bars, dont remember the brakes manuf. but it was the first bmx center pulls.

[/ QUOTE ]
I had (and still have!) almost the exact same bike! At 30, I'm a bit younger than most on this board too. Profile F&F, Redline Forklifter bars, DK stem, Redline 3 piece cranks, Pitbull brakes, Araya rims. Had almost $800 wrapped up in that thing. I love that Profile frame.

[WANNA BE SYC]

Forgive me for saying. but All these pics,just change the faces and these could be my family pics,same shoes clothes etc.You take pics today and you'll have diferent settings in every picture.Were so lucky we grew up when we did.Everbody smiled back then, we apprieciated a new bike for x-mas when we got one.And did'nt mind puting togother bikes from ten different other bikes{hell those were the best bike i ever owned}Thank you for the trip back down memory lane.Remember sticking schwinn forks down into royce union forks for the first chopper style bikes?

[Supergas990]

Wow, welcome to the good old days. How many of you had the checkered Flite pads and Vans shoes?

I had a Mongoose frame, TRX forks, Araya rim w/shimano hubs, takagi crank, etc.... I think that bike was apart monthly for new paint or parts.

Now if I'd only saved my vintage copies of BMX Plus!!!!

Blair

[budnate]

Found this old one..we made the paper sunday i think it was 1976 but I had to crop the other dudes out of it..thing would not resize for nothing..old school bike..from the famous "V" Jump..it was in a really steep raveen like 100 yards straight down..then up the other side about half way to a jump about 3 ft high the speed would carry you about 6 ft off the ground for like 30 plus feet then you would touch down on the crown of the hill on the other side..major rush!! no need to peddle just push off like the long distance ski jumpers..only a few dared peddle down the hill certain death was claimed if you did,lol.

Bud.

[427TJ]

Here's how I learned to ride a bike. This photo from 1966 (Richmond, California) shows me and my friend Rob on his Schwinn Stingray. Rob was (is) 4 years older and could easily ride me around with him on his bike. I'd sit up front on the banana seat and put my feet on the top of the forks on the chrome 'steps' that stuck out at the fork tops. One day, Rob got tired of riding me around. We were on the local schoolyard riding with dozens of other kids (the baby boom was neat that way) and Rob just stopped, got off the bike, and said "It's time you learned how to ride!" I was scared but before I could bail-off the bike he gave it a good push and I was off. I can still remember thinking "Hey, I'm riding a bike!" as I went across the schoolyard. I didn't know how to turn so I crashed into the side of the school building. I wasn't hurt and Rob put me back on and gave me another shove and I was off for more.

You can see that we were a Ford family. My Dad thought Falcons were economical and practical so we had two, the white '62 (bought new) and the blue '66 (also bought new). All California cars were "black plate" in those days!

[427TJ]

Just found a pedal car shot from Xmas '65. I'll bet most of us got our start on a pedal car. I even rolled one once trying to take a downhill corner going down a steep sidewalk. The front wheel dropped off the curb and that sucker rolled over into the street, going around only once but it felt like 200mph at Daytona. Nope, no helmet, no nothing, we just bled a little and got over it. How did we ever make it through childhood without all the "safety" crap kids have to wear nowadays? When my wife's not around I let my kids ride their bikes around the backyard without their helmets. Shhh, don't tell her.

[Steve_Hoog]

I kinda laugh at the helmet thing. I mean we don't want our kids to get hurt like any good parent, but all the crazy stuff we did and lived to tell about it. There were no helments back then.