This how we rolled!!

[GON]

Shel,

F

My first 2-wheel bike was handed down to me by my father. He used it when he parachuted into Anzio during the 2nd world war. The bike folded and was carried in a large leather case, which most jumpers just abandoned when they landed. No need to carry more than was needed, especially when under fire.

I used this bike for a number of years until I got an Italian-made racing-style bike for my birthday when I was about eight years old.

View attachment 129984

My first set of wheels was a trike ...

View attachment 129983

Fantastic story and pictures- thanks for sharing. Having been a paratrooper for seven years, I never ever heard of jumpers exiting the aircraft with a bicycle- wow!!! I am going to try and see if I can locate one of those bikes.

 

[vavavroom]

Shel,

F

Fantastic story and pictures- thanks for sharing. Having been a paratrooper for seven years, I never ever heard of jumpers exiting the aircraft with a bicycle- wow!!! I am going to try and see if I can locate one of those bikes.

The British Paratroopers Who Parachuted Into Enemy Territory with Folding Bicycles

The BSA Airborne Paratrooper Bicycle was carried by British soldiers who landed on D-Day and in many other conflicts during World War II.

www.popularmechanics.com

 

[PimTac]

I mentioned the Columbia bike I had back in the sixties earlier in the thread. That was a great bike. Single speed. Took off all the streamers and junk first thing. Rode it for a few years.

Us neighborhood kids would have bike races going around the block. Our block had a gravel alley which we did spins and skids on. On the final leg on one race we came down that alley lickety split. It was a close race. Unfortunately I hit a pothole and flipped the bike head first. My face plowed into the alley. The bike frame snapped at the top bar and the wheel was obviously destroyed.

I got up and started running back home. My face looked like raw hamburger. Blood everywhere. My mom had me stand on a step stool bent over the kitchen sink while she used a brush to clean the dirt and small stones out. Once that was done she applied the mercurochrome. To this day I remember sitting outside my face stinging from the mercurochrome and sweat watching everyone else riding.

 

[MRC01]

My first 2-wheel bike was handed down to me by my father. He used it when he parachuted into Anzio during the 2nd world war. The bike folded and was carried in a large leather case, which most jumpers just abandoned when they landed. No need to carry more than was needed, especially when under fire.

I used this bike for a number of years until I got an Italian-made racing-style bike for my birthday when I was about eight years old. ...

That's a new one on me, and a great piece of history. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Jim K]

Here is a nice little bike .

 

[Shel_B]

Here is a nice little bike .

It's not a bike. A bike (bicycle) has two wheels. This has either three (a trike or tricycle) or five (a pentacycle) depending on how you choose to count the small, rear wheels.

 

[PF52]

Don't knock store brands. There are some pretty good ones out there like REI. While growing up my family had a Montgomery Ward's washer/dryer set and a Ward's electric chainsaw.

+2

We're still using the Wards washing machine at home.... The dryer is new though I think, probably a GE.

 

[vavavroom]

It's not a bike. A bike (bicycle) has two wheels. This has either three (a trike or tricycle) or five (a pentacycle) depending on how you choose to count the small, rear wheels.

I see duallies on the rear. So it's not a conventional trike either.

 

[andrew_j]

I spent my youth 1980’s looking like that clothing on a BMX. We would bike all over town which including crossing live railroad trestles to cut quickly to town.

We also used to bike up to logging equipment on mountain behind us and drive the skidders around age 13. No key!?

My mum thought I just went around our neighborhood. I am thankful no cell phone leashes.

We got two channels on TV with no cable in the mountains . So TV was out.

 

[GON]

Sure plenty on BITOG relate to this:

 

[SammyChevelleTypeS3]

Sure plenty on BITOG relate to thi]s:

View attachment 174232

Reminds me of exactly what my younger brothers , me and a few kids down the street looked like at times.. Well that is when we were not scavenging , hunting , swimming or fishing around the banks of the old muddy MIssissippi river. That would have been around the summers of 67 thru about 1970 . The fun n games on the bikes all prettty much ended once several of us found our selves in possesion of sets of keys to some family muscle cars or even a few granny grocery getters to the likes of Plymouth Valiants or Dodge Darts etc.... Cant explain why but in my area for some reason the grannies loved them some MOPAR vehicles. Yeah yeah yeah, even those granny machines used to get ribbed n teased with nicknames like shopping center prowlers or mall brawlers to shop hoppers etc. YET many of them in the right hands could at times shame some nice muscle machines like the Chevelles, Torinos and even a Vette once in a while leaving the stop lights. Some could lay rubber and a cloud of smoke before the guy in the next lanes knew what bit them!!!! .

 

[MRC01]

Sure plenty on BITOG relate to this:

View attachment 174232

When I was a kid, I'm not sure you could buy a bicycle helmet even if you wanted one. I never saw another kid wearing one. Yet I'm sure that if they did it would actually cause injury cuz other kids who saw you wearing it would beat you up for being a dork.

On a related note, a seatbelt was something a kid wore as punishment for getting rowdy in the car. "Johnny! Stop poking your sister. Put your seatbelt on until we tell you you can take it off."

 

[SaberOne]

View attachment 71078

That blue one looks very similar to the one I had including the seat color combo. It feels weird to think back of those days and how familiar they are in my mind.

 

[MrQuackers]

When I was a kid, I'm not sure you could buy a bicycle helmet even if you wanted one. I never saw another kid wearing one. Yet I'm sure that if they did it would actually cause injury cuz other kids who saw you wearing it would beat you up for being a dork.

On a related note, a seatbelt was something a kid wore as punishment for getting rowdy in the car. "Johnny! Stop poking your sister. Put your seatbelt on until we tell you you can take it off."

We only wore a helmet when jumping apple crates

 

[racer12306]

View attachment 71078

My wife and I were in antique shops this weekend and while 99% of it was boring as can be to me, one of the shops had almost every inch of ceiling covered with suspended bikes of this era. Stuff I've only seen in ads.

Like the racing bikes with the lever shifter, rear suspension and cheater slicks.

 

[SeaJay]

When I was a kid, I'm not sure you could buy a bicycle helmet even if you wanted one. I never saw another kid wearing one. Yet I'm sure that if they did it would actually cause injury cuz other kids who saw you wearing it would beat you up for being a dork.

On a related note, a seatbelt was something a kid wore as punishment for getting rowdy in the car. "Johnny! Stop poking your sister. Put your seatbelt on until we tell you you can take it off."

I grew up in a small town, many of my classmates were with me from K to 12. If anyone had ever been so foolish as to ride a bicycle while wearing a helmut, they would have never (and I mean never!) lived it down until they moved away. There would have been constant reminders all the time from such a faux pas.

 

[IndyIan]

I grew up in a small town, many of my classmates were with me from K to 12. If anyone had ever been so foolish as to ride a bicycle while wearing a helmut, they would have never (and I mean never!) lived it down until they moved away. There would have been constant reminders all the time from such a faux pas.

Yeah, I only remember getting whacked hard in the head without a helmet was on trees while tobogganing in the woods.... Biking injuries were always bad road rash when I was young....
Funny enough, it was the neighbors who asked my parents to get me a helmet when I was 11 or so, so a few of us wore hockey helmets for biking for a couple years until actual mountain bike helmets came out locally. Then I watched my buddy break his bike helmet on a good crash in the woods(he was out for only a few seconds...) and I've worn helmets ever since, and broke a couple as well over the years, but not quite knocked out.

 

[PontiacHO]

Did anyone install the front fork extenders? Made your bike look like a chopper. Best I recall they were just “hammered on” over the existing forks. The worst I’ve ever been hurt was playing Evel Kenievel on my bike. Knocked out, swollen nutsack, and enough roadrash the neighborhood pool wouldn’t let me swim for a while. The thing that worried the most about this incident was what my dad was going to do. We would get our hides tanned for getting hurt….
He was trying to teach us not to do stupid stuff. It helped…some.

 

[Pablo]

Yes on fork extension. Schwin forks were solid alloy.

 

[loneryder]

The stingray bikes came later in my young days. My first bicycle was much like this.

(Very Cool) Vintage Columbia Sterling Red w/ Chrome Fenders Men's Bicycle (model #R045782, Approx. mid 1960's)

(Very Cool) Vintage Columbia Sterling Men's BicycleThis is a great bike for all you folks who like vintage bicycle's.* In original condition (except for seat) and in very good shap...

www.k-bid.com

Yes. I had one of those.