ultrastar wrote:
Just Dave wrote:
Anybody remember Clackers? They were dangerous as all got out. Every time they got broken out someone would get hurt. I just looked them up trying to find a pic and found a link that said they were based on a weapon from Argentina.

Who had an extra set of forks welded on your bike to make a chopper? I did, my neighbor was a body man and fixed my sears Freespirit bike for me. It had a high rise sissy bar to. Were clackers the toy that had two fricking hard two inch balls on a string if so you took a beating learning how to get good with them

Yeah, thats them.

In the 70s, I built a chopper out of my bicycle.. Don't jump ramps with a chopper, it gets UGLY...

wow ,,building 2x4 go-carts that u had to either have someone push or find a good down hill road, getting a ass whipping for staying out past dark,cutting grass for 3.00 a yard, drive in movies, making pop corn on the stove and watching the lid rise, am radio, and only 3 different channels to watch on tv. yep those were the good ole days.

The whole key to that double fork scene is the welding bit! I found out what happens when you dont! Can you say face plant!

As promised, the cousin Greg story.

Along about 1977, we watched Evel Knievel one Saturday afternoon doing an exibition jump at some big Nascar race. He jumped 30 55 gallon drums on their sides. Greg decided that the Montgomery Ward Minibike with the 3.5 Horse Tecumpseh engine was the hot setup for a tribute jump. We stacked 3 concrete blocks with a rough cut 2 X 8 about 12 feet long for a ramp, in the road no less, and got 5 35 gallon grease barrels rolled out in front of it. Greg put on big brothers stars and stripes open face with the bubble shield, and his dad's Air Force issue M65 field jacket, and the deerskin gloves that were ever present on top of the Homelite XLT.

Greg got about a 1/4 mile run at it, made a couple of show passes, just like The Man. We all know that about 200 feet saw those things get as fast as they ever would without launching off a cliff, so the big run up to the ramp was just for drama!
Greg puts in the money run, hits the end of the 2 X 8, and it slides about 6 foot closer to the blocks before the blocks lay over into the barrels! He's about half way up the 2 X 8, and on top of the first barrel, when he falls off the side of the board, and gets one big Whoop into the air before losing his hold! It all flopped off the right side of the mess, and I think he hit 3 of the barrels as he and the mini bike slid to a stop in the ditch.
Nowadays, this would be considered a "massive fail" on youtube and such, but for about 40 seconds, Greg was the bravest person alive, and COOL was pouring out of his road rash all over that field jacket!

I will NEVER forget the elation I felt at being a front row spectator to something like that at the age of 8!

On the 70's, Am I the only one who would drop firecrackers into a returnable bottle and shove a cork in it and aim it at someone before the cracker popped? Better whelts than a paintball gun! Not so accurate though!

We all started running mini-bikes with stuff we cobbled up and you could always tell if the kids in the neighborhood didn't like you because if you had a reel type lawn mower the engine would be GONE and a mini-bike would have a freshly painted engine on it

Well things escalated as they always do, into go carts and then it was who's is faster Not to be outdone, My buddy Tom & me conned a neighbor of his out of a 56' VW beetle that was alongside his garage and proceeded to take the body off.

WE got all of it's 36 hp fired up and put a gas tank and the seats back on it and proceeded to DRIVE it to the park where the other guys were running their stuff After about four laps around the cops showed and wanted to know what the hell we were doing and I said we're testing out our go-cart.

He said go-cart my ass get it outa here and push it home, and I'll be driving by to make sure you PUSH it.

I think that was the longest couple of miles in my life

My cousin Phillip was the pilot for the "airplane" we built out of Soda bottle crates and scrap lumber. We shoved him off a pretty steep embankment! There were lift and weight and balance issues!

Phillip, always a good sport, thought if we put some wheels under it, and made it a biplane, we stood a chance! Good thing it was the end of summer and time to harvest hay and tobacco before we got the biplane done! Phillip might never have been the granddad that he is today! MAN we were crazy, and nobody EVER got sued over a kid getting hurt. My dad always said you gotta give your boys a chance to work all the stupid out of 'em when they're young!
I'm doing me best to let my 8 year old "learn" like I did.

Doc_V wrote:
Just Dave wrote:
Anybody remember Clackers? They were dangerous as all got out. Every time they got broken out someone would get hurt. I just looked them up trying to find a pic and found a link that said they were based on a weapon from Argentina.

Who had an extra set of forks welded on your bike to make a chopper? I did, my neighbor was a body man and fixed my sears Freespirit bike for me. It had a high rise sissy bar to.

Yes, I do remember clackers, both my sisters had them and I had a Schwinn Stingray with banana seat, stick shift and apes...

My first bike like that was DARK green, but when I wrecked it (and survived...without a helmet) my next one was metallic orange with a tiger print vinyl seat! Sweeeeet...

RK

My first bike that wasn't a Parts bike was from Western Auto, and was a BMX! Actually had little boingers on the back seat. Rode it till the frame broke at the pedal crank tube.

I see a very common theme among us bikers. We all grew up doing the fun, and sometimes dangerous stuff, that made us what we are today.

I had stitches 8 times by the age of 6, which was the 70's. The rest happened in the 80's. Tackle football, yep, anywhere yard, field, street. The back of a pickup truck was where the kids went so they didn't bother the parents. BB gun battles, sure why not, paintballs didn't exist. That ended when someone almost lost an eye. I have a friend that probably still has one in his back. Sledding down the farmers hill and running from bulls at the end, falling into frozen ponds, frost bite did not exist to me at that age. Snakes, yea lets catch them, bring them home and find out that it is poisonous. How high can we climb a tree, lean out and bend it to the ground, or it breaks and crash to the ground. Dads not home, lets shoot stuff out the bedroom window, morning doves look like fireworks. My brother decided to put all the dud firecrackers in a bottle, and then proceed to drop the last good one it to see what happens, don't worry I still have both eyes. I had an M80 explode just out of my fingers but right next to my ear, my ear rang for days after that one. We built ramps out of everything and broke everything we rode, including my first and last motorcycle as a kid. And to top it off, I broke my shoulder skiing on a golf course after a 3 foot snow. I was practicing my ski tricks, thought I should jump over my girl friend, which I did, only to be carted out by 4 firefighter and EMS a feet hundred yards to the closest street where the ambulance was waiting. I have 2 screws from that one, which was the end of my daredevil days. The above only covers part of it, there were some WWF and Karate kid moments in there too.

Great post, brought back some great moments that I look back on now and say, wow how did we not end up in the hospital more.

At least now if someone thinks you have a screw loose, it's a possibility! Man. I really miss not worrying about getting hurt!