Trackers

Christ, when i started riding on road in the early 80's and we weren't being driven off the roads in the slightest. No idea where he got the idea that it was happening in the 1970's. Unless he has a completely skewed view of risk!

Mid-late 90's onwards was a completely different story!

For me I'd always wanted a motorbike and off road cycling was as close as I could get and so exciting. You could find the limit of grip, unlike on a road bike. When I got a moped in '78 and a motorbike in '79 I was still riding my "scrambler".

He did grow up in London, maybe motor vehicle conjestion arrived there first?


Meanwhile, here's the story of a 'Tracker' bike with homemade front suspension:



https://www.mbr.co.uk/news/my-dad-inven ... ike-358753

These creations remind me of the 3 wheel BMX tandems that we created in the late 80's.
Thinking about this they were bloody dangerous as they were created by joining 2 BMX's front to rear dropouts at the wheel nuts and they used to swivel around the rear axle of the lead bike. diamondback forks used to be best as the style of dropout offered more security (by virtue of the ends being bent outward slightly). They used to be damn fast and have good offroad ability for a single gear. The fad only lasted a few months though and in that time no tandems separated fortunately so we can look back on the concept as successful but flawed.

Carl.

Hiya I stumbled across this thread yesterday & it’s ACE!
Brilliant seeing some old pics & hearing tales from different parts of the UK.
Thought i’d share a pic of my lastest version of my ‘tracker’
There’s a couple of pic of it on page 4 of this thread (I think)

Here’s an old article from about 10years ago too
https://theradavist.com/2011/07/beautif ... launchpad/

I used to import Brooklyn Machine Works bikes into the UK. They mainly did bmx & mountain bikes, but when they brought a track bike out (the Gangsta) with straight bladed forks I thought that’s it I’m gonna build me a tracker!
Originally I was gonna use 26” mtb rims, then they ran out of the bladed tubing for the rear stays and the Lauchpad frame was born. This was even better for building a tracker. I told the lads in the US about these bikes with cowhorn bars & they’d no idea what I was taking about!
Joe built me a frame with a plate to fix a coaster brake hub.
The shop where I got the bars in Bklyn had an old 2 speed kickback coaster hub of an old schwinn. When I went to pick it up the dude gave me the whole wheel & I had to cut the hub out of the spokes to bring it back to the UK.
Currently the bike has 700c rims on it with cyclocross tyres & a 2 speed Sturmey Archer rear hub.

Welcome to the site Ged, cool bike! Love those forks

Cool as.....

Just want to thank GrahamJohnWallace for directing me to this thread which I’ve poured over and it’s just effing wicked! If you love bikes and the enjoyment of it - I’m not talking about modern roadie tree huggers who want all bikers to wear helmets and follow their creed - I’m talking pure joy, fun, carefree love that I’ve always had for bikes and this thread just brings it all back - I’m 47 so my cycling days didn’t begin until the late 79ies as a young child - but I do vaguely remember my elder brothers bike - which was modified by him so he could blast around Epping forest with his mates -

In the late 1970s my boys used to say dad can we build a bike? So off we would go to the local tip to find a frame and any good parts we could then bung the guy at tip some money and come home to start the build.
The Build would always have cowhorn handlebars (not bullhorn like the mtbs have but cruiser style. ).Nearly every build would require a different set of wheels due to the punishment they took as the boys use to build ramps out of scaffold planks and bricks to do jumps which kept getting higher.I built one bike which only lasted hours before my came in dragging the bike which the forks had snapped off.
There was not much health and safety for them at that time I must say I feel slightly guilty on that front as a dad I let them do some very dodgy things as they got bigger they used to ride my Yamaha DT 175 over some rough ground near us and they couldn't put their feet on the ground . one would sit in front of me and we would pull away slowly and I would slide off the back and then get back on after a few laps on his own.
It is so different now so many kids don't even get out the house.
I built a kart for my sons for this event and it won you will see what I mean about health and safety.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AMmVTc14MjE

Thanks for sharing this - I read it with a big smile on my face - now lost in thought ...