Anyone mid-20's and older will probably have fond memories of riding their Big Wheel around the neighborhood when they were kids. I remember the first one I had...pure energy and freedom. It was a great toy to have...until the tread wore off that gigantic front wheel. Then you had to grind it away until the traction took over and you finally got the momentum moving forward. And how awesome was that wheel brake on the back tire. 180's...360's...270's....skid marks on the driveway. These fond memories were brought on by a recent trip to Toys-R-Us, where, to my astonishment (and disappointment) there is a new generation of Big Wheel type rides. Jeesh...why couldn't we have had those around when I was a kid.
DUDE! Those new ones are pretty cool. But I'll take the old plastic ones every day of the week. I grew up on those things. Ah, memories...
That top one looks just like my ol' Big Wheel from back in the day. I always took those gay streamers off the handlebars though. I was from the hood (ie. Bellaire) so you tore those things off if you knew what was good for you.
I had a Spider-Man one, but it didn't have one of those cool side brakes. In fact, I don't remember whether it had brakes at all. But it didn't really matter because I basically just rode it up and down my driveway (I lived on a street with heavy traffic). It lasted until I was 6 (although the tread was long gone), although by that time, it had been replaced by my Schwinn dirt bike. I can't remember - did the Knight Rider Big Wheel Talk?
I remember the first time I saw a commercial of a big wheel that had one of those side brakes and I thought I was going to explode with envy! (mine, unfortunately, did NOT have a brake)
Jack - The green machine did rock, that's the first thing I thought of when I saw this thread. Apparently it's back too! http://toycollecting.about.com/library/weekly/bltoyfair2003h.htm
these new big wheels rock. my after school program owns four of them, and the kids freak out when ever we bring them outside. they haul a$s, and take a sharp turn to the right and they skid out. we even made a homemade commercial out of them to show the parents.
The old ones bring back memories of my brothers and I going full speed towards each other and wrecking..... We rode those things until there was no plastic on the wheels and no pedals. The new ones look awesome!
I don't remember so much about mine, but I know I rode it a lot. One time, I rode a bit too far from my house and a car backing out of a driveway hit my head. I sped back to my house, afraid of getting in trouble. I felt sweaty, so I wiped what I thought to be sweat off my head and when I looked at my hand, it was all bloody. Freaked me out and I started crying like a baby. (hey, I wasn't that much older than a baby, so shut up...even though you didn't say anything.) Kind of the only memory I have of my big wheel. It was pretty cool though. I think when I got to big for it, I had fun swinging it around and throwing it. Don't know why.
I've got a big wheel story, too. I was very young(7-8 or so) riding my big wheel down my driveway into the street and spinning out. I was pretending I was in the batmobile. So, I got some speed going down our descending driveway and a motorcycle came out of nowhere(he was speeding in a residential area) running right into me on my big wheel after I had done my 180 spinout in the street and I ended up doing a few 360s in a major spin-out from that collision. Then, all the neighbors congregated around our house and I went through hoa(lol) interrogation in my living room. I couldn't understand what all the fuss was about? In reality, I may not have made it if he hit me head on. I wasn't hurt, though. It was kind of cool, actually, the way it went down. It would have been a good action scene in a movie. From the time I did my own stunt ending 180 in the middle of the street to the time he plowed into me I remember vividly as being in slow motion followed by fast motion from the spinning. The top pic in the pictures above in the original post was the big wheel I was on. Well, that's it. We all have our story.
1. i remember the Chips! Big Wheel. man, Ponch scored the disco chicks, too, didn't he? 2. your signature is great! i saw that special about him, too, on MTV over the weekend...what a great commentary on the story of Jesus in the desert.
