I’ll date myself a little with this revelation – one of my favorite Christmas presents of all time was a Green Machine. Those over thirty might have had the same experience of heading down a paved hill and jamming the controls to one side in order to engage devastatingly fun power slides. It was definitely one of the most enjoyable things to do during the Carter administration.
Never mind that power slides would eat through the plastic wheels in no time flat. I think my Green Machine was usable for like two weeks before the wheels developed flat spots that rendered the thing pretty much useless. Sure you could ride it, but the “thump, thump, thump” of the flat spots turned my butt numb in no time. I am sure my Green Machine is inhabiting some land fill right now and will be around for another couple of thousand years.
So it was not a bike, but it did have wheels and was human powered. Yes, one of my other favorite presents of all time was a bike. I got it for my birthday and immediately set up a ramp made up of a rotting piece of plywood and firewood. It is therefore not surprising that it only took me about an hour to have a pretty serious crash and bend the handlebars and lose a considerable amount of skin from one side of my body. My Mom was not pleased. No helmets in those days either – all of us dare devils on bikes from back in the day are lucky to be alive I guess.
Anyways, from the Flickr photostream of pekar comes the best of both worlds. A Green Machine and bike hacked together. Not sure it would be capable of devastatingly long power slides with that rubber on the front wheel, but it would be fun to ride for sure.
Have some Holiday Wheeled memories you’d like to share? We’d love to hear about them. And if you capture any joy related to bikes or other wheeled things this season feel free to send pictures our way.
The longest couple of months of my life were immediately following my the day I was given a brand new bright red Schwinn Varsity (with front freewheel system) in the height of the midwestern winter. It was my first “10 speed”. I was 8. There was snow on the ground outside. I couldn’t resist the temptation and rode it back and forth down the hallway a few times. FYI, tire grooves are hard to remove from pile carpeting.
Green Machine! The ultimate big wheel for a kid, and not easy to maneuver at first. Sweet hack.