I had a little 360 Honda back in my poverty days of the mid 70’s. It was my only transportation as it was all I could afford.
Only had two minor little mishaps with it. The first was on the second day I had it. After showing it to all my bowling teammates after bowling one night, I took off in the parking lot, popped the clutch a little to quickly, lost control and laid that sucker down…right on top of myself. Scrapped the crap outta my right knee and hip. How embarrassing.
The other time was about a year later. By now I had actually learned how to ride it, so I had no excuse other than my raging mid 20’s hormones. I met this hot chick at the bar where I was having a couple of cold beers. I doubt it’s still there now. It was the place on the hilltop on East Washington St, just outside the Tempe line. The Rusty Bucket I think it was called. Anyway, the girl I met invited me over to her apartment in Scottsdale to go swimming. I was riding on a winding road through the desert near Papago Park from Washington Street over to Scottsdale. I was pretty excited as to what I hoped would be…well, you get the idea. Well, I was going too fast and couldn’t hold a sharp curve in the road and went flying into the desert. No serious injury, just scrapes, bumps and bruises. It took me a while to pick myself up and get back on the bike. Then I needed to go home and clean myself up and change clothes. By the time I got to her place, she wasn’t home. Bummer.
We used to use Clothespins to hold Cards from a deck of cards. To hold the Cards to the Bicycle Frame and when you rode your bike the cards would snap against the spokes and sound like a motor. Haha haha. Pretty stupid huh?
Louis,
I loved putting cards on my bike. I loved that sound. I remember getting a new green schwinn bike as a christmas present. I think I was in early elementary school. I never had the fun of a motorized vehicle. The closest I was to an engine on a toy was a Baby 'B' engine on an airplane that my brother and I would fly around in circles. My brother is 6 years older than I and a great big brother. He would build planes out of blasa wood and cover them with tissue paper, which he then painted. The planes had nylon lines attached to a handle, so they flew in a circle around the 'flyer' I even had a 'beginner's' plane that was made from durable plastic, held together by rubberbands and would fly apart when it crashed, but did not break. My brother taught me how to fly them, but mostly I was the pit crew, who fueled and started the engines, held them until given the signal to 'release.' I still remember the scent of that engine fuel.
In Jr. Hi. Don Peterson and I bought a 'go-cart' from Rod Standage. Larry, I wonder did we get your retread or was he he a used cart dealer? It wasn't much. 2 pairs of soap box derby wheels and axels mounted to an 'H' shaped 2x6 frame with a 2hp B&S engine that the pulley set on top of one rear wheel. You steered with your feet. Sounds just like the one Cannon hads.
We tore it down and rebuilt it on a plywood platform. Had Dail's welding put a real pulley on the drive wheel, added a seat from an air transport plane (Don's Dad was a mechanic at WAFB) installed a lawnmower clutch and throttle and even added a brake bare that rubbed the rear wheels when you held a lever down. We steered that one with our feet. we clocked its top speed at 27mph. We often pulled each other behind the cart on our skate boards. Peterson damn near killed me when he took a shartp fast turn into one of the breezeways at Mitchell School ( our favorite race track) and I 'skied' right into one of the green steel awning poles.
However, Don redeemed himself about 3 years later. We were sophmores and he had just gotten a Honda 50. We took it down to the river at Hardy Dr. and were running it back and forth on the Town Dump road. I had the speed up, but hadn't quite grasped the brake and clutch timing. I was not slowing down and was headed straight for the heavy gate chain slung across the road at handlebar & belly height. Don grabbed the chain and whipped it up as I ducked and ran right under it! I tore my knuckles up on the chain, but it never touched the rest of me or any of the bike!!! We both sat down and didn't say anything for over 5 ,minutes. I took longer that that to get my breath and heart rate back to normal. Too many close calls and way too much fun!!!!!
Gary, I thought I'd read all the threads, but then found your posting. Amazing! You got our cart. It was three 2x6's in an H configuration. Seems like I painted the wheels gold -- without bothering to mask the rubber. Glad it wound up in your hands.
I too had a go-cart. Dad bought a frame from the guys at Sanders aviation. Real low slung, slicks on back (not great for dirt where we lived but..) rack an pinion steering. I must have worn out a dozen clutches and chains. Rode around and around our big barn like Indy racing. Also rode up and down Chandler Blvd (Williamsfield Rd back then) from 32nd st to 40th st weaving the center stripe lines. Mike Vance, Kim Standage and I even took it to MCC at night and rode it on the breeze ways in 69-70. Still have it, our boys rode it some.
A lot of my getting around BC (before car) was on a Ford tractor. All over the desert around our farm, up to the Vance farm pool (Awatukee Country Club now), out on the Reservation south of Pecos.
Jerry, Steve Scow, and others will remember those times.
Towards the end of my residence in Florida, I owned a Honda 750 Supersport. It was my choice of transportation for about 3 years, and I had the pleasure of riding it across the United States when I decided to return to Arizona. I traveled from Lakeland across to Daytona Beach, up the coast into North Carolina, over into Kentucky, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and finally Arizona. It took me about 10 days as I recall and gas was cheap! What an experience...
