Never had any of the toys shown already in this thread, but do remember at seven or eight years old, us kids going round to garages and asking for old ball- bearians (yes ball bearians) if we could muster two, we would make a scooter, we would round off bits off wood for axles, driving them through the bearings, ( the wood coming off of the bomb site,) the expensive bits were the four eyes used on the steering probably a halfpenny each, but with a bit of effort we could produce a scooter that went like a bat out of hell and the noise, beautiful, the noise was beautiful, a drone interrupted by every joint in the pavement, we had two good hills in New Cross, and three or four of these coming down together, was bloody deafening , If we were lucky enough to have three or four ball bearians, we would make a trolley, which two up, would make far more noise than the scooters, On reflection I think we probably p£ss%d people off with them, but oh what fun. Beer bottle tops were nailed on as racing numbers, them were the days, I don't think these were unique to London. PS- did have other toys but these ball bearian ones stuck in my mind. regards lofty
Like Smudger Jnr, I'd have to nominate the Bayko building set and also my Hornby Dublo train set with the 'Silver King' loco.
Lofty1 Never had any of the toys shown already in this thread, but do remember at seven or eight years old, us kids going round to garages and asking for old ball- bearians (yes ball bearians) if we could muster two, we would make a scooter, we would round off bits off wood for axles, driving them through the bearings, ( the wood coming off of the bomb site,) the expensive bits were the four eyes used on the steering probably a halfpenny each, but with a bit of effort we could produce a scooter that went like a bat out of hell and the noise, beautiful, the noise was beautiful, a drone interrupted by every joint in the pavement Pleased to see that I was not the only Londoner to own one of those Thanks for the memory ! Ron
Was trying to work that out as to how the wheels connected, until the Interweb helped a lightbulb come on (quite a dim one in my case). So the bearings were the wheels - Something like this? Orange-Crate Scooter Has Ball-Bearing Wheels | Modern Mechanix Damned fine. Given the current Scooter craze, I don't doubt something similar will reappear in terms of wheel mounting, if not the crate front...
BBC News - Raleigh Chopper designer Alan Oakley dies from cancer I'm trying to think when the banana seat and high handlebars first became available as parts. It must have been early to mid 60's that we were creating our own crazy homemade concoctions ... I don't remember too many of us having Schwinn Sting-Rays at that time.
Lofty1 Pleased to see that I was not the only Londoner to own one of those Thanks for the memory ! Ron Hi Ron and VP, Ron, glad you can remember them, cheap fun if you could find the ball-bearians (not a spelling mistake that what we asked for) we learnt very quickly to avoid piles of sand and dirt, sand in your balls rendered them useless, and we could never seem to get them clean enough to work again, but it was the noise they made over the cracks in the pavement, fantastic, VP your picture indicates the basic method of mounting and using the bearings, but as kids, we managed with hammer and nails and managed to make sguare wood round to go through the bearing with a penknife, (just one end to the middle of the axle), certainly not engineered as in the picture. As for the orange box, well our local greengrocer would sell those, 6 pence if I remember correctly, and I am quite sure my twin and I were not the only kids to have them at the side of our beds with a curtain round them as furniture. Orange boxes were much too sought after to make scooters with, whatever next. This has inspired me to make a scooter for my grandson, and I promise to make it as we did as kids, no engineering just resourcefulness .Picture will follow promise, THOSE WERE THE DAYS Just searched the internet and cant find a picture anything like, so now I am on a mission. best regards lofty
Not a toy but I remember having one of these. Still got one in the back of a drawer - (now superseded massively by my persistent fetish for posh torches. I suspect it has something to do with them mostly being SO disappointing in the past... some new ones actually throw that perfect circle of light like in Scooby-Doo - I craved that as a kid, and it now pleases me... errr... more than it should.) Lofty - looking forward to seeing this scooter (as is my scooterish 10-year-old), then maybe you can send it to Ron so he can demonstrate - surely what Youtube was made for! Paul - I didn't know you hated football... Good man. B) Think we've had crossfire, but I have to say it was one of the more desirable games when I was a sprog. Football games - despite an early dislike of the sport, I had Subbuteo. It's funny the peer-power of crazes.
......blow until you had crossed-eyes......... .......and spit was running out of the end of the pipe all over the place!!
BBC News - Raleigh Chopper designer Alan Oakley dies from cancer I notice in the pic above that the bike is a Mk3 which seems to be missing one of the great design features from the Mk's 1 and 2............ the lethal gear lever!! It makes my eyes water just thinking of the number of times I almost castrated myself on that thing!!
On the subject of bikes, anyone remember this one.............. the Raleigh Grifter!! It had a twist grip gear change which was the dogs dangly bits back in the day. This is my brother circa 1978
Still got one in the back of a drawer - (now superseded massively by my persistent fetish for posh torches. I suspect it has something to do with them mostly being SO disappointing in the past... some new ones actually throw that perfect circle of light like in Scooby-Doo - I craved that as a kid, and it now pleases me... errr... more than it should.) I did have a million candle thing that was awesome, a bit unwieldy thou.
On the subject of bikes, anyone remember this one.............. the Raleigh Grifter!! It had a twist grip gear change which was the dogs dangly bits back in the day. This is my brother circa 1978 Yes Paul i had a Grifter mate and your right about the twist grip gear change it was the dogs dangly bits. Michael.
So, who didn't have one or several of these growing up? I'm sure my sons had 5-6 each over the years. Most of which were broken in violent brother to brother combat.
In post 129 I promised I would make a ball bearian scooter, well here it is, absolute basic tools, hammer, nails, penknife, blunt saw, just made to work, no finesse whatsoever, just like we made as kids, it has been road tested by my grandson, (who did most of the sawing) and it works well,until the front wheel dropped in a little hole in the concrete and over the top he went. still best suited to London pavements, especially down hill. So here it is, a blast from my South London past, was yours like this Ron. regards lofty
