brumario

Poor Johhny

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QEKT...search=bicycle

eubi

I vagely remember this one....and a few other Young America films.

After all, I WAS the head Projector Boy for my elementary school.

They were still showing these to us in the early 60's. Too funny!

Helmet Head

Outstanding! Thanks for posting this.

Actually, I think it's pretty good. My only complaint would be with the "keep to the right" obsession, especially at intersections and there approaches, where it should not apply at all.

timmhaan

Johhny's dad is an idiot.

i thought this was particularly interesting: "you are the automobile driver of tomorrow". Also, when did helmets start making an appearance in cycling?

Mr. Miskatonic

Early to mid eighties. I found some old comic books from the 70's (valueless crap, but amusing to glance at the ads) there were some ads for Schwinn bikes with drawings of the riders. Helmetless.

Most safety things can be dated to that era, when Baby Boomers started having kids in earnest. Child seats, bike helmets, warning signs on everything, lawsuits.

John E

I myself have worn a helmet longer than that. The racers wore those ineffective padded leather hairnets in the 1950s, and serious club cyclists began to emulate them in the early 1970s. I wore an unusually heavily padded Kucherik helmet from 1972 to November 1976, when I had my one close enounter of the worst kind with a motor vehicle. I immediately switched to a hard-shell Bell Biker and have gone through a series of increasingly more effective and more comfortable brain buckets ever since, culminating in my Giro Xen.

CB HI

Got my first bicycle helmet in 1982.

Bikepacker67

"Be sure that the chain and sprocket are well guarded!"

MacTech

Okay, was I the *ONLY* one MST'ing this video?, c'mon everyone, raise your hands, you *know* you made fun of it as well...

[closeup of the bell then pan to the horn]
<annc>"every bike must have a bell or horn to use as an emergency signal"
[pan over to long handlebar-mounted flashlight]
<Crow> Torpedo-mount Death-Ray optional
<Servo> Some higher end bikes come standard with anti-car torpedos

[3 riders abreast]
"You know what these riders are diong wrong, right?"
<Crow> yeah, they're not riding wheelies

[stupid kid cuts in front of car nearly being hit]
"You know why little Johhny's going to be spending time in the hospital, right?"
<Joel> He hasn't been keeping up on his bike payments?
<Servo> He forgot to pay his "protection money?"
<Crow> He's got a latent suicidal tendencies?

brumario

Here is another one:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=IPh3zJ6lmn8&search=bicycle

kf5nd

Me, 1978. Other high schoolers thought I was nuts. They were right.

merlinextraligh

USCF mandated real helmets, instead of the leather hair nets about 1980. That really got helmet use going in the U.S. One it created a market for a light, cool, helmet, and helmet technology started taking off, and , Two, the fast guys all were wearing helmets, so it became a little cooler to wear them.

Artkansas 

According to Bell, their classic Bike Helmet went into production in 1975
https://www.bellbikehelmets.com/timeline.asp

I got mine in after zooming down Topanga Canyon from Mulholland Dr. and realizing that I liked the speed, but if I slipped I was screwed. I can't remember when I bought it, probably soon after that, it has a low serial number. I used it till last year.

bbonnn

Those are some beautiful "new" vintage bikes, eh?

It was a little painful watching the waifish blonde chick ride -- she was going so slowly, she looked like she was going to tump over several times.

All the riders look so happy and carefree. Other commuting threads have alluded to "riding for pleasure," and this film also reminded me of how fun it is to bike at a leisurely pace, when you're not in a hurry to arrive somewhere or up your speed to get a workout. Pedaling for delight. Wheeeee!



Also, I love how the narrator upbraids the girl for carrying the tall grocery bag in her basket, obstructing her view ... and then the dad gets out of the car with two grocery bags in front of his face and suddenly it's Junior's fault he fell down? I guess it was part of the "Father Knows Best" ethos.

WalterMitty

Can't be 1948, there's a 1956 Chevy and Ford in the second scene. Nice picture though.

Stor Mand

Loved it! And it was not bad as bicycle education either. Hearing the narator brought me back ... I mean, I hear he did naration on lots of educational films

chephy

Wonderful! But wait till I post those '50s sex education records!

Stor Mand

Quote:

Originally Posted by chephy

Wonderful! But wait till I post those '50s sex education records!

Can't wait!

trackhub

I seem to remember the first widely available bicycle helmet being the Bell Tourister. It was white with some red striping and vents. It offered good protection, and was also quite heavy, which led to neck fatigue. On occasion, I'll see some character riding along Garden street (Cambridge, MA) wearing one. Must be a Harvard faculty member.

Two other helmets from the past, that most of you have probably never seen: Skid-Lids, and Bailen helmets.

Some of you might find this link interesting:

https://www.helmets.org/history.htm

DCCommuter

I would think MIT actually. Was the guy on a recumbent? That would be a positive ID.

joejack951

Did any else notice that every time a car was shown behind the cyclist, it was moving at the same snail's pace as the kids on the bikes? Wouldn't that be nice?

Thanks for posting this. I extended my lunch break today to finish watching it. I imagine my coworkers thought it was amusing, not that they don't get enough amusement at my expense.

huhenio

Excellent post ... now it is time to deface the narration.

Litespeed

I thought that was pretty interesting. There was no mention of riding against traffic (which is good), wonder when people starting telling kids that. I never rode against traffic and I grew up in the 50's, but I might have ridden sidewalks, can't remember, been to long ago. Those were certainly carefree days!

MacTech

It was interesting that in video 2 no mention was made to locking your bike when unattended, the kid just pulls off the street, parks the bike next to a tree and goes in for groceries, assuming the bike would be there when he returned, at least video 1 reccomended locking the bike to prevent theft....

<kid approaching store on the sidewalk>
<annc> "don't leave your bike where it will block other people's path.."
<Crow> Just ride it into the store, the other patrons will appreciate your assertiveness
<Joel> hey, *someone* needs to invent the "Drive-thru" after all...

N_C

You do realize things have changed since the 1950's right? Instead of saying always to the right like they did then, now they say ride as far to the right as practical & as is safe to do so. So things have progressed since then. There are also a lot more side paths & walks that are wide enough to allow cyclists to ride on. In the 1950's there were not. These days there are more options available. So as slow as it has been things have progressed.

Another thing that has changed is the amount of traffic, the speed limits on roadways & some roadways that were residential then are probably wider & mostly commercial now. In Sioux City there is at least one I know of that this happened to in the mid 1980's.

The safety video's today are similar but not exactly the same. It is nice to see what it started with compared to today.

As much as I am in favor of VC, not as much of a zealot as you are, I'm uncomfortable with young inexperienced children being a VC rider, especially on main arterial roads.