sknhgy 

We used to set a board up on a few bricks in the alley. Then you'd get a running start and fly over it on your bike.
For some reason I can't see doing this now.
For one thing, there aren't any alleys where I live.

Monoborracho

How do you think I got this scar on my cheek?

Digital Gee

I tried to stand on my saddle when I was a kid, no hands. Did a wonderful belly slam and slid on the pavement a few feet. Loose gravel under my skin from head to toe. Lots of fun!

Juggler2

Yup, we used to do that, except we lived on a dirt road. I remember one of the bigger kids ran over me once... that hurt! I remember my Dad used to do a trick, he'd ride my bike backwards sitting on the handlbars. I'd forgotten all about that, till your post jogged my memory, thanks!

vger285

Yea, i used to sit on the handle bars and ride backwards,jump the ramps in the alley, put the playing card /baloon on the rear frame/to spoke to get the sound of a motor bike.how cool was that!

stapfam

Never had to bother with trick riding when I was younger. I lived just below the North downs and although I did not realise it- My love of Mountain biking was nurtured on Them Thar hills. Raleigh Trent Tourist with 3 speed Sturmey Archer and mudguards was not the best hike for offroading but Plenty of natural drop offs- Ramps and Trees to hit. Still have the affinity with trees so nothing has changed. Only thing is that I cannot remember having to cycle up the hills to be able to get in a downhill run.

sknhgy 

I forgot about the balloons and baseball cards in the spokes. BTW, it has to be a baseball card in order to be authentic.

eubi

In my group, it had to be the Joker from a "Bicycle" deck.

We used to jump the cutouts in the curb for driveways. Going down a hill, you could weave on and off the sidewalks for multiple jumps.

WHOOOOHOOOO!

BlazingPedals

Me too. The curb cutouts at each driveway apron. We'd jump one up onto the sidewalk, then down the sidewalk to the next driveway where we'd jump the cutout back onto the street. At the end of the street was a park. We'd build up as much speed as we could, then slam on our coaster brakes when we hit the grass! Longest skid without crashing would win!

Artkansas 

When I was a kid, no one in my area had thought of ramps yet.

I did try to jump a hole in the ground though. In front of all my friends. Not very successfully. I never tried it again. My Mom never replaced the bike.

big john

Some friends and I were jumping off a small terrace at a construction site to show off for some girls. I did a pretty hard landing and my frame broke at the head tube sending me into a face-plant. I then had to carry it 2 miles home as it wouldn't even roll. It was an English 3-speed and I bought another frame from a kid in the neighborhood for $2.

vger285

My first set of wheels was a red scooter 6inch wheels,man i went everywhere with that thing(neighborhood) then a used fat tire bike,then a new 3speed english racer,then a roadbike raceing,then a tourning bike,then a new mountain bike for raceing offroad,now i ride it during the winter and you won't believe what im back to riding come summer?? ( a kickbike) scooter! i love it! talk about full circle!

bcoppola

No hills here but: Yeah! On a "Stingray conversion" we'd call it now (old kids bike frame w/banana seat and butterfly bars). I had a setup like that with a big knobby rear tire. I was hot s***!

Oh, and you had to follow up a series of good jumps with a celebratory wheelie of course!

Bud Bent

We had a steep hill we used to go down for speed, then cut into the last driveway before the corner, and up the side of the driveway, airborne to the middle of the yard. One day, while doing this, I lost the pedals with my feet, and of course on that old bike, the pedals were the brakes, so to avoid a trip over a two foot concrete wall onto a sidewalk, I intentionally put the bike down, only to roll off the wall and land face first on the sidewalk. I swelled up so much over one eye, it closed my eye completely, and I missed a couple of days of school. That was the end of my jumping career.

SemperFi

Never did that when I was a kid. I had a Schwinn that was built like a truck with the shock absorber on the fork...I forget the name of the model...but it weighed a ton. Don't think it would have been airborne for very long.

Frankenbiker

Our neighborhood street wasn't paved back then, just a dirt/oiled road so we didn't have curbs and I never saw any ramps. I had my banana bike with baseball cards in the spokes for effect. I learned at a very early age never to ride a bike barefoot. I still cringe at the vivid memory of my mangled and bloodied big toe. I'm sure my mother also has a vivid memory of me walking into the kitchen as a nine-year-old making bloody footprints throughout the house as I looked for her.

Louis

I can't remember any ramp jumping or wheelies.

I grew up in the country where there were few paved roads, most roads were gravel or dirt. The only trick riding I can remember doing is getting up to speed on a gravel road then doing a side slide by hitting the brake with the right foot to lock the rear wheel while leaning the bike left side down on the extended left foot. When done properly this trick could shoot a spray of gravel about 20 feet. Great fun.

Remember those rear hub brakes that required a backward pedal movement to engage?

jppe

No jumps here. Just paved roads and dirt roads.

BluesDawg

Heck yeah! We'd build ramps from boards and bricks. Half the time the bike would slip off the side of the board before we got to the end. Or the board would break as we rode up the incline. But that wouldn't stop us. We persevered and when it all came together we would sail off the end of the ramp for several inches, sometimes over a foot!
Any natural bump became a launch pad for jumps or wheelies. Daddy must have had the handlebars on my first 20 inch bike rewelded a dozen times. We lived on top of a pretty steep hill on a dirt road. I would fly down that hill on my bike or in my Western Flyer wagon with the pull handle folded back so I could steer while sitting in the wagon. The only way to stop the wagon before going into trees and bushes at the bottom of the hill was to crash the wagon. I stayed covered with scratches and scabs all the time.
Sometimes you have to wonder how any of us survived our childhood.

edp773

We placed a wooden jump ramp in the road with bricks or a cement block to hold one end up. The biggest problem we had was breaking the pedals off of our stingray bicycles. Of course there was the occasional broken forks or loose handlebar crashes.

Then the neighbors put a big pile of dirt in a vacant lot. This caused even more broken bicycles.

A friend and I decided bicycles needed rear shocks like motorcycles. We took a shock from a moped and made a rear monoshock stingray. The welds did not last long over the jumps, bit it was cool to us.

littledog

I have a Sidewalker scooter. It is a gas. Before that I had a BMX scooter with the 12" wheels waaaaaay back in '85. Cro-moly frame and a gyro. Even learned a few simple tricks on that one. Love them scooters

Akugluk

big piles of dirt... sometimes people use boards, but dirt is much more plentiful around here (notice I'm speakng in the present tense). I was always too scared to try things like that, but just this last spring I saw an impressive sight: a bunch of kids (I knew most of 'em) taking turns barrelling down a slope to what must have been a 4 or 5 foot ramp they'd drug out there. They'd go as fast as they could, hit the ramp, ditch the bike, and land in a pile of snow in the ditch off the road after falling some 15 or 20 feet (roads around here are built up quite a bit for natural snow removal). I just stood there and stared. They wore helmets and some body protection gear, but I was very impressed (but whether it was by the feat, or their recklessness, I'm not sure)

vger285

I'll ride my mountain bike(Giane atx880) till spring and the wind dies down, then the kickbike comes out for the rest of spring and summer,on most of our rides, the regular bikes get there first, but i put in the most work and reap the most benefits! It's not for everyone,but i love it!

Terrierman

The first new bike I had was a Candy Apple Red Schwinn Stingray with a white seat that had fake roll and tuck accents. I got it for my birthday when I was in the fifth grade. Hell yes we jumped ramps, the most fun was ramp to ramp.

Skipper

This time of year, we used to ride our bicycles on frozen Lake Mendota in Madison, WI. We used the expansion cracks in the ice for ramps. We'd pile up all the snow we could gather in the 'landing' area and let her rip. Tons of fun. We would also hold our coats open and use them for sails while riding no handed across the ice.

After getting dried off one time, we had to push a john boat out on the ice to fish our bicycles out of the Yahare River. Two of us had found a patch of thin ice. Thank heavens for shallow water.