..to this.

Hells yeah. That was some of the most fun ever in my life. And we did not die while doing it

Hey! I think that's me in that picture!

- Slim

yup, that is how it was..., and sometimes, (depending on the situation and amount of partying) still is...

Yea...

Friends getting run over, others falling out of trees and dieing. Kids coming to school black and blue, but "we don't talk about such things".


good times had by all...

Not that I agree with the soccer mom mentality, but I have a lot more respect for the guys I see that ride XC in full battle dress than the guys who do backflips without helmets. Maybe I'm just too suburban though.

that jump is awesome. Tree round + plywood = airborn

What's a coccyx?

This is an age, before your time, sonny...

It's a time thing...You couldn't relate! ...That is, unless you're a true red-blooded, born again, fire-breathing MTN biker!


Edited

No offense, but you don't really know anything about me, my childhood, or how my parents raised me. I don't think you're in a place to assume whether or not I can relate to the picture.

My only point is that wearing a helmet is safer than not.

I believe it's the tailbone.

Heck yes I can relate. That's currently my background on my home PC. I tell my kids it's me in the picture. They already think I'm crazy, so maybe I get a bit of street cred or something. Or not .

This is true. I imagine you wear one 24-7.

Yep, the only thing that's changed is more fire and beer.

Leave it to old people to ***** & moan about safety until a young person advocates it, when it suddenly becomes wrong

The time's were great, music far superior to anything since and we didn't fear everything that moved.

But the traumas of our time brought on the helmet and protective wisdom of today. And a good mom was a Kool-aid mom. Socceer, that was for sissies from that island where queens reign!

That's my point. You're viewing this from a totally different perspective. Back then, nobody wore any helmets. Most kids would probably have laughed at you for wearing one, if it looked half as goofy as the first prototypes. That's the irony of the whole thing! People who lived as kids back in the 60's and 70's, can totally relate to the picture without any hesitation.

While your comment is about safety, that's great! We all can vouch for safety and be able to at least discuss the virtues of wearing a helmet, but that's totally NOT the point here. The point here, is in fact, just the opposite. We were so cavalier about safety and really more concerned about the excitement of the moment!

That was just being a kid, back then! Safety was totally on the backburner!

Who you callin' old, ya yappin' little wet-behind-the-ears, whipper snapper, you!

Great picture! You don't even need the 70s. I was jumping ply wood laid out on cinder blocks when I was 8-12yrs old in the early 90s. Some of the best times ever! And of course we didn't wear helmets. Hell, I still don't wear one if I'm just on some light singletrack or something. Only if I'm riding rocky stuff or planning on some jumps/drops. Certainly not when strolling along casually on the road. This helmet 100% of the time crap is overrated(flame away).

the drunken party fire booter. oh yeah!

Yea... well...

The ones who survived can...

I'm guilty of doing many things like in the picture in the late 70s early 80s. I'm from middle of nowhere central Illinois. Helmets weren't a question because we didn't even consider the existence of such a thing. This was long before the internet and even more than a decade before cable TV (for me). There were no readily available stats to scare you into being safe. And there were no visible role models to copy either. I had no idea that there was such as thing as a bike shop, or that there were products being made specifically for doing this stuff. We mostly just made it up as we went along. Good Times, and no, young people will never be able to fully appreciate it.

Who you callin' a whipper snapper, grandpa?

I only discriminate against those who discriminate against me...as far as I'm concerned, we're all just people until someone creates an imaginary barrier between us.

Hate to break it to you, but that's not possible. No fun has been had by any children since 1979. We live in a sad world.


My friends & I grew up in a very quickly developing farm town & before I was in my teens, they had torn up the pasture in my back yard & starting building houses. The great thing about it for us was that it gave us stairs to ride down, 2nd stories to drop from (not a full story, but a weird half story deal that I couldn't explain if I tried), & ample scrap wood for building kickers & transitions. The only time we wore helmets was at the BMX races because it was required. To this day I've only had minor broken bones & no head injuries.

In the 1978-84 range when I was at my most stupid, we pretty much didn't know that helmets even existed. Well, other than borrowing my buddy's big brother's motorcycle helmet to ride around the driveway for a few minutes. Had I been sporting one for some of my more spectacular crashes, I'd probably be 20 IQ points higher.
Personally, after seeing firsthand the effects of head injuries for the last 20 years, I'm glad that we have decent helmets as an option now.
(And the dude jumping the fire should really have Nomex jeans and hat on )

Hahaha. You'd think that listening to some of these really old guys.

( to old guys)

I don't think anyone was suggesting that the picture in the original post was advocating ditching helmets. When I was younger, I didn't wear one. No one did and it wasn't the norm. I do now. It came in handy when that car hit me.