1970/80s Trackers/ off road racer conversions anyone ?

[BADGER.BRAD]

In the late 70s and 1980s we as kids wanted of road bikes the general way we acheived this was to fit wide bars (cow horns) and quite often but not always Cheap cyclocross tyres, most bikes had the gears stripped off. to make them that bit tougher (early mountain bikes really) Quite often the forks would slowley end up with more of a bend due to jumping and hard touch downs from doing weelies. Did others outside the Midlands do this and what did you call them. For me it would have been late 1970's early 80 but I know these bike exsisted before.

 

[Oldfentiger]

After I trashed my Raleigh "racer", my grand-dad bought me one of these, from one of his mates.

It's a Humber Sports bicycle, from 1947 I think.
Nothing bent or broke on it, despite fierce abuse. We had an off road track with jumps and trees to run into.
No punctures either. The tyres had "Dunlop War Grade" embossed on them.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

yep, i remember tracker bikes. basically road frameset with knobbly 27 ¼ tyres and cowhorn bars. also a big comfy saddle that came in a variety of colourways, the name of which escapes me…

 

[uphillstruggler]

was the Raleigh bomber a distant cousin? I seem to remember that being a great big brute of a bike that was (to my memory) pretty sturdy. I think they tried to cross a grifter and a road bike and came up with that.

 

[GGJ]

In the late 60s early 70s we would find old frames which had been dumped (usually in a river or corner of a field) and rescue it. Fit cowhorn bars, banana saddle, gears if you could find/aquire/steal any, if not single speed and away we went. We called then track bikes and had a blast using them in the fields/offroad. Often had to carry them home wafter tearing downhill at high speed and pulling the back brake on to skid and flick the tail out which usually caused the rear wheel to buckle into an L shape making it totally fubarred. Great fun

 

[Venod]

The first bike I built (mid 60's) was with a frame from the dump, it was a fixie and fitted with cowhorn handlebars, didn't have a name for the genre though, I can still picture it, a light blue frame, but can't recall what happened to it.

 

[raleighnut]

Yep, same here, old frame done up and 'Cowhorns' fitted it rode great for a good few years until the forks went at the crown but I live in the East Midlands so not really answering your question.
EDIT - That would have been in 1974 the bike was built.

 

[matiz]

Same here in the 60s our gang all had painted up old frames cowhorn bars and single speed we used to ride them down the canal towpaths which were overgrown full of pot holes in those days ,it all helped with the bike handling skills though.

 

[biggs682]

I used a Moulton to ride over and around a building site, ended up falling off once and dislocated my shoulder.

 

[CanucksTraveller]

Did others outside the Midlands do this and what did you call them.

I never owned one but when I was growing up in Manchester, some of the other lads did have exactly these kind of bikes. We also knew them as "Trackers".

 

[raleighnut]

I used a Moulton to ride over and around a building site, ended up falling off once and dislocated my shoulder.

Bill Moore's sister had a Moulton, I had a go on it once. That was enough for me.

As an aside Wayne 'Tank' Dowsing had a fixed gear bike around the same time, I had a go on that too. Again that was enough.

By 1976 I was regularly 'borrowing' my cousins Carlton Clubman, at last a proper bike, although I didn't get to keep it until 1981.

 

[MontyVeda]

In the late 70s and 1980s we as kids wanted of road bikes the general way we acheived this was to fit wide bars (cow horns) and quite often but not always Cheap cyclocross tyres, most bikes had the gears stripped off. to make them that bit tougher (early mountain bikes really) Quite often the forks would slowley end up with more of a bend due to jumping and hard touch downs from doing weelies. Did others outside the Midlands do this and what did you call them. For me it would have been late 1970's early 80 but I know these bike exsisted before.

We just called them 'bikes'... loads of kids rode concoctions fashioned from skip finds and spares, 20" inch wheels in a 26" frame wasn't unusual, nor was using the sole of your shoe as a brake block. They'd only be splashing out on a pair or cowhorns from Halfords, maybe some flame stickers too, and possibly even some metallic gold paint if they were going for it. In the 70s, concocting a bike was a natural progression from building a kart... a unique bike was something to be proud of. Then the BMX fad happened and everyone seemed to want something ready made from a shop. All of a sudden, skip builds were laughed at. Consumerism won.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Did others outside the Midlands do this and what did you call them.

I didn't do this - My bike was a "racer" and I only ever really had one working bike, plus maybe three quarters of another in bits at any time. But I knew plenty of lads with trackers, fitted with ape 'ongers.
(Late 70s, West Mids)

 

[clockworksimon]

We called our cow horn fitted racers 'scramblers'. Had many hours of fun blasting around a ' bomb hole' in our local woods. When the TV series 'Kick Start' was on we became trials riders and learned to bunny hop in addition to our jumps and skids!

 

[BADGER.BRAD]

I also watched kick start/Evil kenevil and would then go out with the sole intention of getting as dirty/muddy as I could, my mom must of loved it. We had a local field with what we called the black hill ( some sort of slag heap) we would prop up an old door on a few bricks at the bottom of it then ride down the black hill off the ramp and try to kill ourselves, quite often the bricks would collapse and we would end up in a heap. The worst bit was occasionally we would get people to lie down and jump them, I can remember once I was the chosen one ( human sacrifice) and got run over as the bricks collasped !

When the CB craze was on I can also remember going round the estate with one on the bike with 8 AA batteries powering the thing.

Call me an old git but I doubt you could get kids now day to risk getting their Nike trainers dirty !

ps All spelling mistakes are the product of a mispent youth (well spent youth)