Triumph Rodeo and 'Tracker' Bikes

[scarygerbil]

we got our bikes from fishing in the leeds to liverpool canal a set of tires and gallons of three in one oil and they would last all summer. Though the posh kids used tour de france bsa's with 24 inch cow horns

 

[gravelbasher]

Just found this thread with the amazing Picture of the boys with their tracker bikes.
I also started my cycling `life´ on tracker bikes. At sixteen I graduated to Greeves trials motorcycles for a few years. Fifty years later I´m back to pedal bikes again, bike packing, gravel riding etc. It seems that `the call of the wild´ has always been there.
Anyway here´s a couple of Pictures of my present tracker.
1974 Danish SCO frame.
Forks from a 60´s bike wreck.
Handlebars and chainset from a skip bike.
The rest lying about in the workshop.

 

[Cycleops]

I think I might have posted this elsewhere but here it is again, me on my Triumph Rodeo, my first bike.

 

[Gravity Aided]

We just finished a Miyata 110 suchwise at the bike co-op on Saturday. If it's still there this Saturday, I'll see if I can get a picture. We used to do up the Schwinn Varsity like that, although the dealer really wanted those heavy beasts rolling around with drop bars. I agree, these bicycles were the origin of mountain biking. Or at least off road biking.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

A bit OT, but around what year did wearing shorts go out of fashion for boys? You nearly always see them in old black & white photos. When I was growing up in the 70's we all wore longs. I remember the home-built Tracker bikes myself, but it was mainly only the local skinheads who built and rode them. The nearest I got was tearing about on an old stripped down BSA with no mudguards but still on the original bars. Most of the cow horn bikes lived in back gardens because the bars were too wide to go through doorways!

 

[Drago]

I recall shorts were still fairly common for boys in the early seventies. IIRC, by about 75 or 76 they suddenly all but disappeared (shorts, not boys).

 

[woodbutcher]

I recall shorts were still fairly common for boys in the early seventies. IIRC,, by about 75 or 76 they suddenly all but disappeared.

I have a vague recollection of the shorts rule, largely dictated by my school, which was first year boys i.e. 11year olds had to wear shorts . It may have been extended to include 2nd year as well.After that we were allowed longs roughly age 13 and then there was no going back especially if parents allowed us to wear jeans when not at school. So for me and my contemporaries as of about 1957/8 we wore longs of various sorts. Bloody good job too considering that we lived in the Lincolnshire fens and in winter the snow came down horizontally with the "lazy wind" i.e. it went through you not round you.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

These days it seems to be confined purely to small boys who attend posh schools.

 

[Dirk]

We were allowed to wear longs when we went into the 3rd year at grammar school - I suppose that would be at about 13 years old.
That would be in 1967 - 1968 for me.

 

[Drago]

One of my projects for this year is to finish building up an Elwick Hopper frame I have as a tracker bike. Cowhorns, knobbly touring tyres, flat pedals, ideal for bumming round the village and casual jaunts round the forest.

 

[Drago]

@Dirk

Papa Dirkie, did you get any further with your quest to build a Tracker? I've almost finished collecting all the parts for mine, then in a couple of weeks I'll build!d it all up.

 

[Dirk]

@Dirk

Papa Dirkie, did you get any further with your quest to build a Tracker? I've almost finished collecting all the parts for mine, then in a couple of weeks I'll build!d it all up.

Haven't got around to it yet. Need to clear a few bikes out before I consider it.
Be interested to see how yours turns out.

 

[Drago]

I'm just waiting til pension day to order my cow horn bars (surprisingly easily available) then the build begins. Tyres, pedals, brake levers, cables, shortie mudguards and period brown grips all on standby.

 

[classic33]

I'm just waiting til pension day to order my cow horn bars (surprisingly easily available) then the build begins. Tyres, pedals, brake levers, cables, shortie mudguards and period brown grips all on standby.

How wide?

 

[Illaveago]

A bit OT, but around what year did wearing shorts go out of fashion for boys? You nearly always see them in old black & white photos. When I was growing up in the 70's we all wore longs. I remember the home-built Tracker bikes myself, but it was mainly only the local skinheads who built and rode them. The nearest I got was tearing about on an old stripped down BSA with no mudguards but still on the original bars. Most of the cow horn bikes lived in back gardens because the bars were too wide to go through doorways!

I saw a documentary in which they said that short trousers were introduced as a form of rationing additional required less material to make them. At my High school in the mid 60' you could wear long trousers from the 2nd year although some were wearing them from the start.