“I can get rad on my Redline.” –CT, 7 years old
CT is bringing rad back and some 30 years later, is buying a BMX. That’s how he rolls. Remember the bike you had when you were a kid? Suzie and I had matching Schwinns with banana seats. Hers was 70s olive green and mine was blue. We just rode around the neighborhood. Suzie rides around the world now.    Â
January 8th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
True, I was way into my BMX bike as a kid. It was my favorite activity until I got my drivers license. Recently I discovered an adult sized version that is the same size as a mountain bike but lighter. Since I live just a couple of miles from some of the greatest trails in the southeast at Oak Mountain state park, I figured why not. This is my version of the midlife crisis.
http://www.sebikes.com/2008/bike-detail.asp?id=49
January 8th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
The bike is cool but that wood grain panel station wagon in the background…that owns all!
January 8th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
I wish I still had the bike and the S’wag. I never had the pleasure of cruising Shreveport in that car, it was gone by the time I could drive.
January 8th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
I was driving that Talley Mobile on Youree Drive when I heard on the radio that Elvis died.
George, congrats on your Tigers!
January 8th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
i didnt have a bike. i rode into town on a goat and people been makin fun of me ever sense then.
January 8th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
I, too, had a Schwinn (olive green) bike with a bananna seat - however, no sissy bar, although I later learned it quite tough to throw your leg over the sissy bar to get onto bike!! Ended up putting an odometer on it and think I rode about 13,000 miles on it (no joke) before it busted - we rode all over Baton Rouge and if my Momma only knew…
However, before the Schwinn, I had the Vroom bike (the bike Tim Allen would have had when he was a kid) - if you don’t remember, it had a little fake engine with batteries and would make this “vroom” noise when I turned the key on(and yes, the neighbors loved me on Christmas morning at 6:00 am when I was “vrooming” up and down the driveway.
Now I have my mid-life crisis and it, too, VROOMS when I turn on the key!!!!!!!!
Sher - Tiger fans extremely happy and you missed some good red beans and rice!!!!!!!!!!!
January 8th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Yes, Tommy, hilarity is ensuing over your mode of transportation (the hilarity phrase of Tommy’s is now my favorite thing to say. That, and, “Let’s talk fast and get this newscast over with!”).
I stand gently and kindly corrected over the misuse of the word Redline. The above pic is of CT’s first bike, which was followed by a Schwinn BMX, then the super rad Redline. CT, thanks for being so rad about how you corrected me. Not everyone acts that rad. I would like to vote for you for president.
George, don’t you so love that 70s olive green? Sorry guys, I really do have more depth, but after a day of covering death and destruction, it’s really fun to talk about stuff like this.
January 8th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Sher,
Olive green great and ran a very close second to the Vroom bike, but see link I found:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btjP-iADvXA
Yes, I was “the man”!! Well, again, think the neighbors had a different term for me…………
January 8th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
…..after the goat died……my semi rich uncle lloyd found a scrap 20″ bike in the trash somewhere and painted it seizure blue before giving it to me. my relatives were not into spending too much money on me as i was the product of a broken marrage and was therefore doomed to prison or some sort of state sponsored institution. the bike weighed at least 50 pounds and had a chain that slipped off ever 6 pedal strokes. this friends is “character building.” did i mention it was a girls bike?……sigh…..it made me into somewhat of a dour little fellow. i was secure in my masculinity but unisex was not an in thing in the 50’s and i had already had the misfortune to have been hit by a car while wearing a girls raincoat. (not while riding the bike though) the 6pm news had film (not video) of me being carried to the ambulance with with the red plaid girlie thing dangling off my lil shoulders. don owen murmered girlish innuendo about “little tommy, future felon, struck down wearing girls clothing….yak yak” hilarity ensued. i loved the blue bike though and for the life of me i dont remember what ever happened to it.
January 8th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
What I remember most is taking insane chances on my bicycle and having the most spectacular crashes, often over the front handlebars and usually with several seconds of flight time. Then I’d just get up. Now days if I stub my toe it’s life or death.
January 9th, 2008 at 10:01 am
This is no joke…..at age 15 when I lived in Shreveport, Stanky Franky stole my yellow 10 speed bike. Do you guys remember him?
All my bike accidents happened after I reached adult. Two years ago while training for Iron Man Brazil, I ran over a dog that came at me….flipped over my handlebars, cracked my helmet and my pelvis (for the second time!)
Two years before that, broke my radial head and pelivs in a race rounding a curve.
January 9th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Yep - survived all the bike crashes when I was a kid, except for getting in trouble with Mom for tearing my jeans. As adult/bike crashes or falls - 2 fractured arms on 2 separate occasions.
Awful crash (really awful as I had just passed the 1st place guy in my age group two miles prior to that) in Natchitoches Meat Pie Tri resulting in broken shoulder, cracked ribs and fractured arm. Other friend in race drove me to Natchitoches Emergency Room - got some very strange looks - 2 old sweaty, smelly guys wearing tight one piece tri suits and I was all bloody and mangled and looked like I had been in a fight (and lost badly).
Suzie, we probably should retire from this stuff.
January 9th, 2008 at 10:56 am
I swear I had Tommy’s blue bike in the Duke Half Ironman I did with Suzie, well…way behind Suzie. I had just gotten on the bike out of T1 and was a tad disoriented from the swim. On the very first curve, I rode through crime scene tape and crashed in a ditch. I cussed. It was loud. There was an official standing there. I though I might be disqualified for using profanity on the course, but apparently I wasn’t loud enough.
January 9th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
I had a red 10-speed Schwinn. It was stolen. Before that, I fell off of it whilst riding over a crack…hah…and had to get stitches on the palm of my left hand. You can still see the scar.
This makes ME rad and WAY COOLER than ANY of you!
P.S.-CT’s pic reminds me of a scene from Napoleon Dynamite…
January 9th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Oh, now I have a green Trek mountain bike that John got with his credit card points.
I have ridden it twice.
I want a dirt bike or a pink chopper (Harley) with leopard pring seats. Hah! I’d kill myself.
January 9th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Typo…”print” not “pring”
January 9th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
LMAO @ LindsAY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWW-pi5u3mU
January 9th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
ok…..my last bike story
on the same fore mentioned blue 20 in killer girls bike….i was on a coke run with a buddy. my buddy was 2nd runner up for village idiot of castor la. he suggested we pump our bikes like crazy going down a steep hill, then we could coast all the way to the store…..village idiot/physics theory….what was i thinking? half way down the hill upon reaching warp speed my chain slung off. GASP…NO BRAKES. no problem says i, theres a quarter mile to coast to the friendly parking lot of the little country store. ears pinned back and the wind whistling thru my flattop hair i was enjoying the ride when i spied ‘old man skidmore’, driving his international harvester pickup toward me, weaving from side to side of the road. my parents called him ‘blind man skidmore’. in micro seconds i had to decide which side of the road to ditch in. ditch being the relevant word. my buddy the village idiot chose the left side to ride into (everbody got out of old man skidmores way) i chose the right. did i mention a bike basket full of coke bottles, both back pockets jammed with coke bottles, one jammed down the front of my shorts. dewberry vines will slow a bike down considerably, they also shred the rider from top of head to tip of toe…..flying coke bottles will land under rider and somehow a few will strike the riders head. worst of all a crash with a coke bottle in your shorts will delay puberty by 3 years. of course the bike survived with out a scratch.
January 9th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
CT, Is that the old neighborhood? And whats up with the yellow. First the bike then the car. Love the knee highs.
January 9th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Yep Charles, that is the old hood, 424 Galway. I have no idea why they were always trying to stick me with a yellow ride back then.
Hey George, if you look closely you can see something under the right handlebar grip. It was a device that made the “VROOM” noise.
I found a pic of my next bike, the Schwinn Mag Scrambler. This picture is almost identical to mine, except I had black wheels. http://bmxmuseum.com/bikes/schwinn/3000
January 10th, 2008 at 8:34 am
CT - astute observation - I actually still have that VROOM bike. However it’s gotten old and kinda rusty and sits idle almost all the time. Periodically, I will try to crank it, but batteries don’t last and it does not Vroom very loudly any more. But I just can’t see myself getting rid of it. Guess I could try some of these newer “souped up” batteries I seen in ads.
I’ll occasionally try to craank it, but I mess with it ever now and thenstart it ever now and then, but againdue to age and the fact it sits idle most of the time, it does not VROOM mcuh any more. Although I understand there are some batteries now (modern marvels) that might make it work “better than new”
January 10th, 2008 at 8:45 am
Definitely hold on to that bike George. I wish I still had my old Redline BMX bike. I have seen them going for as much as $2000 on eBay recently. Not that I would sell it, it would just be cool to have.
January 10th, 2008 at 9:45 am
If they would just VROOM the way they used too….
January 10th, 2008 at 10:57 am
I remember kids in my neighborhood riding their bikes behind the bug spray truck. Do you think they’re ok now?
January 10th, 2008 at 11:00 am
We used to throw eggs at the bug spray truck. Seems like such an odd thing to do to someone who is trying to rid your neighborhood of mosquitoes. At the time it seemed like the proper course of action though.
January 10th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Computer acting odd and my most recent post (actually my double post) makes me look like I may have followed that bug spray truck too many times on my VROOM bike.
Because of my computer oversight and my double double posting, please don’t classify me as one of CT’s Jimmy Two Times Jimmy Two Times.
January 11th, 2008 at 5:37 am
LindsAY—Love that scene from Nap Dynamite. So funny. If you listen to him at the end of the scene, he seems to be calling a “time out” after he hurts himself. Remember when we were kids and we took a baseball to the face we would say “Dude, time out…time out for real.” Those were the days.—-As a kid, my neighborhood friend and I actually set-up bike ramps with bricks and a flimsy, very bendy board. As best as I can recall, first time out I wrecked, fell off the bike at a high speed into the wood flowerbox that surrounded our tree in the front yard and broke my everything. I can’t watch the Tour de France to this day without openly weeping. Good times.
January 11th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
I had a Strawberry Shortcake bike. I loved that bike and used to ride it around the neighborhood with “no hands!”
Life was good, until the seat fell off.
Ahh, those were the days.
January 13th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
I checked out your bike, Tried. Very feminine. I remember Suzie and I (tomboys) not being able to figure out why our Schwinn Stingrays didn’t have the bar across the top.
January 15th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Rick..That “very bendy board” was my HEAD…remember??? What’s up bro??
January 31st, 2008 at 8:11 pm
CT, hurry up and get well so you can get rad!