OK GUYS LETS SEE IF THIS SPORT HIT YOUR AREA IN THE EARLY TO MID 70,S
WE HAD A SPORT ON YER PUSH BIKE CALLED CYCLE SPEEDWAY, IT WAS A OVAL TRACK USUALLY ON GRASS BUT WORN THROUGH TO THE DIRT/SOIL ETC, YOU HAD A REGULAR TYPE BIKE STRAIGH TYPE HANDLE BARS TOP CROSSBAR ETC, KNOBBLY TIRES, NO BRAKES YOU RACED ROUND THE TRACK AND TRIED TO WIN JUST LIKE SPEEDWAY RIDERS A GOOD TRICK WAS TO AS YOU APROACHED THE BIKE IN FRONT ON THE START OF THE CURVE WAS YOU HOOKED YOUR FOOT UNDER THERE BACK WHEEL AND YANKED IT FROM UNDER THEM, THEY USUALLY FELL OFF IN SOME PAIN THEN ON THE NEXT LAP WE WOULD LEAVE THE PEDAL HANGING DOWN BUT HOLD IT RIGID WITH THE OTHER LEG AND Bananarama! SOMEWHERE ON THERE BODY USEUALLY THERE BACK FOR SOME MORE PAIN IT WAS A GREAT SPORT BUT DID NOT LAST LONG
DID IT HAPPEN ANYWHERE ELSE IN ENGLAND OR WAS IT UNIQUE TO CREWE ????
Cannonball use to have it in London in the 1950s / 60s the was a proper track near Ilford called the Hammers after the West Ham football team was still there in the early 1980s don't know if its there now
The bit about the bikes on a track with no brakes rings a bell.
Not round my parts as a youngster, but might have seen it on something like swapshop, or why-don't-you or something that promotes kids stuff during the holidays
Gees. Why-dont-you. Do ya remember that program
Of All The Senses, The Common One Is The Most Rare !!
yeah Dunc I can relate to that, I was around in the 70’s too, there was a purpose made bike track in Heaton Park, North Manchester, it had a hard fine sandy coloured gravel surface probably not too dissimilar to a speedway track, it was laned all the way round, about 2ft each lane, weird thing is it always looked unused and neglected, it was just in a clearing in some woods, no spectator stands or anything, anyhoo we used it often, just like you describe, pretend speedway, kickin up clouds of gravel on the bends, etc great fun, racin started clean but the only way to guarantee a win was to tip everyone else off
Checked on google map tennis courts now. If anyones interested ment to say West Ham had a good motor bike speedway team used to go in the mid 1960s. Speedway in England started in High Beach Epping Forest in 1928 came from Australia
Never had anything like that around where I grew up in the 60s/70s. Lucky if you could find a bit of grass to be honest.
Anyway. We did ride our bikes around building sites a lot. Not racing though. More like a dangerous obstacle course.
When they pulled all the slums down in the West end of Newcastle there were ruins and building sites all over the place. So lots of huge piles of sand and gravel. Lots of steel girders to ride along. Lots of concrete sewer pipes, parked up wagon trailers etc. But also lots of wood and planks to form connections between them all.
We used to have a blast riding our bikes over as much stuff as possible with only a few casualties like our mate that got a 6" nail right through his foot. Which we thought was really funny because he had to walk home with the plank the nail was in stuck to the bottom of his baseball boot.
But yeah. I think my legs and ankles never had less than a half dozen large scabs on then at any one time. I wore shorts until I was 11 just because trousers never lasted more than a day without being ripped. But I never stopped destroying trousers until I was about 14 or something. My mother used to go spare.
WELL only kiddin triggs well it must have been something that bike tire manufactures new about as the tyres were pushbike tyreas but knobbly as a real speedway bike tire
the craze did not last long as i remember great fun thou]```````````````````
Dont remember the speedway push bike thing may have been early 70`s , remember my purple chopper around 78, then had my first brand new racer for chrimbo, ended up putting cow/bull horns on it, growing up in hyde/duckinfield remember the speedway track at bell vue only went to the custom car shows there though,
74challenger318 wrote:Dont remember the speedway push bike thing may have been early 70`s , remember my purple chopper around 78, then had my first brand new racer for chrimbo, ended up putting cow/bull horns on it, growing up in hyde/duckinfield remember the speedway track at bell vue only went to the custom car shows there though,
got a few old school bmxs at the moment
chopper bikes,, Bananarama! ace my granson who is 2 has 8 now
I had a schoolmate who used to ride cycle speedway. He had a black bike with the knobbly tyres and straight handlebars,I never did know where he rode it or if there was even a very local track. One thing I do know,even with Dad running a bike shop,none of our wholesalers could get those tyres.
1965 Belvedere 2 426 Wedge.
Climate change,global warming,the biggest tax raising scam ever devised by man for mankind.
Yes Duncan,there was one in Gatley/Cheadle/Cheshire(it was still there a few years back last i checked)late 90s if your in that area it is close to Brookside nursery go down the lane past the nursery towards gatley cars playing feilds when you get the the dirt car park at the end of the lane turn left and then its on the right about 50 yards.
When i was a child Speedway was a big thing,used to get taken to Belle Vue to see the Aces at the Track,Barry Sheen and all that a blast form the past.
Attachments
The Remains of Brookside cycle speedway,Looks like you can still make out the NW bend
gatley speedway remains.JPG (236.65 KiB) Viewed 429 times
No pushbike speedway didnt make it here, we just had standard bikes stripped down, if you had money you had cowhorns, the really posh kids had Choppers and Grifters. Grifters were like a heavy duty early bmx.
JUST LIKE SPEEDWAY RIDERS A GOOD TRICK WAS TO AS YOU APROACHED THE BIKE IN FRONT ON THE START OF THE CURVE WAS YOU HOOKED YOUR FOOT UNDER THERE BACK WHEEL AND YANKED IT FROM UNDER THEM, THEY USUALLY FELL OFF IN SOME PAIN THEN ON THE NEXT LAP WE WOULD LEAVE THE PEDAL HANGING DOWN BUT HOLD IT RIGID WITH THE OTHER LEG AND Bananarama! SOMEWHERE ON THERE BODY USEUALLY THERE BACK FOR SOME MORE PAIN IT WAS A GREAT SPORT BUT DID NOT LAST LONG
