danf
Well-known member
My Dad was a surveyor and field engineer on projects around the Country and my eldest brother John would go to projects with him and work alongside of him when I was about six, well John was 16 so he really never knew what having alot of money was like, he wanted to buy his three little brothers something, me and Carl and Robert, and so when they go back from Indiana from a project, John purchased a gift for us boy's, he bought us little guy's a minibike, now it was just a 2 1/2 hp minibike but to a six year old that minibike was something else..Now on our street in San Antonio it was long and a sidewalk goes all the way down the street on one side, we would ride that thing up and down the sidewalk all day long, must have made the neighbors crazy..In a few years the word got around school I had a minibike, boy the friends I got was great, a lot of kids wanted to come over, I learned at a young age that it wasn't me they were coming over for it was the bike.. I just told the next kid in line the bike was broken so they would just stop.. It worked for a while, I knew who my friends really were and who was just there to use me for a ride on the bike..Here's the funny thing...The next year or so the kid down the street got one and over on the next street another kid got one..Started a trend, imagine how freaking cool that was as children getting together with our mini's and riding through the neighborhood together as a group...It was the best..Oh yeh, those other mini's could smoke ours, they got much better one's like 4 1/2 hp one's, one of them could pop a wheelie..Big deal, we still loved our 2 1/2 hp one that took forever to get up to speed :smilie_happy: .. I then grew up alittle and my brother John always had a motorcycle parked in the driveway, a different one every year it seemed, I rode on his 360 yamaha and his 900 kawa [73] so fella's I have been around bikes for a long time...I still don't know more than anyone else but I'm still learning...I went on to riding my 20" bike, it was a schwinn, I learned to ride wheelies half a block long and I trained myself to ride it backwards, I spent hours learning how to ride the stupid thing backwards, I would sit on the handlebars and peddle backwards, my friends would say Martin you're wasting your time,,I would just say yeh yeh, well guess what , I learned to, and I could sit backwards on the handlebars and ride the bike really well, still can, I rode it around the block several times backwards, and I have won many beers betting the one's new in our area that I could ride the bike down the street turn around and ride back, I never lost a bet, no brag, just fact.......I bet could ride a motorcycle the same, balance is the same but I don't think I would want to try it on my Goldwing..Even at 52 with bad knees I can still do it..I told my kids and their friends about my childhood skills, they just rolled their little eye's ...sure they said sure..One of them said to my daughter , you're dad is so full of it.. :shock: Oh....Oh no she didn't just say that... :smilie_happy: I said did you just say I couldn't do something little girl? :shock: :shock: she was laughing and said prove it oldman :shock: .. That Little smarty pants.. So I got the air pump out made sure there was plenty of air in the front wheel and just like old times I rode that bike down the freakin street..I didn't turn around like I used to but I did have to place my feet down once and I rode it back..No problem.. I have some skills on two wheels I always have..Maybe I will get a video of this oldman [52] not too old man with bad knee's riding his bike backwards, maybe before I die I will ride my wing bckwards just for you guy's.. :shock: I hope you enjoyed my story.. I had fun writing it... :smilie_happy:
