http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE-txZE2ggg

The kid at about 45 seconds into the video almost loses it!

My father threw my wheelie bars away about three years ago. I was upset to say the least. They had the old style clay skate wheels and made a horrible noise on asphalt or concrete but were a lot of fun anyway.

They just would never be able to make that nowadays. They'd spend all their profits fighting every pansies law suit who falls off and cracks their head.

thats pretty kool..

It's been awhile but last time i checked on those they were going for around $300 in the box. Very sought after by the stingray guys. Western flyer made an actual bike with the wheelie bar built into it.

Very Cool!

It looked like some of those kids were barefoot.
I still remember the pain and one broken toe that comes from that.

Helmets? We don't need no stinking helmets!!

LOL - No shoes and standing on the seat. Oh the good old days of few law suits...

Spike?

They didn't call the company Wham-O! for nothing...

Richard Vogt
bmxmountainbiker

Hey Richard... what is your brothers name?

Mike

I think this is proof that TIM is spending a lot more time with White Russians than with a computer these days. I know he has one of those crazy wheelie bars in the box. There was a time he would have rushed to post a picture and blow our minds! Maybe I should buy a bar, it might get my mind off the vintage BMX for a bit.....no chance!!

THIS VIDEO IS THE COOLEST THING I'VE SEEN IN AGES!!!! CONGRATS FOR FINDING THAT PIECE OF SWEET HISTORY!!! The true very last decade of pre-BMX! I LOVE IT!!!

Just to wax nostalgic for a moment...

Anybody ever remember calling a sustained wheelie a Catwalk? It may have been a local thing... Probably just one of many other cool terms used for that during the late 60's early 70's... The kids who could wheelie (or Catwalk) the furthest were always the coolest dudes in town! Remember the friendly contests? I'm talking late 60's early 70's... Back then, that was the most rad thing in any neighborhood... That and maybe some crazed Knievel inspired ramp jumping (still have the old post-broken clavicle aches and pains - once in a while to remember one of those flights)... BITD, some people did them sitting down (old Stings worked well for that style) but on a 75-76 Mongoose (or any other first production proper BMX bikes) you HAD to stand, or it wouldn't balance... right? LOL! A man's Catwalk if you will! I still try to Catwalk once in a while around town on my Cali Phat Urban Assault cruiser... Plenty of fun turning heads still while I head into my mid-forties! LOL! Probably crash and kill myself one of these days or get arrested but better to burn out than it is to fade right? I'll be sure to put all 6 of my late 70's Mongoose rebuilds to the test one by one once they're done cooking as well. It's been my master plan since July!!! I'll see you all soon on my old Geese Catwalking through the ages! Pics a comin' I promise! Peace!

we used to call it catwalking in Bermuda in the late 70s, early 80s

Not only that, but we used to count how far you could catwalk by poles. Telephone poles - they were on the side of the street about 40' apart -


"bye, that bye can catwalk 8 poles, bye - cha"


good times.

Here's my best friend doin' the "standup" btw

My brother's name is Mike... er... Mike.

BTW, we counted wheelie distance by poles, too. Jay Smith had a Yamaha Moto Bike that he could wheelie literally forever. He could even take a cigarette out, wheelie one-handed, and light it. He sucked at racing, though. Too many one-handed cigarettes, I guess.

Richard Vogt
bmxmountainbiker

NICE ! That is cool !

Too frickin' cool! Great Classic Catwalk pic! Bye - cha! ... Love it! Poles got counted for sure and houses too! As in, "I swear he did 8 houses!" Catwalks rule!

We painted the street to see how far we could wheelie. We make twelve inch marks and labeled it every ten feet. We made small hash marks for the five foot marks. I got in big trouble for that. But after a few months we outgrew the one hundred feet of markings and I went back and expanded it in both directions. Bigger trouble!

But after a year or so when we used the markings for wheelie contests, foot races, bike races, jump contests, throwing contests and on and on...the parents of the neighborhood (especially mine) sort of accepted it and stopped bitching.

I used my Wham-O wheelie bars on a beat up Pea Picker Krate that I had trade for with a neighbor. The clay wheels were horribly loud on asphalt and got so annoying after a while that I never really used them that much. It was already a clown bike when I got it with almost every accessory and add-on so it just seemed natural for the wheelie bars to go on that bike.

I think this young kid used to tear up the old catwalking scene.

Way to go Pete !

But I ask you, who looks more relaxed......??? LOL

I see a catwalk challenge Rockford 2008

Rickcool and mongoosedrummer

Catwalk challenge excepted!

Shall it be vintage Mongeese only or can a wicked blinged-out freshly chromed 70's Redline Squareback be permitted? LOL! Either way, I'm there Mongoose brother! I'm paracticing hard on the Phat Urban Assault. Like swinging two bats in the box...