Anyone else miss the days of the wedge ramp? Watching guys like Mike Buff or Dizz Hicks throw down some kickturns was the stuff for me. I think the small ramp was my favorite discipline bitd. Anyone else dig it?

-Paul

I spent 90% of my youth building the wedges, digging dirt jumps out in the park,
Wen even built a small BMX track of our own behind the local Superfresh.

BT

Now we have Love park under I95, here in Philly.

I actually built my wedge in woodshop class. Got the plans out of BMXA. Best part is that I finished it the last week of school. At lunchtime, my buddies and I carried it out of the Shop building and set it up behind the school and started riding. Before long, half the school was there watching and cheering.

I moved that ramp around until it finally fell apart. Maybe I'll build another this summer.

Man...kick turns are still one of my fav tricks to do....the new school riders can't seem to get their heads around the idea of this simple but awesomely fun trick....not cool enough for todays youth??
Look at the kids in the photo above...STOKED...do this stuff today....no reaction...anyways....kick turns and wedge ramps RULE!!!

Think I'm a fan....?

http://www.rockalaskarecords.com/Roberto/O...estyle/kick.htm

I still run coaster on 7 of my 10 bikes.
RobQ

That Dizz photo rules!

He was the MASTER of the wedge.

-Paul

Paul,

What is your last name?

I lived in Atlanta till 1998 and used to ride from 84-92.

England, although you'd probably be more familiar with my brother Ed England or Patrick Bader. They were a lot closer to the top in comps around here! lol

-Paul

I do know patrick bader. Mention my name to him and see what happens.

Ed England is starting to sound familiar the more I think about it

I'd love to mention you to Patrick, but I haven't seen him in probably 15y. I still see my brother every other week or so. I'll run your name by him.

If you ever saw the Pedal Power Trick Team bitd, I was the announcer that usually did a few flatland tricks and a handful of kickturns during the opening song. I could get a crowd going, but I wasn't anywhere close to the other guys in terms of skill! lol

-Paul

Oh yeah, wedge ramp was where I ruled! I could hold my own on flat, I sucked at getting air, but I had every small ramp trick nailed. As soon as I get a place where I have room to ride, the first thing I'm building is a wedge ramp. All of my bikes except for the racebike are coaster equipped. Dizz ruled, other guys I saw in person who were great on small ramp were Rich Sigur, Ron Wilkerson (that guy was just great at everything), and R.L. Osborn, who I don't think got enough credit in that discipline. I consider him #2 to Dizz.

i'm no Dizz, but i love the wedge ramp! i've had one continually since 1983...just built a fresh one either last spring or maybe it was the year before. and yes, it's painted classic "ramp blue" - like many used to be BITD .

Man, the wedge ramp was an excellent place for everyone to congregate. Not big enough to be seriously hurt on, anyone could ride it, but only a few chose to take it to its limits.

The wedge ramp was and still is my favorite part of riding. You can see quite a few wedge ramp shots throughout THIS thread.

paul, I have seen the pedal power team and used to frequent that bike shop. and I do remember the dude on the mic busting a couple of moves

This is so cool. My son and I just built one last week! He is 6 and he was gonna show me how to do "supermans" off it. (yeah right) He didn't realize that you don't jump things with this ramp, although you could. We used some old ramp plans in a 20 year old BMX action magazine. I put a coaster brake hutch mag on the back of my trickstar and went at it! I am so old and fat - but it was fun. Can't wait for spring and warm weather!
Jim
I made it out of scrap wood that I had laying around.

[ April 06, 2006, 10:17 AM: Message edited by: Toorad4u ]

To many a time I fell off that back edge of that thing. lol I'd always want to get my tire half on and off, crazy. I was nutz.

ONE HANDED CANDY BAR!!! that's what I'm talking about!

Dizz ruled!

86EK

My favorite kickturns (at least the ones I thought I did well and looked cool doing! lol) were the lawnmower kickturn (both topside and bottom) and the turndown (although nothing like Dizz's SICK turndown varients). I also dug the 1h Xups and the (gulp!) barspin/truckdrivers.

My brother could throw down some rad kicks. He could do a nose 180, all sorts of stalls dropped over the edge, a 360 (sometimes the 540!), tailwhip fakie and I even remember him throwing down a decade up there!

I guess I'll always look up to my big brother! lol

-Paul

Im building a wedge this summer. Is there a certain angle the ramp should be? I imaging it would be less than a 45 degrees.

We had an excellent ramp at our MN BBQ last September. Please contact Bill (WDS) or Mike (mikkopeters) for the specs on the ramp.

Check out some photos here...

Kickturns

Sweet shots! I wish I could have been there.

-Paul

Seems like that MN BBQ ramp has a curve in it. I was gonna build it more flat like the pic Toorad4u posted. But even his has a slight curve up at the top. Any advantages to that variable?? Im just curious.

Ax

I usually preferred wedge ramps with a "kicker" on the top. Basically an angled 1x4 across the top edge that the ply goes up on to make the last 4" or so flare up a little. Those made it a little easier to tweak stuff up at the top edge of the ramp.

-Paul

I've rode both styles for many years and find the non-kicker you can stall your kickturns longer and spinning tricks are easier. On the kicker pictures I was approximately 6" lower than the top of the ramp to slow the kickturn a tad.

With the kicker you can also use that as a great launch ramp. So if strictly kickturns a "wedge" is preferred but each to their own.

We built the beast in '83 so we could stall kickturns, spins, dual kickturns, balance tricks on the platform, and jump cars or various obstacles. I few pedals and cranks have been broken on this ramp!







J.T.

Your ramps didn't need a kicker because they were already prett steep! I seem to recall the average wedge ramp back then being much less steep (~35 degrees?). Those do look like fun ramps though!

-Paul

I'm a HUGE fan of the wedge ramp! Yeee haaawww!

Here's a pic circa 1985

^ AWESOME SHOT !!!

very cool shots!! got a kick out of mr rodgers at the bbq on the dirt bros...

Here's my most cherished plywood structure ever....built it in one afternoon....had to drag it out of the driveway in the winter. Got the plans straight outta Freestylin' ( maybe BMX Action ).


RobQ