Pedal cars

[F5 Dave]

Who remember these things?

Like mini American Jeep styled carts with simple square U shaped pedals that went back & forth driving a crank to a rear wheel.

Mine was a pass me down & repainted (again) by brush some matt drab olive. My neighbour had a flashy new one in a brighter green with JEEP or some-such written on it. But I wasn’t jealous, even at 8 I knew it looked contrived & mine had the battle worn patina of an authentic ex army. . .erm. . . pedal car.

The coolest one we ever saw was a completely stripped of bodywork chassis, it was much lighter & very Mad Max, not that we would know who he was for ten years or so.

Living on a hill, & a very steep one at that, we quickly caught on that the little running board behind the mudguard was the place to put your feet as soon as it all got going.

The incline from my house started fairly easily & then dropped to a steep section, around the blind left (this was all done on the footpath mind) & careering down the main straight section, squeeze between the tight bank to lamppost chicane & flatten out a touch & drive into the long grass section at the end.

Clearly there were no brakes, I don’t think they expected NZ hills, esp not the Karori ones.

You would of course be racing whatever the neighbourhood kids had on the day & it was a surprise we never bowled anyone around that corner. One day some joker mowed the long grass & that was a bit of a surprise as we made it to the fence.

Another day by myself I questioned, mid run by myself, what would happen if I didn’t drive into the long grass & continued down the street to the next road 20M further & down that footpath. Well as I approached I calculated that maybe this wasn’t the best idea as it was a 90deg corner.

I swung hard & made it round, but the car tipped on its side & slid to a stop. Oddly I think it fell on the inside side, not sure how that worked. I emerged unscathed & was pretty chuffed, but gutted no one saw it.



I had heard they stopped making them as kids used to keep their feet on the pedals & do bad things to them when they went down a hill. Oww yuck.

[F5 Dave]

Ahh heck I should have known the internet would be a sad place to find this stuff with a google search.


Closer to home.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Toys-models...-340183043.htm

[Paul in NZ]

I remember the school safety programme Austin J40's

We had kart's we made ourselves. Pedal cars couldn't cope with the coarse gravel (small boulders and very sharp) the banks pennisula council used but the karts could.

Fark - we had a few hard lessons in gravity and the frailty of the flesh! Fun though!!!

[Swoop]

Fark - we had a few hard lessons in gravity and the frailty of the flesh! Fun though!!!

Luckily OSH is now here to prevent that type of learing from happening...

[neels]

We had one as kids, home built on wire wheels with a mgtf replica alloy body. Sadly we lived on the flat so never got to find out how fast it would go downhill. I think it's still going at mum & dad's place for the little grandkids to play in.

[awa355]

My earliest memory is of my brother coming home from school at lunchtime and riding my brand new Austin pedal car. I must have been 3 or 4 and bawling my eyes out because Harry wouldn't get out. I can still picture mum at the back door telling him to leave it alone.

It had red paint , white wheels, chromed hubcaps and a gray or chromed A40 styled grill. I think it had the curved light visors above the headlights.

My cousin had one styled like a 50's american car. It had twin headlights, tailfins and a green & white paint job. It looked much flasher than my Austin ( but then they were richer than us).

[avgas]

You had a pedal car??? You rich SOB!

Dad made me a "go-cart" when one of the old (big) lawnmowers died.
Using those wheels, a swappa crate with one side cut off as a seat and some 4x1 for frame and steering.

Was cool until it just about cut my right arm off.

[ellipsis]

...growing up in Lyttelton in the sixties was a make or break kind of thing...we made trolleys out of a 6x1 chassis with old pram wheels and axles and a nail or apple box seat , a pivoting 6x1 steering rack with rope attached to steer the things and dealt to ourselves regularly...townies thought we were uncouth and tough because our old men were seamen, fishermen or wharfies...it was really because most of us had to dig out a whole heap of imbedded stones and rocks from our heads, elbows, faces, knees before we were old enough to make life really interesting with our pushbikes...the joys of being brought up when,if you were not out getting hurt on the hills and streets, yer old lady would want to know , why...

[FJRider]

Ahhhhh ... those were the days ... when kids were ... well kids.

NO fear (that was admitted ... on pain of death ... or embarrassment)

loss of skin commonplace ...

loss of blood commonplace ...

rebuilding ... repainting after a crash commonplace ...

intimate knowledge of any hill within 5 km's or your back-door ...

knowing the doctor gave lolly-pops to brave kids .... (you learned fast)

Learning scars are cool to chicks .... but chicks weren't .... then ...

1. MY first set of wheels ...

2. Me and my sister (on the pedal cars ... bodywork was for posers ) and a few other kids

3. more or the same ...

[F5 Dave]

Yeah had the small wheel trolley with the steer by feet front end. Scared up a friend's face when he gave it a go. But the pedal cars were cool.

[ellipsis]

...we were about 10 or eleven when we decided to make a long trolley, one with three seats, we didnt venture past the 6x1 main spar, first test ride and I was arseholed from my seat by a bigger one of us,,,I wasnt so pissed off when I saw the flex of the 6x1 as it gained a lot of speed...big steep hill...nose dug into a drainplate about 100 yards down the road...6x1 shattered...big boy was getting huge bits of timber taken out of his arse for days...blood and guts everywhere...we did most of our own doctoring in those times, unless the blood was actually running down the road...

[FJRider]

I recall going home a few times ... and being told by mum not to come inside the house, 'cause I would bleed all over the carpet ...

[ellipsis]

...it was more like ..GET OUTSIDE!...I seem to recall...

[FJRider]

...it was more like ..GET OUTSIDE!...I seem to recall...

Gravel rash has not changed ...

[marty]

funny thing is, me and my 19 year old son are still picking out stones and gorse from our arses after bailing off the end of the new subdivision road on our homebuilt trolley earlier this week......not to mention the longboarding efforts!