Free wheelin

When I was a kid I always had a fascination with moving vehicles. The first recollection I have of my own wheels was the famous Big Wheel. The Big Wheel was a solid performer and was easy to ride. Mine was equipped with the optional piece of metal that bounced off the rear wheel to make a cool click click click sound as you were riding. Big wheels did have some draw backs. If you really tried to pedal fast with them, there was a good chance the large plastic wheel would just start spinning in place, especially once the wheel started to wear a bit. Also if you were going downhill, you had to pull your feet off the pedals and hold your legs awkwardly up in the air because once the big wheel picked up speed there was no way your feet could stay on the madly rotating pedals. I had several instances where while “freewheeling” down a hill, a loose shoelace would get ensnared in the run away pedals instantly attaching my foot to the front wheel in a manner that was sometimes a little painful. I am a bit fuzzy on what the braking system was on the big wheel but I think it was a simple lever that grinded against a back wheel.

We had a standard course which started up at the garage, then about 200 feet down the rough asphalt driveway we would throw it left 200 degrees onto a grassy hill behind the shed. If we were overly agressive on that turn it was very easy to roll right into the shed. If we felt really daring we would go straight down a steeper hill with little thought of how to stop. The object was to hit the narrow gulley between the outhouse and the workshop. A miscalculation meant either a painful impact or an equally painful dive off the vehicle to avoid the impact.

After the big wheel I moved up to the corvette of plastic, kid powered vehicles, the Green Machine. The Green Machine was very unique. It had a large front wheel like the Big Wheel but it was fixed in place and could not be turned. Instead the steering was done by an innovative rear wheel getup that was controlled by 2 levers. Steering with the Green Machine was much less precise than the Big Wheel. It was extremely easy to oversteer the unit and wind up in a ditch when you were simply trying to make a slight turn. However in straight line performance, the Green Machine was a hands down winner. However the best part about the green machine was the twitchy rear steering made it a natural skidding machine. You could throw the levers and instantly send the Green Machine into a wicked power slide. I loved that thing.

Before I graduated to bicycles there were a couple other gravity powered machines I was the proud owner of. One was a homemade soap box derby type of vehicle my dad made for me. It was done from plans and it was an impressive contraption. The steering was done with a conventional steering wheel that controlled the wheels by spinning wash line that was carefully wrapped around a rod attached to the front wheels. The only drawback was as the rope stretched the steering would get sloppy so it required regular maintenance. Unlike the Big Wheel and Green Machine, downhill travel was easy and fast, no pedals to contend with. However the draw back with a vehicle like this was the lack of any self propulsion so every fun trip down a hill, required an equally demanding push back up the hill.

The other gravity powered vehicle was an old lawn tractor that we had laying around. It was basically complete except it didn’t have the mower or engine anymore. This was sort of cool because the steering was car like. However the remnants of a transmission caused resistance when it rolled so you only got good performance down steeper hills. This was also very heavy so the push back up was enough of a pain that the tractor saw limited use in my childhood motoring.

Eventually I graduated to bikes and when I was old enough my dad let me drive the big tractor we had. That tractor was my car, or at least I thought it was. I remember going all out in that thing, maybe 10 mph and thinking it was quick. I took several extended trips out on the road with it. One time I bet I took it on at least a 6 mile loop. It was a blast.

Why in the world would I bring this up? No reason, just was running through my mind. If I ever have a kid they will own a Green Machine. 🙂