Consider, if you will, the Marx toy company Big Wheel, best described by Alison the Heavy Metal Waitress as "A red piece of plastic, until you leave it out in the rain, when it becomes an orange piece of plastic"... an inexpensive plastic tricycle that had special "spin out" brakes on the rear wheels. I had a Big Wheel as a kid, I imagine most of the people in my age cohort in the states had one. It was a pretty sweet ride, all told.
Today, while walking home from running errands, I passed by the local school and saw a couple of pre-adolescents riding some sweet-looking big "Big Wheels". These things had adjustable seats, so they looked like an adult could possibly ride one. I asked their mom where she had gotten these badass machines, and she told me that Toys-R-Us has them on sale.
Poking around the intert00bz, I discovered that there are high end adult "Big Wheels". Who knew? I imagine it would be impractical to commute to work using one of these- the temptation to continually "spin out" would slow one's progress down. Still, watching the kids doing donuts on the basketball court had me pondering a bout of arrested development.
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7 comments:
Just wait til Duncan Artois "Bike Lanes" Black hears about this!
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Just wait til Duncan Artois "Bike Lanes" Black hears about this!
The "clueless tourists will get hit by bikes" thing is funny- a lot of our tourists come from countries in which a lot of people travel by bike.
The all-steel high-riding tricycle (I had one myself, no the tires weren't steel.) was replaced by those plastic monstrosities overnight, it seemed. Or when I was in Yurp. Either way they sneaked it by me.
And thanks for the inspiration: Expect a picture of my trike & I&I tomorrow maybe.
I was an oversized 5-year old when my parents collected me into a proper toy store and let my select a "big wheel". My choices, as a somewhat big girl, were a Barbie cycle and a Cobra Cycle . I totally went for the Cobra cycle. I wasn't anti-Barbie, I just needed to be the baddest Big Wheel on my particular block. I needed to be two-wheel bicycle-compliant not even a year later. I coped, and got a hand-me-down bike from my dad. But I still do think my trikie was rad. A grown-up trike might be a fun ride. I just am not sure where I might park it.
WANT!
Rgds,
Tengrain
And thanks for the inspiration: Expect a picture of my trike & I&I tomorrow maybe.
I think we need to get you a new trike, all chromed out and badass!
My choices, as a somewhat big girl, were a Barbie cycle and a Cobra Cycle . I totally went for the Cobra cycle. I wasn't anti-Barbie, I just needed to be the baddest Big Wheel on my particular block.
Awesome... that Cobra Cycle sounds badass.
WANT!
Yeah, it's pretty sweet.
Tricycles always remind me of Torve the Trog -- an alien character in Alexei Panshin's Villiers trilogy -- who rides one because a bicycle is outside his capabilities, his species having evolved for precognition rather than a firm grasp on causality.
Now I shall imagine you all as red and furry, like Torve.
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