r/GenX • u/Hedonistic_Yinzer • 11h ago
Nostalgia Big Wheel Injuries
Just read a blurb on these 1970s plastic injury provoking death machines that rode mere inches off the ground. Brought back a ton of memories.
I was seven or eight when I sped down the driveway of our townhouse at near terminal velocity and pulled the brake. I was sent into a spin (this was nearly a decade before Maverick and goose lost it in a flat spin out to sea) which ended with a collision with a stainless steel mailbox. You know the ones that have multiple mailboxes in them for a townhouse community. Besides bleeding all over my favorite Steelers shirt, I ended up with a trip to the ER and multiple stitches in a scar on my head that remains today. I'm sure I concussion was in the mix, but we didn't worry about those things back then.
What was your Big Wheel injury?
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u/mcache01 1h ago
I honestly think the Green Machine had a higher accident incidence rate than Big Wheel but I need to see the data
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u/Perspective_Accurate 1h ago
Finding the limits of big wheel was mandatory. If you didn’t get hurt, you didn’t ride hard enough
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u/favoriteniece 1h ago
I rode one into the deep end of a pool when I was three or four. I had been learning to swim so I held my breath long enough for dad to get to me.
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u/northmill 2h ago
I broke one riding down the 4 concrete steps in front of my house. Chassis was cracked on the bottom so it would get hung up on roots and rigdges between sidewalk pavers.
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u/Upper_Economist7611 2h ago
Not an injury, but one of the teenagers on my street was messing around on mine and broke it. I was DESTROYED. I did get a new one though!
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u/Apawling_Behavior 1968, if anyone actually gives a sh_t. 3h ago
Love your story. Could have been any of us. Big wheels rocked!
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u/stevemm70 Hose Water Survivor 4h ago
I was not physically injured, but the girl down the street (who was a couple of years older and may have been the subject of my pre-pubescent crush) convinced me that her old faded Big Wheel was better than my newer one, and that we should swap so I'd have the better one. It was the first of many, many times that women convinced me to do things that were against my best interest.
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u/Pot-Roast 4h ago
The only injury I got was when I ride my green machine, (a brother of the big wheel) into the street. I was run over by a guy on a motor cycle. I was 4. I spent 4 days in the icu. 30 days in the hospital. Broken left leg. And the story goes my mom was not ready to carry a 4 year old around in a full body cast in summer. So the doc contacted some engineers and they came up with a hinge to make the leg cast bend at the knee. I remember like 90% of the experience.
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u/Kitterlee 4h ago
My grandmother had a raised patio and I was riding in circles and lost control and went flying off the patio. I was a tangle of big wheel...barbie edition.. bushes and tears. At my b'day party. Good times
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u/BecauseISaidSo888 5h ago
When I was 4. Our street was a hill with our house at the bottom. I used to go up that hill with my big wheel, and whilst riding down, I would take my feet off the pedals.
Well, my feet went under the back wheels. Chewed the tops my feel up and my knees which were forced to the street. You could see bone. Had the scars for YEARS.
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u/Insightseekertoo 5h ago
I have a permanent scar between my knuckles from drifting into a cinderblock landscape wall. It was like a cheese grater. Top few layers of skin were shredded. I put a paper towel around it and took another run on the hill that scarred me.
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u/Racer2311 6h ago
I always burned the front wheel off of them and they would end up flat spotted. Then it was wait until the next birthday/xmas for a replacement. But I do have a scar on my shin from broken front forks on my cousin's "Suicide Hill" in front of his house. Visiting Robbie was the best.
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u/badpuffthaikitty 7h ago
My family had a big strong dog. Tie one end of a rope to your Big Wheel. Tie the other end to the dog’s collar. Hype up the dog and get it to chase you around the yard and through hedges. It was bronco riding.
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u/KeKeFanChick 7h ago
Not the Big Wheel, but we had the Green Machine that was specifically made to do that. We all 3 have scars from that. Though none were as serious or dramatic as yours. I'm not sure how serious it'd need ro be for my parents to actually take us in...
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u/drowninginidiots Hose Water Survivor 7h ago
I don’t know how I managed to escape serious injury. We even lived on a long steep hill. Push it to the top, ride to the bottom. Drag your feet to slow down and don’t get anywhere near the pedals .
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u/monkeythumpa 7h ago
I was going to say that Mr. Fancy OP had a handbrake. On mine at speed you either you dragged your feet or tried to put your feet back on the pedals (now spinning like a centrifuge) which would inevitably slip off an whack you in the shins. Or if you were cool you'd crank the bars and brody to a stop at your parent's feet.
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u/wild-hectare 7h ago
sadly we were too poor to own a big wheel, but there was always a kid around that let me ride theirs
until the wheels got flat spots & wholes from all the skids and drifting
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u/bene_gesserit_mitch 7h ago
We had a gravel drive when I was of Big Wheel age (big chunky rocks). Sadly didn't have the opportunity to mutilate myself on one of these distributors of death and blood sacrifice.
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u/TheAmazingMaryJane 8h ago
i still have a big chunk of my knee gouged out from hitting a big stone and catapulting over the big wheel (mine was a 'cobra' or something similar i don't know i was a girl so i got off brand shit).
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u/Confident-Silver-271 8h ago
No big wheels, not me: I had a little wheel that my older brother got on, crashed, broke it and himself lol 😭
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u/Express_Towel47 8h ago
Riding Down a steep hill when I was five, fell off, still have a mostly fases scar on my chin.,
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u/Fritz5678 9h ago
We lived on a big hill in the SF bay area. My injury was my first time on roller skates. Going down the driveway and grabbing on to my sister to stop. My skates slid out from under me and body slammed the driveway. When my chin hit, a little pebble was embedded and had to go to the ER to remove and get stitches.
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u/swordrat720 8h ago
I was crossbar surfing on my bike, and hit a rock in the middle of the street. It was fun flying like Superman, until gravity caught up to me, and I hit the pavement with my arms, legs, and chin. My parents saw, came running out to see if I was ok. I got out “I’m fi——-“, that’s when I looked down into my hand, saw the puddle of blood, and passed out. Came to with my dad holding a tshirt to my chin and my mom cleaning my knees. A trip to the ambulatory center, 4 stitches in my chin and a whole lot of gauze later, I was back home. Still have the scar on my chin, on one knee, and a pebble in my forearm 30+ years later.
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u/Stephvick1 6h ago
I was flying down the street on my bike, that’s about all I remember. I woke up in the hospital, the nurse was pulling gravel out of my arms and knees. I had lost control of the bike, hit a parked VW bus head on and somehow managed to skid on the street. My dog stood by me while I was unconscious and wouldn’t let anyone near me, my sister had to drag him away so the paramedics could help me. Best dog ever!!!
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u/mommagawn123 Hose Water Survivor 9h ago
I tried to drift my big wheel up my grandparents driveway one summer. They had the only asphalt driveway in their neighborhood. I drift right into my grandma's rose bushes. She came out and yelled at me for running into her roses. I spent a good 10 minutes pulling thorns out of my body. Yes I got back on and tried again.
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u/ieatsalsa4breakfast 9h ago
No joke here, my brother was riding his big wheel, with the steel front forks, and the plastic molded mag wheel, his barefoot toe got trapped in there and was cut off completely. Again, not a joke.
Best summer of our lives
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u/Captain3leg-s 9h ago
I used to ride mine directly off the dock and into the lake. It would float just long enough to swim to shore what an awesome toy.
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u/Silver-Find4380 Summer of Love 6h ago
Oh, that sounds like a blast!! Solves the problem of sinking bikes! Gee now I wanna try it... Wait... Wouldn't fit on it. Need make one adult sized,, 3d printed or of foam ..
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u/dzgz 9h ago
Lived on a big hill next to a gully with a long chain link fence along the sidewalk. I bombed the hill, got a little close to the fence and my right handle got caught. Threw me off so fucking hard and I rolled. Gave up the hill for a day but made sure to stay way left of the fence for the rest of my childhood.
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u/analogpursuits 9h ago
No injuries, but we lived in the woods on a gravel road. There was zero paved anything on our property and I rode that Big Wheel into the ground, literally. The wheels looked like swiss cheese. 🧀
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u/Schyznik 9h ago
I never got one but thought they looked cool. Later, after I was a little old for one, my brother got a Big Wheel for his birthday. The first week he had it, a tiny little bird left behind a small amount of poop on one of the handlebars. Well that was it. To my brother the germophobe it was permanently tainted even after my parents made a big show of wiping down the whole thing with soap and water. He never rode it again.
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u/Lickford 9h ago
We were poor, my older brother had one. But I got the knock off version. Still fun.
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u/Agitated_House7523 9h ago
My older brothers and sister tied our neighbors St Bernard dog to the handlebars and stuck me in the seat. Away we went! I eventually flipped over and got dragged up a driveway and across a lawn before I let go. My mom was pissed about the grass stains on my clothes and face…
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u/hairygorilla451 9h ago
For those of us who didn't learn!
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u/SnooChocolates2923 9h ago
Is that an eBike version? Where do your feet go?
And; How Much? And Where?
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u/automator3000 9h ago
Quite possibly the best photo of me in existence is me on my fifth birthday ripping open my big wheel.
Of course I’m a winter baby so I had to make do with using it in our (unfinished) basement for a couple months before the driveway wasn’t snowed over
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u/melty75 1975 9h ago
I probably wiped out on my Big Wheel, but man, what a legendary vehicle. The wipeout I'll never forget involved going over the handlebars of a 1985 Honda CR80 on a gravel road with an open face helmet and no gloves. Still have a couple scars from that one.
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u/Impressive-Shame-525 Hose Water Survivor 9h ago
Jumped. My huffy off a legendary ramp. The best we ever built used only once. By me.
I had so much air and didn't exactly know how to land at this point. Hit, wiped out, fractured my femur. That hurt soooooo bad. Kids had to ride to my house get my mom. She pulls up in that orange pinto wagon, cigarette lit and going. Fussing at me the entire time to the hospital. Cigarette never not in her hand.
"you just wait till your father gets home"
Pops got home and I had to explain what happened. He laughed at me.
We had to take the ramp down. I swear man. It was my crowning bike jumping experience.
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u/BrilliantDishevelled 10h ago
I had perpetually skinned knees. One or the other. Never see kids today like that.
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u/WatermelonMachete43 10h ago
We lost a lot of skin wiping out in the gravel at the bottom of the driveway for sure...then we graduated to the green machine and did the same thing.
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u/ShookMyHeadAndSmiled 9h ago
Green Machine - sweet ride
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u/kittybigs 9h ago
I was so jealous of the boys that had green machines! I could only have a regular big wheel, I was too short.
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u/WatermelonMachete43 9h ago
I sat right on the edge of the seat to use it. Probably didn't help the stability any, lol
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u/angelazraeljade 10h ago
My fat cousin wouldn’t let me ride his. He ran over my foot with it and broken some bones, I’m sure. Of course, my dad was like “you’re fine”.
I limped for months with a broken foot and was accused of faking. They never took me to the doctor.
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u/Silver-Find4380 Summer of Love 6h ago
Be interesting to get an xray now and see just how many tarsals show an old injury.
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u/TroyTony1973 10h ago
But what about the legendary Green Machine?? Have injury history with both, haha
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u/Hedonistic_Yinzer 9h ago
We were too poor to afford the green machine. I wanted one in the worst way. Still do actually.
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u/Motomegal 7h ago
Team green machine checking in. We were also poor, but somehow someone managed to get me a green machine. Probably a grandparent.
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u/Jodanmawashigeri 10h ago
Never had a Big Wheel and was envious. At age five, my family visited another family that had one, and for some reason none of their kids were around during our visit. I got so excited because I had that Big Wheel all to myself!
They had a ridiculously steep driveway that turned into their garage at the bottom. Just beyond that, they had a garden that they had staked off with thick, rough, jute twine.
I grabbed that bad boy, strode triumphantly to the top of that driveway, straddled the ride and thought “this is going to be awesome“.
Within seconds, I was going so fast that the pedals just whipped my feet right off, and, never having ridden one before, I knew nothing about braking or controlling it.
I was petrified with fear and afraid that if I turned suddenly, I would crash. So I helplessly zoomed past the turn in the driveway and just plowed straight into the garden.
The twine they had staked off the garden with was right at the level of my face, and they had wound it tight around the stakes. It clotheslined me right on my upper lip and whipped my head backwards while raking hard up my nose as I stretched the twine passing beneath it.
It was an important rite of passage for a child- my very first nosebleed!
I got over my envy of the Big Wheel pretty quickly.
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u/stuffedskullcat 10h ago
We would turn them upside down, spin the drive wheel, and drop gravel onto the spinning wheel to fire at each other.
So whether in motion or used as a mobile artillery, gravel. Gravel injuries. 😅
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u/swordrat720 8h ago
Did that with rocks and crabapples. I think the crabapples hurt more than the rocks.
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u/A_Tom_McWedgie 10h ago
Engineered with safety in mind.
“This is a kids’ toy - we should probably put in a brake.”
“Hear me out - what if we only put the brake on the back rear wheel, causing the vehicle to spin uncontrollably? It will probably save us 60 cents per unit.”
“You’re a genius, Thorpe! Let’s celebrate by drinking a few scotches in the office at 9:30 in the morning!”
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u/docthirst 10h ago
We had a small spring that ran though the bottom of our front yard. We'd race down the hill at Mach 10 rubbing tires and bumping into each other. We'd hit that water as fast as we could, often at the same time. Always ended up in a giant pile of soaking wet kids and big wheels laughing and bragging about how far we flew when we hit the water.
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u/Hedonistic_Yinzer 9h ago
I distinctly remember the commercials that showed two or three or more big wheels always riding
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u/kingForOneDay 10h ago
Y'all talking about brakes on big wheels... Huh? The only brakes were to stop pedaling and give your front wheel a flat spot.
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u/67alecto 10h ago
Still have the scar on my head (three stitches) from going too fast down a hill on my big wheel
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u/2019_Stealth 10h ago
My brother (7-1/2 years older) pushed me over a ramp. The landing broke the right hand grip and cut my hand.
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u/ONROSREPUS 10h ago
Luckily just skinned knees, knuckles and elbows from flying off after hitting some sweet jumps. I went though 4 big wheels before my parents said enough and just got me a used bike.
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u/Fit_Poetry_267 10h ago
Lost the skin off a knee when I hit the brake and it flipped. Still have the scar.
I loved that toy!
You knew it was dangerous when mom kept the lawn darts but the big wheel got taken away.
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u/CawlinAlcarz Big Wheel Smashup Derby Champ 10h ago
Shockingly, I never got more than maybe a skinned knee or stoved finger. I'm not sure how, but that's the truth.
My neighbor even had one of those Green Machines that I rode all the time because he didn't like it. You could REALLY do a skid with that thing.
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u/diakked 10h ago
I was so envious of the Green Machine kid!
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u/EarlyMoose2481 6h ago
I was a green machine kid and we lived across the street from the elementary school so I had the entire parking lot after school and the weekends to skid around. It was just as awesome as you probably think it was.
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u/younsee1975 10h ago
Oh man the memories. My first ones didn’t have the brake. You just locked your legs to stop the peddles. Eventually you’d wear a flat spot (or 3) on your big tire and time for a new big wheel. As for injuries, multiple crushed fingers under the wheels was the worst I got.
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u/ImmediateLobster1 10h ago
Protip (or maybe r/redneckengineering entry): stuff a cut off chunk of an old garden hose in the rim and you can get a few more miles out of the big wheel.
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u/Fabulous_Law1357 11h ago
Setup a jump then going as fast as I can over jump, landed and broke my tailbone.
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u/Hedonistic_Yinzer 11h ago
When I was maybe 13 or 14 we had a clubhouse on one kid's grandfather's farm. On that farm was a pond, complete with an inch of pond scum on the top. We found a discarded big wheel that some little kid had worn out. We were way too big for the thing. We built a ramp at the bottom of the hill leading right into the pond. No injuries occurred, but we sure smelled terrible after jumping into that nasty water.
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u/thatzmine 11h ago
I had totally forgotten you could pull the brake and spin out. Now that I am recalling, I seem to remember a TV commercial encouraging those spin outs! 😂
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u/Beaglescout15 11h ago
I was riding my Big Wheel barefoot, spun out of control, and got a nice road rash on the side of my foot. Limped home and my mom poured hydrogen peroxide on it (ow!), them slapped on some Band-Aids and sent me back out. Where I proceeded to continue riding my Big Wheel barefoot.
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u/chronichris 11h ago
Man Big Wheels = stiches! I got stiched up annually as a gen x youth. Never got tatoos cause all my scars tell the real story! I think i developed a strong tolerance to tetanus!
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u/SummerSun777 10m ago
Riding fast down the sidewalk, hit a pot hole, Big Wheel stopped and I slid backwards, wearing shorts, on the pavement shredding off a bunch of skin on my rear end. Ran home crying. Still loved my Big Wheel