Every kid in our neighborhood put up a bicycle ramp. LOL My father would scold me just for jumping over curbs with a bicycle. He said I was going to make the wheels lumpy.
Then suddenly jumping over things became a big deal, with Evil Knievel. Everybody wanted to jump their bike.
I wasn’t considering it previously, but this must’ve been a big boon for parts sales (even before the carnage of BMX riding.)
By the mid 60s I was working on cars, so I wasn’t even thinking about bicycles much anymore. On the other hand, I was motorcycle crazy. I owned 4 of them within the first two years of driving.
I was in the Rocky Mountains in the winter and there were lots of auto accidents when you commuted every day. Somebody would smash into my car, I would take the insurance money and go buy another used motorcycle, and then knock the dents out of the car myself.
Finally somebody hit me really bad in Fresno, in a rain storm. That wound up with me riding the mighty Kawasaki KZ900.