My BC's had large bearings for wheels and I used to wire tie old bicycle tyre sections to the front wheels for grip on the bitumen otherwise the BC would slide out of control around corners.
Also, a lot of prams ended up without their wheels.
watsea said
05:01 PM Jun 29, 2025
One holiday stay at my grandmas, I built a billy cart after finding some solid iron/steel wheels with axles in my late grandfathers shed.
The rear of the BC did nice sideways drifts on the bitumen road as I turned at the bottom of the hill out the back.
vanTas said
06:22 PM Jun 29, 2025
Yep. An old pram donated the wheels and body. A spring supported a hinged timber brake in behind the front wheels. Also a hand brake working against a rear wheel. My street was pretty steep.
watsea said
01:24 PM Jun 30, 2025
Brakes??? Those were a luxury.
-- Edited by watsea on Monday 30th of June 2025 01:24:33 PM
So Grandpa was Italian,nice design a lot flasher than my homemade wooden contraptions.
Yes. My grandpa was Italian, but his name was Guido. He used to make them out of his garage in the farm where he was born.. I didn't know someone picked up the design and made them legal to use... Then again, I left Italy at a very young age.. I was actually surprised when I was able to find a picture of it, while searching online.
I laugh at "far divertire i vostri bimbi in tutta sicurezza".. If you went too fast, it simply didn't steer, because of the rubber not having enough traction on the tubular square steel.
Going downhill was always an interesting experience, while going uphill was very hard because of the missing gearing.. Still, they were the good times..
My BC's had large bearings for wheels and I used to wire tie old bicycle tyre sections to the front wheels for grip on the bitumen otherwise the BC would slide out of control around corners.
Also, a lot of prams ended up without their wheels.
The rear of the BC did nice sideways drifts on the bitumen road as I turned at the bottom of the hill out the back.
Brakes??? Those were a luxury.
-- Edited by watsea on Monday 30th of June 2025 01:24:33 PM
I was lucky... My grandpa use to make these... They were called Grillo or Cricket because of the push pedal action...
Note the piece or rubber tube, to control the steering wheel, that never really worked especially at high speed..
So Grandpa was Italian,nice design a lot flasher than my homemade wooden contraptions.
Yes. My grandpa was Italian, but his name was Guido. He used to make them out of his garage in the farm where he was born.. I didn't know someone picked up the design and made them legal to use... Then again, I left Italy at a very young age.. I was actually surprised when I was able to find a picture of it, while searching online.
I laugh at "far divertire i vostri bimbi in tutta sicurezza".. If you went too fast, it simply didn't steer, because of the rubber not having enough traction on the tubular square steel.
Going downhill was always an interesting experience, while going uphill was very hard because of the missing gearing.. Still, they were the good times..