Trackers

[phatboytwo]

i was looking at the rather lovely Clockwork Orange bike and noticed the rite-hite (spelling?) thingy , I vaguely remember them when they came out so Googled about them and ended up on a museum piece about the first MTB the Breezer !

Still with me ?
Good !

In the days before MTB , we as nippers used to have trackers , usually a racer frame , with 26 x 1 3/8 (I think?) wheels , with cycle speedway tyres , motorcycle handlebars and brake lever , usually only a back brake , if you were really flash you had a Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub , but the hot-fix was a small childs bike front chainring welded to more normal "adult" cranks .

This was among a small group of friends in Bournemouth ( lots of heath and common land back in the 70s), but I wonder did they exist anywhere else ?

Thinking about it more , there was a cycle speedway track locally , and those bikes were similar , so maybe that's were they came from ?

Yep I had one as well and I remember spike tyres ,lived in Gloucester then

 

[Nabeaquam]

Two of my trackers. This is one I originally built in the 1970s. It’s had a few improvements since then. I had 3 of these so friends could come with me exploring hiking and old logging roads. Home built beaters from old three speed frames.


This one isn’t finished.

 

[Synthiaks]

Like those!

 

[doctor-bond]

Lots of cool stuff to dig here. One takeaway is that folk have always fkd around with the thing they have to make it something a bit different.

Early 80s, I was still rocking my Grifter, but growing out of it and envious of the big kids on Mavericks? Etc. So I swapped a cap gun and some soldiers for a little lord fauntleroy 26” flat bar bike, binned the guards and rack, added cow horns, and engineered a double calliper rear brake actuated by a foot lever on the chain stay . Rocked that puppy all summer in the woods, over jumps, down the paths. I’d never heard of a tracker.

(Also used it to invent bike polo, but that’s another thread…)

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

"I’d never heard of a tracker".

There seems to be no universally adopted name for these homemade dirt-track bikes and 'Tracker Bike' is just one of the more popular names. In the 1940's/50s there creation may have been originally inspired by the popular sport of cycle speedway and later by teenagers copying the homemade dirt-track bikes they saw others riding.

Later on in the 60s and 70s, the popularity of motorbike scrambling on BBC Grandstand and ITV's World of Sport seems to have been major influences with local riders often believing that the making and riding such bikes only took place in their town or village. Therefore, each location would invent their own name for the bikes.

Sometimes riders would find out about groups elsewhere when local newspapers or TV stations covered the phenomenon. One instance of this was when BBC TV reported on the Darlington 'Bog Wheelers' riders back in 1961.

 

[Rikoned]

Tracker bike action caught on film- British Pathe 1968
Whilst the the event is the Scouts National Cyclocross -plenty of tracker bike riders take part.


See:
https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/194303/
click <view as stills> to get a good look at the bikes

or watch on Youtube:

 

[Synthiaks]

thats amazing....those old racing bikes being thrashed by kids in woolly jumpers. and classic cowhorn handlebars.

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

Tracker bike action caught on film- British Pathe 1968
Whilst the the event is the Scouts National Cyclocross -plenty of tracker bike riders take part.

View attachment 907729
See:
https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/194303/
click <view as stills> to get a good look at the bikes

or watch on Youtube:

Hi Rikoned, once again you have excelled with your research. The makers of Mountain Biking: The Untold British Story could have done with footage like that when they were researching the history of 'Tracker' bikes. Instead they had to make do with a few old stills and anecdotes.
Mountain Biking: The Untold British Story

The number of 'Tracker' bikes taking part in a local cyclo-cross race bears testament to how popular 'Tracker' bike riding was at the time.

There are also a number of riders on unmodified, straight handlebar bikes taking part. Though I guess that most 'Tracker' bike riders would have started out by taking unmodified bikes off-road.

 

[Synthiaks]

Hi Rikoned, once again you have excelled with your research. The makers of Mountain Biking: The Untold British Story could have done with footage like that when they were researching the history of 'Tracker' bikes. Instead they had to make do with a few old stills and anecdotes.
Mountain Biking: The Untold British Story

The number of 'Tracker' bikes taking part in a local cyclo-cross race bears testament to how popular 'Tracker' bike riding was at the time.

There are also a number of riders on unmodified, straight handlebar bikes taking part. Though I guess that most 'Tracker' bike riders would have started out by taking unmodified bikes off-road.

Looked like a lot in that film were just unmodded (or at least not obviously modded) racers......I certainly took my halfords Vitesse racer out & buckled its wheels it doing similar things in the 70s before revamping into something sturdier.

 

[Rikoned]

​

Hi Rikoned, once again you have excelled with your research. The makers of Mountain Biking: The Untold British Story could have done with footage like that when they were researching the history of 'Tracker' bikes. Instead they had to make do with a few old stills and anecdotes.
Mountain Biking: The Untold British Story

The number of 'Tracker' bikes taking part in a local cyclo-cross race bears testament to how popular 'Tracker' bike riding was at the time.

There are also a number of riders on unmodified, straight handlebar bikes taking part. Though I guess that most 'Tracker' bike riders would have started out by taking unmodified bikes off-road.

Ride (wreck) what you have!
The rider at 02:04 (still #124) "You will grow into it" school of bike fitting.

I think more footage must exist - but finding it might prove tricky and time consuming. This British Pathe footage was never used or issued.

Perhaps youth organisation archives, like the scouts etc. might be a good source - but nothing is going to be labeled 'tracker bike'... so searching through archive material on sports days etc -might get lucky. I also wonder if the odd tracker might pop up on motorcycle trials footage - in the background, unused clips or b-roll?