My brother had one similar - with the banana seat and sissy bar. Had a solid front fork though and no shock absorbers. I think it started out as a Schwinn Stingray knockoff (probably a Huffy…we were too poor to afford a real Stingray). He swapped the front tire out with a toddler bike wheel so it looked like a dragster. It was a true death trap. Pretty sure he knocked his front teeth out on that thing.
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I also had a “banana bike” in the 1960s. Near where we lived there was an empty lot that had an excavation for a walkout basement, but the builder had walked away, leaving the empty hole. It was similar to a modern skatepark bowl, except it was dirt.
The older neighborhood kids discovered they could pedal their bikes down one side, speed madly across the bottom, then up the other and jump off the lip. It was known as “the jumps”, of course. No supervision, no helmets, just kids on bikes having fun. I think 8-year-old me spent an entire summer there.
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What a great bit of film! 
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I grew up in the age of Evel Knievel. We had bike jumps of all sorts. I had a long gravel driveway and one of the best was a ramp to ramp jump over an enlarged (by us) pothole filled with burning gas. Luckily we were able to fill in the hole enough that none of the adults noticed. We built a jump on a tar road on a hill in front of my friend’s house. It was about five feet tall. An older neighbor kid went took it, overcorrected forward, and landed hard on the front wheel. He went ass over tit and the sprocket laid his scalp open. Luckily my friend’s mom was a nurse and she was home. Blood was everywhere and he got A LOT of stitches. Boy, did we ever get in trouble for that one. We were friggin’ idiots and it was awesome!
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And then again, there was me, the kid who was relieved that after the jump was successful, his forearm wasn’t squashed by a back wheel.
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You should have a look at the BB page. I am likewise Instagram-less, but was able to see at least three pics, and I can confirm they are indeed rad.
The desire to make ramps and jump things continued in the winter up here in the Great White North. We’d just pile up snow to make a ramp. I wish I had pictures of young me doing toboggan jumps. Felt like we were 10’ high and 25’ long, but I expect most of that was in our minds.
This was before we switched to metric, so I’m allowed to use obscure “feet” units.
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I’m not on Instagram either but the bb permalink served me a side-scrollable embed, which surprised me since I’m running several script blockers
edit: TikTok embeds require that I open the page with incognito mode, though
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Thank you, @csilvest and @noahdjango, I was able to spot the side scrolling arrows with you help.
This photo gave me the shivers.
Maybe it is because I was one, but kids with 70s’ hair always look slightly deranged.
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same. i’m pretty sure it’s the last photo of several kids at the end there being alive.
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“You’re in the Cub Scouts, right? I believe I need a tourniquet.”
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here’s a super 8 film i picked up at a garage sale awhile back:
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Like those kids, I’m dying over here. It sure as hell looks like that bike is in no way, shape, or form going to clear the distance. Yet I still laugh at your comment. I’m still chuckling. There has got to be something wrong with me.
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What a great find. Completely epic.
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right? i am sure, like we did back then, those kids suffered injuries – but then went out and did it again at the next opportunity. \m/ \m/
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You’d never get that sort of air with a Raleigh Grifter, you’d just get injured.
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Also: the circled guy. Pretty sure that’s not a bicycle. What stunt is he lining up?
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Thanks for sharing; that’s great 
The rich kids got BMX bikes. My grandmother took me to the bike shop and spent around $20 for new handlebars, a single seat and some knobby tires. It was the bestest gift ever, but after I broke the frame on my converted Sting Ray, I realized the difference.
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