I didn't want to hijack Keith's thread about his new/old pickaroon.

I love my pickaroon. So does my seven-year-old grandson.

I made a deal with him this week; he moves two stacks of dried ash firewood from one side of the woodshed to the other and stacks it with the other dried stuff and I'll build him a ramp to jump his bike off of. First thing he asked was. "Can I use the pickaroon?" I told him he could and gave him the standard warning; "Don't stick yourself in the leg with it."

This came about after his first attempt at ramp-building on his own produced a too short, too steep ramp that would have certainly resulted in injury had he decided to try it out. Thankfully, he recognized it's shortcomings and didn't attempt it. When I asked how the ramp was coming along he said, "That things sucks!"

So I told him I'd help him build a new one if he helped me with the firewood. He had to move the ash to the dry side of the shed to make room for a cord and a half of green stuff we have to stack there.

I'll update with "big air" pics of him using his new ramp after all is done.

Common in MI hard to find in the Dakotas but I picked one up from a place in PA it works like a charm for moving wood around the piles. Wet slippery wood no problem.

Still have a scar in the palm of my hand from one. Teenagers can be careless. Darn good tool for moving short pieces of wood.

I hope your grandson has fun with the ramps and remains uninjured.

We did a lot of crazy stuff on bicycles, jousting and bike tag were probably the worst. We would ride our bicycles up behind another guy's bike, get our front wheel next to the back wheel of the other bike and turn sharply to try to knock the other bike over.

We made some stupidly long and high ramps when I was a kid. Some ramps broke when we rode up them, which was probably a good thing. I never got more than badly jarred. Some of my friends crashed and got badly bruised with road rash. Some of my friend's bikes didn't survive the landings.

Keith

Yeah, I grew up in the era of Evil Knevil. Jumping ramps with our bikes was a big thing. There were plenty of lumps and bruises to go around but surprisingly, no broken bones.

One of our favorite games was simply called Run Over. A bunch of neighborhood kids would gather, the more the merrier. Half would be riders and half would be runners. The idea was simple, runners tried to cross the road without riders running into them or hopefully (for the rider) running over them. If you crossed without being hit you got to be a rider.

A round ended when there were no more runners. Being the last runner was hard. LOL

Edit to say: Those were the days before helmets and safety gear.

The safety gear was supposed to be between your ears. Crash a couple of times and it started to work better., at least it did for me.

Family had a cottage on the chippewa river back in the early and mi-eighties. Several of us decided we needed to build a bicycle ramp and see who could make it farthest out into the river. By now, the adults had taken a little interest in the construction of the ramp and the confident talk coming from the 'youth'. I still remember the first volunteer, his name was wayne, and he was heck bent on being the first to try the ramp. He got a long head start before hitting the ramp, peddaling so fast his legs were just a blur. He hit the ramp at nearly mach1, sailing what seemed to be 20 plus feet through the air out into the river. It was a beautiful sight to behold. However, what we never stopped to consider is that unlike jumping a bike in the grass or on pavement where you land and keep rolling, hitting the water is an immediate stop...and boy did he stop! He stopped abruptly when his netherregions lit squarely on the frame of that bike upon touchdown. Still brings a smile to me remembering all the adults and old timers that watched this spectacle go down and fell into complete hysteria. Needless to say, wayne was the only one to take a run on that ramp...the rest of us woosed out.

LOL!

Not much between the ears of ten-year-old daredevils.

Putting a helmet on a kid so he could ride a bike was unheard of in the 70's.

We did wear helmets when we played tackle football, wasn't any touch football back then. We only wore them if everybody had one. If somebody didn't have one nobody wore one.

It's because of those thumps and bumps that we have something between our ears. Things have gotten so safety conscious that there are barely any consequences for doing something dumb.

I didn't even make my boy use a helmet in 2008 when he was ten. My nephews ( nieces kids) like going to their Great Grandma's house because she doesn't make them wear a helmet.

I couldn't agree more Woodsloafer.

There is someone locally that makes pickaroons . I think I spelled it wrong. But the production schedule is hit or miss.

Mine is a Stihl. It's pretty much indestructible unless the grandson or someone else misses the target and hits rocks instead. I had to reshape the point and barb twice now.

Last one I had was a hand forged one. Made by a local blacksmith. It disappeared a few years ago. Not sure if I lost it in a woodpile, or if it grew legs.

no one cut the forks off another bike and make a chopper?

Important piece if cutting firewood.
Few know what it is.

Oh yeah! We found some old pipe somewhere and made some ridiculously long forks for our "choppers." You couldn't hardly turn but you looked cool...until one or both broke and you went over the handlebars after what was left of the forks dug into the road.

I don't know how many use them but since I've had mine (years), I don't handle firewood without it.

Used pickaroons regularly on the Railroad.
Used them for spreading ties off the top of the rack flats on the worktrain,also for spot tie changes on the section,Also use pickaroons regularly for piling old tie butts for burning in winter.We customized some of them for pulling ties by forging a small barb at the point to keep them from slipping out of the greasy crosote ties.When using those to spread ties from the top of the moving train,when you whipped the tie off if the pickaroon didnt let go you had to let go of the pickaroon or the tie would pull you over the side.lol
I use pickaroons all the time on the trapline for handling frozen beaver carcasses I use for bait.
I cant believe trappers or bushmen dont know what a pickaroon is,lol.

Mine came with a barb already on it. I had to reshape the point and barbed twice now because of other folks missing their target and hitting rocks with it.

There is definitely a knack that you have to learn to get it to release when you want it to.