What were those heavy steel-framed kids bicycles called that they had in schools back in the early 80s?

Question

Not BMX-- they were made completely of solid metal (even the seats) and were very "clunky". A lot of kindergartens had them for the kids to use at recess.

Answer 1

Hm. There was no such thing as a commercially produced mountain bike until about 1985, so I'm going to assume that is not what you mean.

The predecessor of a mountain bike was called a "clunker" which were made out of older balloon-tired bikes. Then there was the "lightweight" which included a variety of different bikes including the Schwinn Varsity, many different 24" and 26" wheeled bikes with single speed, 3 speed, 5 speed and 10 speed... some even had 12 speed!

Of course, there was the 20" bike which included BMX bikes and those called by a variety of names including "high rise", "spyder" and "Sting Ray" models.

All of the bikes of this era and prior were heavy compared to today, but in my opinion much more care was taken to machine and assemble them which makes some of those 30 and 40 pound bikes MUCH friendlier and more efficient than many 20 pounders today.

Answer 2

BMX was one (that's actually Bicycle Motocross) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMX

The other heavy steel-framed kids bike that a lot of kids had, myself included, was a Schwinn (usually a Varsity model). These weigh 40-45 lbs depending on size. Mine was 42# ina 21" frame size. Mostly American-made parts built in Chicago, IL.

Other types/makes/models existed (Huffies etc.), but the above two (one 20" wheel, the other 27") accounted for the majority.

Answer 3

BMX  (Bicycle Cross-country).

or mountain bikes.

Answer 4

BMX