When I was a kid, riding the mean streets of a small country town on my awesome yellow bicycle, there was nothing cooler than spokey dokes. Brightly coloured bits of plastic that clipped onto the spokes of your bike, designed to rattle around in an unmistakable cacophony that might have been designed to simulate… I don’t know. A really sick calypso band, maybe? The girls could have their baskets and their tinsel-sprouting handlebars, I had fluro plastic noise makers!
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Spokey Dokes (sometimes also called spokey dokeys) are one of those outrageous 80’s icons that (as far as I can tell) had no purpose beyond just making an already good thing great. They were brightly coloured (sometimes glow-in-the-dark!), noisy, cheap, easy to install, and just brought joy to anyone lucky enough to attach them to their bike. The only bicycle accessory that is better, in my mind, was a trick my Dad showed me, where you stuck a playing card or piece of cardboard so that it clipped the spokes as you rode – it made a fantastic “vroom” sound that satisfactorily simulated the sound of a very small engined motorbike. Just awesome.
I haven’t seen spokey dokes in shops in a long while, though I admit I haven’t been looking for them. A quick Google search, though, reveals plenty available on ebay. I even found a Facebook page celebrating them!
Do you remember spokey dokes? What is your favourite bike accessory?
I never had Spokey Dokes and I’m bitter to this day about that.
Awesome to discover your blog today!
Oh, what a terrible and deprived childhood you must have had! 🙂 Thanks for dropping by!
I remember having spokey dokes on my dream bike – it was painted metallic purple with a basket and streamers and a long seat which went up at the back. It was my pride and joy until the day my handlebars just literally came off – that was a sad day…
Well, I hope you weren’t riding the bike when the handlebars came off. That might have ended in disaster!
Thanks for the delightful flashback! I had spokey dokes on my bike, along with tassles hangin’ from my handlebars! We also did the cardboard in the spokes trick too… those were the days, weren’t they?!
Yes, they were! I don’t know what it is about the spokey dokes, they’re just little bits of plastic, but they were fun!
I’ve never seen them, and never heard that name! I must have lived in a smaller country town than you!!!! We did use cardboard though like Mum of Adult Kids mentioned above, or strips cut from plastic ice cream container lids.
Another person that endured a childhood without spokey dokes? This is a national outrage! 🙂
I had them and loved them. I also had ribbons on my handle bard which were also the height of cool.
**bars**
Thank goodness! I was beginning to think I had imagined them! Of course, I cannot agree that ribbons on handlebars are cool, but then, you probably didn’t aspire to grow a moustache… 🙂
Yes I do remember them…or something similar anyway. And this reminded me of these fluoro colored covers that I had on the windscreen wipers of my first car. Absolutley no purpose but I must have thought they looked good!
Oh yes, I remember those windscreen wipers. More disturbingly, I still see cars driving around with them! Thanks for dropping by.
I was never allowed a bike, we lived on a main road … but I do remember those spokey-doke things (had no idea what they were called though)!
Oh, I remember spoken dokes! I used to love the plastic woven basket with flowers on my little yellow Malvern Star and the little tassels hanging down from the handles. The good ol’ days!
Excellent! I didn’t have a basket, which was just fine by me! 🙂
I had one of the awesome little bells.. we never had spokes! I used to tie ribbons to my handle bars until me pet lamb tried to eat them!
Emily