Raleigh Chopper

[Smudger]

I was at a boot sale in Southampton last Sunday and there was a bloke selling a yellow Raleigh
Chopper for £400. It was in good nick though.

 

[Adrian Boliston]

"Smudger" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...

> I was at a boot sale in Southampton last Sunday and there was a bloke selling a yellow Raleigh
> Chopper for £400. It was in good nick though.

I remember these bikes from my childhood, with their 3 speed car-style gear shifters, which now
appear to have a cult following!

 

[Tim Dunne]

"Adrian Boliston" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

> I remember these bikes from my childhood, with their 3 speed car-style
gear
> shifters, which now appear to have a cult following!

Not much cop for touring, though...

Tim

--
Sent from Brum, UK... ...scheduled completion Sept 2003 'What's keeping the White House white? Is it
chalk, is it fog, is it fear?' Steve Skaith, 'America For Beginners' Look, mum, an anorak on a bike!
Check out www.nervouscyclist.org

 

[Smudger]

"Adrian Boliston" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> "Smudger" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
>
> > I was at a boot sale in Southampton last Sunday and there was a bloke selling a yellow Raleigh
> > Chopper for £400. It was in good nick though.
>
> I remember these bikes from my childhood, with their 3 speed car-style
gear
> shifters, which now appear to have a cult following!
>
>
Absolutely. Look at this:

http://www.rcoc.co.uk/

 

[Albert]

"Tim Dunne" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> "Adrian Boliston" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>
> > I remember these bikes from my childhood, with their 3 speed car-style
> gear
> > shifters, which now appear to have a cult following!
>
> Not much cop for touring, though...
>
> Tim
>

I disagree.

when you are 10, a raleigh chopper will take you anywhere you want to go

I *loved* my raleigh chopper and didn't care when everyone else bought grifters.

I stayed faithful to my chopper for years until I saw the raleigh ultraburner....

/goes wistful .... gold it was, with black mag wheels ...

Albert

 

[Tim Dunne]

"Albert" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...

> when you are 10, a raleigh chopper will take you anywhere you want to go

Good point, well put

> I *loved* my raleigh chopper and didn't care when everyone else bought
grifters.

I was a Grifter man meself...

Tim
--
Sent from Brum, UK... ...scheduled completion Sept 2003 'What's keeping the White House white? Is it
chalk, is it fog, is it fear?' Steve Skaith, 'America For Beginners' Look, mum, an anorak on a bike!
Check out www.nervouscyclist.org

 

[Albert]

"Tim Dunne" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> "Albert" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
>
> > when you are 10, a raleigh chopper will take you anywhere you want to go
>
> Good point, well put
>
> > I *loved* my raleigh chopper and didn't care when everyone else bought
> grifters.
>
> I was a Grifter man meself...
>
> Tim

they were *tuff* .. I think they were made from scaffold tubing.

and that thick foam padding on the handlebars, mad.

grifters were excellent for wheelies, better than a chopper by far, but only if you had the strength
to get them up on the back wheel

Albert

 

[Scott Leckey]

"Smudger" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> I was at a boot sale in Southampton last Sunday and there was a bloke selling a yellow Raleigh
> Chopper for £400. It was in good nick though.
>
>

I caught a snippet of a TV programme a day or two ago. I didn't see which prog it was or even which
channel. A bloke on there collected Choppers. IIRC, he had about 40! We saw a view of his seaside
garden with all of the bikes out on display. Amazing!

Scott Leckey

 

[Peter]

"Smudger" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> I was at a boot sale in Southampton last Sunday and there was a bloke selling a yellow Raleigh
> Chopper for £400. It was in good nick though.

I had the Chipper. This was the Chopper without the gears. I was a poor child ;-)

Peter.

 

[Wafflycathcsdir]

>I had the Chipper. This was the Chopper without the gears. I was a poor child ;-)
>

I was even more poor - I was denied Matey bubble bath on the grounds it was too expensive.

Sob ... sob ...

helen s

~~~~~~~~~~
Flush out that intestinal parasite and/or the waste product before sending a reply!

Any speeliong mistake$ aR the resiult of my cats sitting on the keyboaRRRDdd
~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Kenny Of The Fe]

"Adrian Boliston" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> "Smudger" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
>
> > I was at a boot sale in Southampton last Sunday and there was a bloke selling a yellow Raleigh
> > Chopper for £400. It was in good nick though.
>
> I remember these bikes from my childhood, with their 3 speed car-style
gear
> shifters, which now appear to have a cult following!
>
I was never allowed to have one - my Mum thought they were dangerous (unbalanced and could tip over
backwards). Did this actually ever happen to anyone?

 

[Toby Barrett]

"Peter" <[email protected]> wrote in news:[email protected]:
> "Smudger" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
>> I was at a boot sale in Southampton last Sunday and there was a bloke selling a yellow Raleigh
>> Chopper for œ400. It was in good nick though.
>
> I had the Chipper. This was the Chopper without the gears. I was a poor child ;-)

Ditto. My friend Mark had a brand new Raleigh Chopper, but my brother and I got second hand bikes of
unrecalled provenance. My brother's had rod brakes (this was the mid 1970s); mine had cables at
least, but all the other kids on the street took delight in pointing out that the sloping top-tube
meant it was "a girl's bike". Oh the deprivation!

Eventually, I got a second hand Chopper (just as they were going out of fashion) which got passed on
through the family. My Father tells me that it is still in the cellar at home. Perhaps I should get
hold of it and have it renovated?

Toby

--
Remove spamtrap to reply by mail

 

[Peter]

"wafflycathcsdirtycatlitter" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> >I had the Chipper. This was the Chopper without the gears. I was a poor child ;-)
> >
>
> I was even more poor - I was denied Matey bubble bath on the grounds it
was too
> expensive.
>
> Sob ... sob ...
>
> helen s
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~
> Flush out that intestinal parasite and/or the waste product before sending
a
> reply!
>
> Any speeliong mistake$ aR the resiult of my cats sitting on the
keyboaRRRDdd
> ~~~~~~~~~~

That is close to cruelty. Everyone should have Matey bubble bath!!

I remember a friend getting a Grifter. I pleaded for one. No chance. I also pleaded for a Super Tuff
Burner (gold with black mag wheels). Didn't get one of those either. Ah well.

Peter.

 

[Helen Deborah V]

Thus spake [email protected] (wafflycathcsdirtycatlitter)

> >That is close to cruelty. Everyone should have Matey bubble bath!!

> Someone understands! It makes the burden of a deprived childhood so much easier to bear.

We had Matey but only as a special treat.

Killing the bubbles with a bar of soap was good fun...

--
Helen D. Vecht: [email protected] Edgware.

 

[David E. Belche]

[email protected] (wafflycathcsdirtycatlitter) wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> >I had the Chipper. This was the Chopper without the gears. I was a poor child ;-)
> >
>
> I was even more poor - I was denied Matey bubble bath on the grounds it was too expensive.
>

Bath? Luxury! We had to make do with a deep puddle in the middle of the road! But enough of Monty
Python, and back to the Raleigh Chopper - I had the inevitable 3-speed version in a rather dodgy
purple colour, though a deluxe model was apparently available with a 5sp. derailleur; never saw one
myself. From memory, the Chopper was damned hard work, especially uphill, as it weighed a ton, and
certainly wasn't built for speed. After that it was drop-bar bikes all the way, finally getting my
first Reynolds-framed (only 501 Cr-Mo, mind) road bike for my 16th birthday!

David E. Belcher

Dept. of Chemistry, University of York

P.S. Just for the record, I was regularly bought Matey bubble bath as a kid!

 

[Murk]

"Peter" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> "Smudger" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> > I was at a boot sale in Southampton last Sunday and there was a bloke selling a yellow Raleigh
> > Chopper for £400. It was in good nick though.
>
>
> I had the Chipper. This was the Chopper without the gears. I was a poor child ;-)
>
> Peter.

Weren't there three bikes in the range? The Chipper was the smallest and the Chopper the biggest,
but I think there was a Tomahawk in-between. My mate had one of those. I remember three of us
climbing on it, two on the big saddle and one on the bars between saddle and handlebars (where the
gears were on the Chopper), in our town centre and embarking on a frantic two mile descent. The
brakes were useless against our collective mass, even the smoking bottoms of our shoes were pretty
ineffectual. We flew past our estate and out on to waste ground where a front wheel sized hole
brought us to an abrupt stop. We flew over the bars into a mangle of arms, legs, cuts and bruises,
laughing hysterically, and desperate to do it again -).

Thanks for bringing back the memory.

M

 

[Peter]

< snip >

Reynolds-framed (only 501 Cr-Mo, mind) road bike for my 16th birthday!
>
> David E. Belcher
>
> Dept. of Chemistry, University of York
>
> P.S. Just for the record, I was regularly bought Matey bubble bath as a kid!

Some kids were just spoiled ;-)

Peter.

 

[Smudger]

"Albert" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> "Tim Dunne" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > "Albert" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> >
> > > when you are 10, a raleigh chopper will take you anywhere you want to
go
> >
> > Good point, well put
> >
> > > I *loved* my raleigh chopper and didn't care when everyone else bought
> > grifters.
> >
> > I was a Grifter man meself...
> >
> > Tim
>
>
> they were *tuff* .. I think they were made from scaffold tubing.
>
> and that thick foam padding on the handlebars, mad.
>
> grifters were excellent for wheelies, better than a chopper by far, but
only
> if you had the strength to get them up on the back wheel
>
>
>
I remember doing the South Wales Echo 50 mile ride in the 80's. I was on a Dave Lloyd Campy
equipped road bike, close to the front with a load of other club riders treating the charity ride
as a race! About fifteen miles in a fat rugby player type bloke overtook me on a battered Grifter.
Very humbling.

 

[Robert Goodman]

[email protected] (wafflycathcsdirtycatlitter) wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...

> >I had the Chipper. This was the Chopper without the gears. I was a poor child ;-)
> >
>
> I was even more poor - I was denied Matey bubble bath on the grounds it was too expensive.
>
> Sob ... sob ...
>
> helen s

Did you find any cheaper way of making heaps of suds? Like using shampoo or household detergent, or
blowing thru a soapy washcloth?

 

[Stephen \]

"Murk" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> "Peter" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> > "Smudger" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> > news:[email protected]...
> > > I was at a boot sale in Southampton last Sunday and there was a bloke selling a yellow Raleigh
> > > Chopper for £400. It was in good nick
though.
> >
> >
> > I had the Chipper. This was the Chopper without the gears. I was a poor child ;-)
> >
> > Peter.
>
> Weren't there three bikes in the range? The Chipper was the smallest and the Chopper the biggest,
> but I think there was a Tomahawk in-between. My mate had one of those. I remember three of us
> climbing on it, two on the big saddle and one on the bars between saddle and handlebars (where the
> gears were on the Chopper), in our town centre and embarking on a frantic two mile descent. The
> brakes were useless against our collective mass, even the smoking bottoms of our shoes were pretty
> ineffectual. We flew past our estate and out on to waste ground where a front wheel sized hole
> brought us to an abrupt stop. We flew over the bars into a mangle of arms, legs, cuts and bruises,
> laughing hysterically, and desperate to do it again -).
>
> Thanks for bringing back the memory.
>
IIRC I think it specifically said on the warning on the seat not to do that!!

I had a Strika (small grifter) with no gears and the pedal-backwards drum brake. It was excellent
until I wore down the tires with loads of skids (so easy on the back brake) and my dad ordered some
new ones cheap from a neighbour that worked in the industry. When they turned up they were white
slicks and the Strika never looked as good again. I think I gave it to my brother and got a racer.