The Raleigh Chopper Story
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ต.ค. 2024
- There’s some disagreement about how the Chopper came to be. Raleigh’s official line is that Raleigh’s designer, Alan Oakley was on a fact-finding trip to the US. After seeing the Sting-Ray fad first-hand, he sketched his own version and Raleigh started working on it once he returned. Tom Karen also claims to have designed it. He ran Ogle Designs, the company that styled the classic TR130 Bush radio, Bond Bug and Reliant Scimitar GTE, and claims he also designed the Chopper, starting in 1966 with preliminary meetings with Raleigh.
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The best bike ever on this planet. My mother bought me one after my dad died for Christmas. It’ll always be in my fondest of memories.
@BlubberBrother He had a great mum by the sounds of it.
No it wasn't. it looked great though.
I had a Vindec High Riser, research it, it rode better than Chopper as it was lighter and better balanced and much cheaper - I loved it, bright yellow.
Ok but not the best
They've just relaunched them last year based on the Mk 2 with a shorter sassy bar, which is shorter but you can buy the replacement to make it exact, I'm really tempted to get one
I love the mk 1s but they're pricey
@@mattdoliver1984 The new seat lets it down badly I feel
My Dad gave me this bike for my birthday in 1974, I was so happy! I was the only kid with a bike like this and more because at that time we were living in Mexico. He sent one assistant to Huston to buy this bike only for me and I was the only one with a bike like this all around the block and probably all the city. This is a great memory for me, you are always in my heart Dad you are my superhero!
I had a Chopper my friend had a Chopper… That was it! We were CHiPs. California Highway Patrol in Norf London. Oh happy days
I didn't have a chopper but my Stingray to this day remains my favorite bike EVER. And I'm 65 lol.
Gee, I so wanted one of those when I was 7. I smartened up my act, did chores without bring asked dropped hints like crazy. Never even a hint of joy. Now, I’m 62 and I still want one...
56 and i do too
60 and I got an orange one for Christmas when I was 11 or 12. It was stolen from our front patio a year after I got it. 😥
Then at 48 yrs old I opened a bicycle shop in Arizona US. Best thing I’ve ever done!!
@Ronald Reed Hey Ronald ....great story! I sold my shop after 10 years (in 2009). Still have an iPhone full of customer turned friends, contacts. Was the best time of my life for sure. ♥️
I was a grifter kid, but my older brother had a chopper.... happy days growing up in the 70’s UK
My older sister bought me mine when I was a kid.
She had only been employed a few weeks in the RAF and went and got a bank loan to buy me it.
The bank manager had asked her, what do you want the loan for? And she replied because my brother wants a Raleigh Chopper and he has to have one. She said the bank manager smiled at her and then laughed and said I'm gonna give you the money because you're the 1st honest person who's walked through my door all day.
This bike was my pride and joy. I never wanted anything as a kid as badly as I wanted this bike.
God I wish I had it now!! I'd swap my motorcycle for it in a instant.
I loved it and I will always love my sister deeply for buying me it.
My Chopper is my most prominent childhood memory.
A lifetime of thank yous to you Raleigh. You made my childhood superb!!
I still remember the 'gear shift trick' going round all us chopper kids. The gear changed up one automatically by changing the way you pressed on the pedals. What maybe inspired this was that factory printed label "..not constructed to carry passenger.." on the seat which really means "ignore official instructions and do whatever works best".
I was lucky and blessed to have owned this bike when I was a kid. Great times!
I dreamed of owning a Chopper when they came out, and even had the poster on my wall. I finally got an orange Mk1 for my ninth birthday in 1970. I was really too small for it, and didn't ride it much for the first year, but after I grew a bit I hammered it. Broke the frame where one of the top bars met seat stays, and had to get it repaired. In retrospect, it really was a pretty terrible bike to ride, but it did make you the coolest kid on the block.
I bought my Blue Mk1 Chopper in 1972 with a £25 Premium Bond win and a loan of £2 from my Mum. It was 6 months old but bought from the local Raleigh dealer. I had the same issue as you. I too had to wait until I was tall enough to touch the ground. A frustrating period of waiting and then used it to moto-cross and stunt jump. Dad had to weld those crossbars a lot! No one thought you were cool having a Grifter......
Great memories! My Mk 1 also arrived on my ninth birthday in '71, a blue one, the most memorable birthday present received before or since. Every Sunday morning from then on was spent using my dad's chrome cleaner to buffer up the fender, wheel rims and other shiny bits, until several years later it was left to fade away in the garden shed..... At least four other school friends had Choppers too; theirs were mostly orange, and to this day every time I see the same shade of orange it takes me straight back to the tenth year of my life - an orange Mini Cooper is the strongest reminder, this surely being the modern and grown-up equivalent of the Chopper bike. Perhaps I could mark my sixtieth birthday and the start of a second childhood with a brand new orange Mini Cooper or even a JCW....on second thoughts it'll have to be a blue one.....
I had to make do with a Raleigh Jeep, which was very uncool. Never got a chopper, but it did inspire me to get a proper motorbike just ax soon as I could.
@@halloweenjack2562 all I got on my 9th birthday was a slice of Madeira cake and a cup of tea to wash it down with. "Happy birthday son". Cheers dad.
Purple mark 2, 1972. Same, ended up breaking the frame at the crossbar/ seat stay.
Aka the bike that most parents don't stop talking about
Dude, that bike was comfortable as hell...
They were brill at wheelies . You could go miles on that back wheel.
@John Fray those were the days..
My mate Pete was the richest kid in the village , he was the paper boy ..
On his chopper over a few months
He added a whip Ariel , a yellow radio, indicators, and tassels that dangled from his handle bars ..
That was when we were about 10 or 11 .....we are now coming up to 60 yrs old ..just one more thing, I have a guy called TIM FRAY from Lincolnshire , England , who is currently preparing my patents ..any relation ?
I got given an old Grifter when I was about 5 (much to small to ride it) so my poor mum had to wheel me around the village on it, not easy when the bike weighs about the same as a small truck. I also made her take it upstairs for me one night so I could sleep with it in my room......again my poor mum!
Yeah they were built like a tank and weighed about as much!
Also what didn't help was the lousy gearing that made an already heavy bike even harder to pedal up even slight gradients.
That guy who was sponsored to ride the chopper up that mountain should of tried with a Grifter! Now that would of been almost superhuman!
@@ErraticPT in hindsight I was lucky, my parent bought me a new Puch road bike just before the Gridter/Chopper craze, by the time it needed replacing BMX’s like the diamondbacks were the big thing, but I do remember my friends grifter weighing a tonne. I didn’t stop me being envious though. There is no street cred in a Puch. And to a 10 year old, that is worth more than having to push it up every incline due to the weight.
Good Comments
Bless Up Y'all
Got my Grifter for Christmas, my Dad put it at the end of my bed so I'd see it when I woke up! Kept it in my bedroom for a week until Mum made me put it in the garage! Mums can be such spoilsports sometimes !
@@stephenowens8398 I Got A Brand New Silver Grifter For Christmas :)
I had a bright yellow Chopper, for my 8th birthday in 1978, and my best mate a light blue Grifter.... we went everywhere on those bikes, we built ramps, obstacle courses put lollipop sticks against the spokes and towards the end we both had them resprayed a medium blue metallic... by his Dad, who owned his own garage.
We both used to spend hours on his back yard reoaring or adjusting them... I remember my mate getting mad with his Grifter once and taking a shovel to the handle bars..... he put a v in the handle bar cross bar that no longer had foam on it... a few years later all BMXs had the v shape on the handle bar cross bar.. lol my mate was an uncredited designer! Lol
What treasured happy childhood memories... they were magical.😊
My dad gave this to me as a birthday surprise when I was 7. That was the second most exciting moment in my life. First was when I became a Dad so I could pass on the gesture.
Ahhhhhhhh....... The bike I always dreamed of getting for Christmas .... Alas it was not to be... Pure nostalgia.... Thanks LittleCar.
Me too oh nostalgia
I did get one for Christmas, it was green & was an awesome bike, my favorite bike, wish I still had it today to restore, I just found some pictures of it, I'm 58 & still think about it
"Get to the chopper!!!"
In the early 80s my grandparents had a smallholding in Cornwall and I'd spend my summers there and they had an old Raleigh Chopper they'd picked up at a boot fair for me to ride around on. I was on that bike the whole time, I loved it. One of the best times of my life.
Bless the 80s!
Still have my Orange mk1 to this day. Still in great condition and totally original including the original paint work. She get ridden round the park a few times a year but hard work now for an old timer. Draws a lot of attention from people around my age group who really appreciate seeing it and ask to take photos of it a lot. ahhh Nostalgia...
Dude, tell them how comfortable that bike was...
I beat mine to death, modified it and beat it to death again... If I was a bike, I think I would like to be loved to death that way!
When I grew out of mine my parents gave it to my cousin 😭
Was eagerly awaiting the next car video, then you gave us this gem of a presentation. Thanks.
I had a spare couple of days to do this.
My very generous neighbour bought me the Mk3 for Christmas when i was about 10 and I absolutely loved it. Rode it everyday, used the back cargo rack for my paper round and even managed a spectacular frontflip when I (ill-advised) took it on a mountain bike route.
I'm 25 now and it's in my parents shed, I cant bare to part with it as it feels like the last part of my childhood.
What a bike
Hi there, wow!!! I remember the Raleigh Chopper bikes. I used to own one in my childhood days. Great memories riding this bike.
amazing video.. still got my chopper mk2 since the age off 10. im 40 now and still ride it .. been restored now.. happy memories
Hi Mr & Mrs Big Car! Robin here and I just wanted to let you know that I love the Little Car stories! Thank you so much for the extra treat. Cheers!
Glad you're enjoying them Robin!
This brought back so many memories. I had a Striker in the early eighties, a friend had one, another had a Boxer, and his big brother had a Chopper. Later on when Raleigh bought out there proper range of BMX's I got a Gold Burner for my, I think 10th birthday. Just about everyone had a Raleigh of some description back then.
In 1974 I had a new chopper for Christmas I was 10 and I loved it. It was Yellow but had an extra long back rest with an extra black pad set into the bars just above the seat and I loved the gear changer it was my favourite part of the bike. I have not seen another one with the same back (sissy bar) since and I miss that bike like mad. Great memories of being a kid in the seventies.
I got a Purple Chopper for Xmas in 1973 when I was 11, I could beat Lads on 5 speed racing Bikes with it...and was one of the cool kid in our street with the Girls giving them Backa`s....haha good memories!!
@James Ley I wrote to Jimmy Savile asking if I could have a ride on his purple chopper. He didn't fix it for me unfortunately.
Like many boys in the early 1970s, I craved a Raleigh Chopper. In early 1974 my dad gave me the Raleigh catalogue as I was in line for a new bike later in the year. Initially it had to be a Chopper... but then one day I met up with my mate Gary who turned up on his Raleigh Chopper wearing his purple flared cords (an iconic image!!). Finally I was going to get a go on the wonderful machine. I sat on it and it felt weird. No problem I thought, take a little time, have a ride.. The thing was, for me, pretty much unrideable and I realised I was lucky to have had this opportunity to do some fact-finding. When the time came, I chose a Raleigh Esquire, complete with handlebar mounted 3-speed changer, self-adjusting brakes, dynamo hub and no street cred in its burned bronze colour - but the thing was comfortable, handled properly and I did miles and miles on it. I still think the Chopper looks cool though
when i was a 10 yr. old we moved into a house where someone had left a schwinn orange krate in the basement. one of the best finds of my life.
What was it? Orange Krate, Lemon Peeler, Cherry Picker and Apple Krate? LOL
I really wanted a Grifter as a kid but got a Strika instead. The Strika was a tank. I hammered the crap out of it for years. I was never off it. I only ever rode a Chopper once and can confirm that the gear leaver is indeed extremely painful on the family jewels.
Back in the days when a bike was a significant purchase for a working class family, I had been asking my parents (for quite a long time) if they would buy me a Raleigh Arena.
On the evening of my 9th birthday, they drew back the curtains in our living room, to reveal a brand new red Chopper, sat on the window-sill of our rather large bay window.
I was absolutely over the moon, still easily my most memorable birthday gift.
I used to ride around with my friend who had a Grifter and those days seem to go on, for ever.
To this day, I don’t know why they chose a Chopper. I was just sooooo grateful for a bike that I never asked - well, you just didn’t in those days...
The tall part of the bike in the back was known as a sissybar when I was a kid and we always rode with a passenger on the back
TALLER THAN SHOWN IN THE VIDEO.
@@MICHGO1 Much taller. Ridiculously taller. Taller than we were standing up.
Thank you for posting this. How I miss my old Chopper. Never should have sold it!
Had one of these as a kid. Heaviest and most dangerous bike I have ever ridden.
Interesting.... Growing up in southern california I do not believe I ever saw this bike. It was Stingray or skateboard with no real middle ground. The stingray was very customizable by kids. It was nothing to add a tall "sissy bar" or to replace the seat tube with a bent tube (usually cut from a handlebar) to sweep the seat back by six to eight inches giving the rider extra leg room. With the exception of the sprocket most work could be done with a simple wrench set.
I recently saw an original "Lemon Peeler" in almost new condition. The price was fifteen hundred dollars That's how much we loved the Stingray.
Ohhhhh THE best Christmas present I've ever had. A new bright red MK2 in 1973/74 ish.
Lived that bike and put some serious mileage on it ❣️
I had a sky blue series one chopper
The one with the long seat and round gear
Knob with 3 R's on top
I think I spent most of my childhood on this bike
I used to lower the seat at the back and put the front of the seat up to the max .I even tried and set of cow horn handle bars on it but I could not get them to work .fantastic memories.
So cool to find this video! Thank you for posting! Brought back so many memories... Most of my friends here in the US had Schwinn Stingrays. I was one of the very few who had the Chopper. Mine was green with white lettering, 5 speed (with that little knob next to the main shifter that never worked), tall sissy bar that I put a skull & cross bones sticker on the back for extra 11 year old badass effect! I also added a speedometer that caused drag on the front small wheel making me not the fastest "biker" in the neighborhood. Also, wasn't the greatest home made ramp jumper a' la Evel Knievel either! I truly think that this bike helped lay the foundation for my ongoing love of mechanical art. Soon to go British again with a modern classic Triumph Bonneville T120. Cheers to all who found a common connection with the Raleigh Chopper!!
Both my sons had Choppers, even when they had the choice of a Schwinn Sting-Ray instead. As I remember, they were like $60 each, a princely sum in the early 70's. Indeed, the boys wanted one in particular because it had the most room to haul a friend along with them. So much for safety warnings!
I had a yellow one, first year they came out in UK. Most exciting Christmas present I ever had. We really had never seen anything like it in the UK before. They were good bikes overall. A bit heavy compared to a racer, but comfortable to ride and they handled nicely - there was no problem taking your hands off the handlebars to change gear. The rear frame tubes were strong enough for regular riding but tended to break if you went motocross-style over bonks. I saw a few being welded up in the metal work lab in school.
Fizzy lemon was the color. My bro got one for Xmas 74.
My parents never bought me the chopper, and I still eyeball them lol. I thought of welding up an adult sized one and make an e0bike out of it for it's classic good looks
Oh damn, I had one yellow chopper and one red grifter in mid seventies, you made me cry!! Lots of souvenirs, thanks
I had a Chopper for a year when I was 10 in 1975.
Then in 1979, when I was 14, I decided to build my own using a scrap RSW14 as a base.
I found a local engineering firm; they did the fabrication.
First off was a proper banana seat with a fabricated 4 foot high roll bar.
Next the front forks were chopped, racked and had another 4 foot extension; I then fitted a 20” front wheel to go with the 14” rear wheel.
Last off, with the front now being massively high I fitted a step of cow horn handlebars.
Then the first test; and I soon realised that even the slightest pedal pressure resulted it a massive wheelie!
It looked good though; especially with the 70’s two tone spray job I did; Ford Roman Bronze over the top of Copper :)
The Chopper was pretty much at the centre of my childhood in both this country and Spain. My father sent me one as a gift when I lived in Madrid as a kid for a few years. You can imagine the looks I got on my yellow Chopper. I was the coolest kid in El Barrio (Tetuan). Happy, happy days.
I once lived on the 4th floor of a high rise with no working lift. And I carried this bike up and down the stairs any time i wanted to ride. This thing is made of lead!!! But nice enjoyable rides.
I loved that. I used to have the red mk 2 . God I loved that bike. You made me smile about the playing cards held by pegs on the rear wheel to get the motorbike sound. I was happy for a while until my sister told my dad I had used her snap cards . Great great days
You might have missed a bike from the origin story, at least for the UK. I was about 9 or 10 when I got a Raleigh Mustang, this would have been around 1969-70. It looked like the Rodeo, had a three speed hub gear, gear stick on the crossbars. Because of the larger wheels it was stable and I would often give later Chopper riders a spanking, racing around the estate. It had a white (with metalflake) saddle. I loved this bike.
You and I both! All the kids were impressed by the stick shifter in the middle. I liked the Raleigh badging. It was a Mustang! A great Christmas Surprise. Wonder who owns it now? Great story from 3 years ago. Was like yesterday. Also added mirrors and sqweeze bulb horn. The one I own now is a Dahon Folding Bicycle 29 lbs. with six speeds, used in my daily bus commutes to work to catch the train to transfer to another bus and so compact i stored under my seat. My favorite is a Strida folding bicycle with rubber belt driven rear wheel. No grease.
I asked my mum if I could have a Chopper for Xmas.
I ended up with a Raleigh shopper.
Living on a council estate in Notts that bike learned me how to ride fast, especially when bullys wanted to give me a good shoeing so they could nick the basket off the front.
A Shopper... No wonder the bullies chased you...
My younger sister (8 YO at the time) had this bicycle in purple (I had a Honda 70cc at the same time -I was 10 years old-). Two years later she left it laying in our home hallway because the front tire got damaged. One day I decided to fix it and replaced the front tire and had to replace the gear changer at the rear wheel assembly. To my surprise, it was fun to ride!
That was awesome, thanks for doing this video. Brought back lots of memories and was really interesting to boot.
I had a second-hand Budgie. Great wee bike. A few years later I wanted a BMX, but my parents refused, and got me a second-hand, 10 speed Raleigh Winner instead. I loved that bike, but no one at school was impressed.
Had one of these in Canada. 1966/67. What a beaut. 5/10 gear stick...dual shift!
Everyone saying how these are relics and uncool but I was born way after these ended production and always wanted one. Pretty much every old movie had kids riding around on these and I always screamed how I want one. But since I couldn't find any I tried to make my own "custom" one as a 12 year old with a hacksaw and 2 junked bikes. Not a good idea...
Fun fact: a bleach bottle with the bottom cut off fit neatly between the rear seat and fender uprights to hold a old sheet cut as a parachute. I’ll let your imagination go on how that works out in some instances.
Old fishing rod taped to the sissy bar with a yellow plastic bag flag....
Ever ridden one over a beach covered with blue bottles.... Discovered even when dead the stings aren't.... (Remember how the chopper used to leave the back of your legs covered in what you rode through...)
I'm too young (just, born 74') to have had a Chopper, but still remember there being a lot of them around as a kid. I had a second hand Strika when I was around 8 yrs old, then a proper BMX for my 12th birthday in 1986... which I still have lol
Yeah My older brother had one and I loved riding it!!!!!! So much so that one day as I was going downhill from our local public pool. I managed to coast off the side of the road. The bike stopped but I did not. I managed to hit my chin on the goose neck breaking my jaw in 3 places. I was only 5 years old at the time too. After having my jaw wired shut for a few weeks and 30 stiches later... I was back riding it soon and have a life time of memories.
When I was a brat in Tucson, parents got me the 5 speed derailleur with tall sissy bar, in blue. I wiped out the first day over sand on the street. I rode that in the desert, wasted it. Then BMX bikes were invented. About 40 years ago I worked at a bike shop one summer. A guy brought in a Mk1 3-speed, orange, gooseneck bent, didn't like the cost for repair, I offered to buy it. Been hanging in the shop rafters until this month, got it cleaned and working. Goes with the '68 Chevy pickup.
Thank you for doing this video, I still have my 1977 Swing bike that I never want to get rid of. Useless bikes but they look cool I remember them being great stimulation for my young imagination. I'm sure it contributed to my start as a bicycle mechanic in 1989
My twin bro had the early Chopper with the 3 speed hub gears. It was lethal at speed going down hills and suffered significant stability problems and was a bike crashed with monotonous regularity by those not experienced in riding this bike.
Still, it was the epitome of "cool" back in the day!
Ha, ha! I had the first Chopper in my area as a kid. My brother got the Stingray. Loved that bike and rode it like a maniac. Single speed, no springs, coaster brake and GREEN!! I learned how to control the front end by shifting my weight and I rode it like a BMX. Ah, the sixties were great. What happened?
I adored my yellow Chopper mk2. Mike Grant gave me a Kawasaki sticker which fitted the chain guard perfect. It disappeared from my dads garage in 1992. Of course no one had a clue where it went. There wasn’t a scratch on it. I still feel aggrieved to this day. In 1976 I brought it on the ferry to the Isle of Man for the TT. There is was, down in the hull with all the super motorcycles of the day holding its own. My Chopper had serious credibility.
You had to be there in the 70s to understand how cool it was to own ,my dad did not want me to have the chopper so bought a racer, this not having one then distressed me so much ,that now at 65 years old I have three , apple green MK1 5 speed ,blue girly ,and a purple mk2 , nostalgia never dies 🤣🤣
I have a 1976 mk2 in fizzy lemon with orange graffics and a huge sissy bar new old stock ever-ready lights ,chrome horn and a fork mounted mile -o- meter newly restored about 7years ago and it lives in my spare bedroom, and I love it , it's the 70s on wheels 😀.
I remember these being so cool when I was growing up in the 70's. That car like gear selector was extra cool.
Until you slide off the seat and smash your balls on it lol , I remember that alright
@@ballockybill2277 Yea, me too! 😫
@somedeveloperblokey Ah , the memory still brings tears to my eyes , lol .
@@ballockybill2277 Perhaps. But the other thing that made it cool was the fact that they also came in 5 and 10 speed models. How many 20 inch bikes do you know of that had that?
Choppers were way out of my parents price range, I wanted one until I had a go on a friends and found out how bad they were to ride, didn't feel so bad about my 5 speed racer frame with fat wheels from a stolen Post office bike, comfy seat and aftermarket cowhorn handlebars after that, we didn't know it at the time but we were building mountain bikes before we'd even heard of BMX bikes.
This is interesting stuff. As a child of the era (born '63) I was swept along with the fascination for this bike.
My whole family cycled and I was simply NEVER going to get one. We all rode sensible, sturdy, traditional bikes.
I was gutted but my parents were right. My mother (a Cycling Proficiency tester and former Land Girl) bristled when my friends showed up on the pprimary-school playground for their sessions on a Chopper. Even worse (in her eyes) were the ones with mirrors and with tassels streaming from the bar ends, both common accessories at the time.
It didn't stop me wanting one, but as I run up towards sixty and look at my motley collection of bicycles, I am grateful to my parents for steering me away from these things.
I don't think a single friend in my safe little suburb rode one further than three streets from home.
Many got no further than the drive.
Good video. A nice little slice of nostalgia.
LOL - that Matt dude in the cut off jeans on his Chopper passing the Lycra fools with their titanium / composite mega bikes. Well down my man - hope when they got to the top they saw him having a well earned bacon sandwich and a rollup.
done not down
I was just thinking he would not be smoking if he had got fit enough for a serious climb. Then I remembered Wiggo. What a legend.
I had the purple Chopper back in the late 70’s. I successfully broke my arm when I rode too fast down a steep hill getting a ‘speed wobble’ and managed to come of and face plough down the road breaking my arm in the process
I loved my black chopper , and my brother got a brand new one for chritmas , his was red and gold . We lived on. RAF feltwell in Norfolk ,England , Loved tat base , lived there for 3rd,4th,5th,6th grade . My father was SAC usaf , and my mom was from Liverpool . I was actually born in Bury St. Edmunds ... also lived on RAF. Upper Heyford . I really loved living there.
Oh man, I had one of those. Of all the bikes I've owned this is the one I loved most. Doing wheelies, as mentioned, and bunny hops. This bike was phenomenal. And then my dad put his car in reverse and didn't notice the bike was behind.
They were so heavy it probably did as much damage to the car.
Remember the little chrome bracket on the steering for a light no one ever had...
@@TheButlerNZ I actually mounted a light to it. One of those big round ones to make it look more like a motorcycle and a battery pack under the seat. It broke off after a while after jumping around too much. Awesome times.
@@Thereisnosp00000n I had one like Lisa Simpson that appeared to put the brakes on when you turned on the light... and all I had was 1.5v light bulbs... and a 6v generator....
so if you did anything but crawl home in the dark.... pop.
Managed to flip mine on a speed bump in the local park. Luckily not too much damaged other than my pride as all my mates were laughing their heads off. Great memories on most occasions! 😃😃😃😃
My older brother (born in '65) had a chopper bike like that. I think it was a Schwinn Stingray, but by the time I was old enough, it was wrecked, and I never got to ride it. My oldest son, born in '97, had a "West Coast Choppers" bike. It actually looked like a motorcycle, complete with a fake fuel tank.
I had the green one (with rear derailleur and smooth tires) and my brother the red one (internal gears, backpedal brake and grippy tires), we used as bmx for jumping and wheelies so both ended broken. Best times ever
I had the strika, loved the " back pedal for rear brake" made for some great skids
Yes, but it meant you couldn't free wheel.
@@LittleCar Sure you could. If you held the pedals still it would coast freely. The brake would only apply if you back pedaled. We used to call it a coaster brake.
Coaster brakes are still common in US kids bikes for some reason. I made a point of getting my kid a bike with proper hand operated brakes with my view being that she'd need to learn to use them eventually.
I had a Strika, but I don't remember the back pedal feature - maybe I didn't like it, so never used it. I always envied the kids with Choppers and Grifters. IIRC, Raleigh brought out the Bomber next in the mid-late 80s, as mountain bikes were taking off, but it weighed a ton!
@@MIKIEC71 Mine definitely didn't have it. Just looked it up; it was removed on models after 1978
The Purple Chopper II in the video is the one I received for Christmas in 1974 in Belize.
In the middle of restoring my mk2 purple chopper. Simply an iconic bike. I remember all my school mates asking if they could have a go on it when i took it to school once for my cycling proficiency test.
Your purple chopper . Ah the innuendo!
The Grifter with the gear changer on the handle was crazy awesome back then.
Later on those who had Choppers where I lived, would remove the tension gears & change the front system with a BMX fork, wheel and handle bar, fun times.
I didn't change the gear lever... and I added sky blue Pantha MAGS! If you thought hte original chopper was heavy...
@@TheButlerNZ That would've looked cool. You didn't change the handle bar with the larger front wheel?
@@mathewhudson7649 y.know.. I don't remember... I know I had to replace the axle in the rear mag... I used to be quite handy s a kid...
@@TheButlerNZ Cool, those were fun times.
I had mine (Red colour) when I was 9 or 10yrs old, I still have it now in a pretty good shape, but needs some TLC, this is my next project to clean it and do a service for it, now I am over 45yrs old! Great bike and I love it, I will not sell it!
I had a couple Stingrays growing up. Outlasted anything else I had and thats after changing it from stock to "bmx" style, to chopper and back again. My buddy had the Raleigh Chopper and the shifter broke the first summer.
I had a 2nd hand modified one in the 70s. It had some sort of fatter rear wheel and even wider handle bars... but still the central 3 gear selector. It was covered in anti-rust paint, weighed as much as a tank bit I loved it for about 3 years and 3 years is forever at that age :-)
Anyway, thanks for the video and a bit of nostalgia :-)
Too young for the chopper but my sister and I had Tomahawks, great bikes, upgraded to Comando which was a baby Grifter. Loved those old Raleigh bikes they remind me of long summer days playing in the park in the late 70s
These Raleigh bikes were sold in Canada at Eatons stores and though the Eatons catalogue. They were painted a dark orange-red and branded as “Fastback”. I had one of my nastiest bicycle accidents on one that I’d borrowed from a friend. The bike did not fare so well either.
I had the Schwinn - a 5 speed. Green, with a metallic green banana seat. Once I finally got my new 10 speed, several years later, I gave it to a girl living down the street who had no bike.
She had it for a few more years.
📻🙂
When I had a Chopper in the 70s and early 80s, round my way, we called the Chopper seats, catipiller seats for obvious reasons... I was firmly team Chopper and always will be
Had both, loved them both for different reasons.
Lollipop stick for the motorbike noise. I never did it myself but that's how my mates did it.
I had two of these, an orange one that was shipped to Kenya for Xmas Dec '73 when we emigrated and another (purple 5 speed with deraileur) in Feb '75 when we returned. Then I got a Raleigh Arena racing bike in 'July 77 which I last used in around 1983 .....
I had one of these with the three speed shift. You are right about the dangers of doubling and the terrible steering control that came with the dinky front wheel and ape hanger bars. Doubled a buddy down a steep gravel road and ended up in the Emergency Room getting stitches and gravel tweezed out of my face by the doctor.
Had a jetstar just like it. 5speed with long seat & high seat backrail..have 8 mirrors and lights and strimmers... still have it..still ride it. I'm in my late 50's
I had a purple chopper from 1975 to 80 , It had the orange flag that was a magnet for kids bending it back and twanging it as you rode past. Happy times until BMX came along and changed the game.
Always wanted one. In my pre-teens I got a well used (Norco?) knock-off and it was great. Metallic gold/green and a banana seat but with a short backstay. Logged a ton of miles with it and jumped many dirt piles. Wasn't quite the same without the stick-shift, but in a era of being lucky to have anything close to 'cool', because of real life, good enough.
In the mid 60s I had a deluxe Schwinn with caliper brakes and coaster brake two speed Bendix. One of my neighbors got a Raleigh chopper, just about everyone laughed at him until it broke and his parents bought him a Schwinn. It should be noted that this was in South suburban Chicago so Schwinn was the bike of choice
I got a chopper for my 9th b-day in 1969, I wanted a Krate bike, I was pissed. I wanted a 5 spd and got 3 spd...........looking back, what a brat
I loved mine... I'm sure I was still a Brat.
I was born in 1981, by the time I was old enough to ride a bike the Chopper was just starting to die out and all the rage was the "computer" bikes 😂
I had a Raleigh Vektar, I loved that thing
I've been lucky enough to own and restore three Vektars. A great concept of a bike, worthy of its own story. A collaboration between Raleigh and a small electronics company based in Derby.
We went to Bilborough Grammar Shool with Karen who married Alan Oakley who started the Chopper for Raleigh. So great to find this video.
I was an American kid growing up in Germany and my parents got me a Rodeo 3-speed which was the best bike I had ever owned. Effortless wheelies and smooth riding. Sadly, it never made the move back to the States.
Both my sisters were riding the chopper and they both broke both their legs. Funny thing was, was they had bunk beds and couldn't use the ladder. I learned to ride a bike with the Budgie. I still remember it today that first time going around the grass.
I had one! I almost had my jaw wired shut because of that front wheel! Good memories and scars....
My Mom bought Me a Sting Ray for x-mas. Couldn't ride it till spring. On My b-day April 4th I finally got to ride it for the first time. Rode to the park and two older boys took it from Me. It was a long sad walk home.
I had a purple Raleigh Tomahawk. The back wheel was actually the front wheel of the Chopper. Some kids in our street had Choppers but they were a terrible bike for riding or bike rides (Jam butties and cans of Cresta, out all day!), however most kids wanted road/racing bikes. Thinner, lighter, faster, more gearing etc. I never did get a Chopper, I went on to a Raleigh Arena then a Raleigh Magnum. One of my friends had a Grifter, possibly one of the most unsuitable bikes for children ever made. The best bikes of the bunch though were homemade rat bikes, normally hand painted racing frames, ten gears and cowhorn handlebars, fast, cool and steerable. Choppers were for the boys with centre-parted feathered hair and Man Utd socks.
Just thinking of that nut breaker 3 speed stick on the stingray gives me chills.
👍👍
The "goolie mangler". How they got away with putting that on a bike I'll never know. If you braked hard you'd shoot forward off the slippery seat and only be stopped by your 'nadbag hitting the shifter.
Two guys I knew that were friends each had the Raleigh Chopper. Sharpest bikes in town. They both added ram handlebars to their bikes. We had redline cheater slicks and wheelie bars. One guy even mounted a car steering wheel on his.
I'm way younger than most people who have nostalgic feelings about the Chopper, but when I was a kid I found one in the back of my school's bike shed. It was a rusted out old mess but it still just about worked, and was solid enough for kid me to ride the absolute heck out of the thing. Bombed it down hills, did wheelies, threw it off ramps, all credit to it the thing never broke despite its condition but it rightfully threw me off for being a huge dumbass several times for thinking that pulling stunts and trying to go as fast as possible on a rusted out 1970s relic with next to no brakes and tyres that were already begging for death even before I got to them was a good idea. Best one was one of the teachers who had one when he was a kid was telling me to be careful because the thing gets a "speed wobble". I pretty much ignored the poor guy, made some smartass comment, and got bit by instant karma not 15 seconds later.