Reply With QuoteQuite expensive for a 5 minute novelty!
Never tried one but they don’t look particularly safe or comfortable.
If anyone had one as a youngster as I did, there’s a new one coming out. Bit more expensive now though £950.00, but get in quick there are a limited number available.
https://youtu.be/KjGKvOeVKtQ
Quite expensive for a 5 minute novelty!
Never tried one but they don’t look particularly safe or comfortable.
From recolleciton:Originally Posted by David_D
Comfortable? Actually yes
Safe? Debatable, the tiny front wheel made the handling *interesting*
Imagine my confusion this morning when, on switching on the television, the first words that I heard uttered by the BBC Breakfast presenter were "please send us photos of your Choppers".
One of my clients has a dozen or so originals, including some special editions. They're hanging up all around his industrial unit.
One of them cost him £40k. I wish I'd have kept my Grifter now.
And the gear change still handily located between your knees?!
IIRC correctly they were £33 when they came out which equates to around £510 nowadays.
Cheers,
Neil.
Stylish, but really crap for ramp jumps!
Position of that gear stick just asking for trouble.
Talk about trips down memory lane!
Unfortunately I can see the eBay scalpers being all over these the moment they are released and subsequently sold out.....
Saw them on BBC Breakfast this morning and surprised they discussed cost.
On the basis my old bike, the Raleigh Aero Pro Burner now costs about £1,200 -£1,300 for a quality used version then £950 maybe isn’t too bad.
It’s clearly a niche project and almost certainly for men of a certain vintage who hanker after some retro feel good vibes.
But having learnt how to ride a bike on a Chopper I certainly look at this new version through rose tinted specs.
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Blimey! Didn’t realise they were that expensive then!
And here's one put to great use:
Never owned a Chopper, but didn’t really need to. In the early 70s most of the kids round our way built their own bikes. We would quite often go to the tip or the side of a railway line with a bag of spanner’s etc if someone knew of a dumped or trashed bike. We would be on it like a flash and strip off anything that could be reused.
Most of us had two bikes, a racer road type bike with drop down handlebars and a what we called ‘trackies’ which were off road scrambler type bikes, stag handle bars and fatter tyres.
It was educational as most kids could strip and rebuild a bike.
Buying a ready made bike from the shops just seemed expensive and unnecessary.
I was just about to post that. Great clip (and achievement).
A bikes from the 1970s that needs to stay in the 1970s
Does anyone remember the Halfords models from about 20 years ago? I think they were about £200 and were pretty faithfull except for handlebar twistgrip gear change (not a bad thing) and solo seat. £200 seemed a lot then though.
cashing in on nostalgia nothing more just like the mk 3 , unlikely to impress any of the enthusiasts of the originals ( may be for some spare parts)well not me any way
Bloody death traps, the tiny front wheel and sit up and beg position make them unstable at speed (as I found out on my mates down a very steep hill!).
Even as a 10 year old, I never saw the appeal and even less so after that!
M
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Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
It was really only the original MK1 that you could bring the bars right back that you could flip back. My mate at the time and his brother got a purple and a red for Xmas one year whilst I had a drop bar so I plenty of goes on them. They were very heavy bikes. Think they were the only ones in my group that had them. When we all went bullhorns they tried straightening their forks - us bashing them straight with bricks lol. I can't believe how small they now seems compared to the time. Not sure I'd want to use one as an adult.
Iconic? - perhaps.
Decent ride? - they were cr@p in their day, even less so now!.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
£33 rings a bell for me now that you mention it. I got a second had one for my 8th birthday but quickly wished I could swap it for the newer cooler Grifter. Heavy as hell, dodgy handling, front wheel that would stop when it hits a curb, and scary gear change that I caught my nuts on a few times when that curb thing happened.
I nagged and hinted endlessly to get a Chopper for Christmas one year, I think in the end my mum purchased it via the Grattans catalogue on the never never.
I was overjoyed with it though, a red one, and went everywhere I could on it. Crashed it many a time after a bit of inattention or maybe it was the shopping bags swinging off each handlebar grip!
It was a different time back then, I never used to worry about leaving it outside a shop, it would always be there when I came back out.
I think, for me, the Chopper is something that will stay in the 1970s, although it’s great they’re making a new batch. Shame most of them will never see the adventures mine and the millions of others did though!
Christ that's some price hike. The nostalgia tax is strong with this one. Such a shame. IIRC something similar but slightly less extreme happened with a recent re-issue of the Raleigh Burner BMX.
I was too small for the Chopper, so had its baby brother the 'Tomohawk' in flame red. Older brother had an (orange?) Grifter and my younger brothers had a Boxer (mini Grifter) and Budgie (mini Chopper).
It was a VERY special Christmas that year.
I had a Grifter. Kind of a forerunner of the BMX, except it weighed about half a ton.One of my clients has a dozen or so originals, including some special editions. They're hanging up all around his industrial unit.
One of them cost him £40k. I wish I'd have kept my Grifter now.
So clever my foot fell off.
Rumour had it that the main tube was solid, a bar really, not a tube at all.
Any fond memories of the Raleigh Arena, usually blue, available in 5 or 10 speed...
Last edited by snowman; 1st June 2023 at 11:17.
Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
I had a Strika, the Grifter's younger brother. Faux suspension forks
Then had a second hand Chopper which I hated but was good for skids.
Last edited by gunner; 1st June 2023 at 13:16.
My mum wouldn't let me have one. Looks much nicer than the Mk3 I must say. I'd be tempted if I thought the seat would go high enough.
Yep.
That was my next bike as I graduated from my Tomahawk to the Arena. Not full size mind you, so only had 5 gears.
- - - Updated - - -
Yep.
That was my next bike as I graduated from my Tomahawk to the Arena. Not full size mind you, so only had 5 gears.
My first bike was a Raleigh 'Palm Beach'. I had to do a paper round for what seemed years to save the £25 for what it was s/h. Dad was a hard taskmaster 😁 Happy days.
yup this ^^^
2 older brothers and a few mates on my street - plus dad was pretty handy with a spanner.
in my case replace trackies with gocarts which narrowly failed to kill the kids on my street each summer until girls got interesting
wow - perhaps the 70's were totally crap after all ...
I had one too, an XL....heavy weren't they!
Amazing what they are selling for now.
Loved my red chopper....If anyone had one as a youngster as I did, there’s a new one coming out. Bit more expensive now though £950.00, but get in quick there are a limited number available.
https://youtu.be/KjGKvOeVKtQ
I had lots of fun on my quicksilver. :0)
Yes! I had one of those. Mother wouldn't allow a Chopper as they were 'too dangerous'.I wish I'd have kept my Grifter now.
Beware the coming wave of Chopper-bourne hipsters hurtling down a pavement near you, beards blowing in the breeze and leather satchels trailing out behind.
My mate had a bike called "Vindec".Anyone else remember that bike.
I had a Raleigh Commando, an orange one-three gears via a twist grip I think.
Anyone else have one of those?
Last edited by chaplad; 1st June 2023 at 22:34.
Ah, Vindec.
During a varied work c.v. I once worked for F.W. Woolworth; we sold loads of Vindec bicycles during my brief period of employment. They were sourced from the ubiquitous Brown Bros. Ltd, an old-established wholesaler with roots in the motor trade.
I don't recall being over-impressed with the manufacturing ethos, but at the price point they were OK.
If you think that was heavy, I had a Raleigh Bomber with 3 speed Sturmey Archer gears. I had the strongest legs of any kid in school as we lived out in the sticks and that weighed roughly the same as a Caterham it felt like. Great for downhill though: just smashed through every obstacle with no requirement to avoid anything!
I had a blue/black Arena, did loads of miles on that. I wanted a Grifter but my dad thought it was a dud.
I still have my Grifter from when I was a kid, it was the first new bike I was ever bought and was an amazing birthday surprise. Prior to that all my other bikes were second / third hand.
My Grifter is the black and gold version, solid and heavy. As another poster has already said, the Bomber (my best mate had one) was in a different league when it came to weight, jeez they were seriously heavy bikes and hard graft to ride.
I also had a Raleigh Tomahawk (purple colour I recall), loved that bike.
Yep, exact same model, by best friend who lived opposite me got a black version.
Great little bikes, weren't light though with the chromed mudguards and the little carrier over the back wheel.
exactly the same; my tomahawk (IIRC) was a dubious shade of pink! ffs!
was probably big enough for a Grifter within a couple of months too. Arena followed a couple of years ago for Xmas
I had a blue tomahawk then a 10 speed blue and black arena. I’m sure I had a Chipper - a smaller chopper - before the Tomahawk?
I remember the Chipper!
I had a Raleigh Budgie, anybody remember them?
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