Warning: Hipsters on Raleigh Choppers

[Tony L]

The Raleigh Chopper returns! It looks like a very accurate recreation too (Bike Radar). I never had one, so little nostalgia here aside from the iconic look. I remember riding a friend’s and not liking it at all, really heavy and hard work! The do look cool and I bet That London and Manchester will be full of them for exactly one year, just as they were fixed single-speeds with really narrow bars a few years back.

 

[andrew d]

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/raleigh-chopper-tour-de-france-8102946 I rode past this bloke on a French mountain in an edition of the Etape du Tour. Seems he went on to ride the entire Tour De France route on it the next year. Modified to the extent that a proper seat post was installed and a few more hub gears.
I'll be keeping an eye out for the new creation!

 

[sean99]

"New bike designed to recreate the Raleigh Chopper MK2 and remind people of the joy of cycling"

Hmm - a contradiction in terms. Choppers and Grifters probably did much to convince a generation of Brits that bikes are not a viable means of transportation for distances exceeding half a mile.

 

[paulfromcamden]

I had a Chopper as a nipper - great for cruising round to your mates house but not so great for off-road! I was rather jealous of other kids BMXs : )

P.S. A grand?!

 

[Big Tabs]

A friend of mine got a speed wobble whilst tanking down a 1:10 hill on his Chopper when he was about 11 yrs. old. He broke both of his arms in the resulting crash.

 

[Paul L]

Famous video, apologies if you’ve seen it before

 

[paulfromcamden]

A friend of mine got a speed wobble whilst tanking down a 1:10 hill on his Chopper when he was about 11 yrs. old. He broke both of his arms in the resulting crash.

Ouch! I used to do the same down the hill in the park but thankfully no bones broken! Only serious cycling injury as a kid was when I discovered too late the brakes were a bit iffy on a borrowed bike and ploughed into the side of a moving car at a junction...

 

[Big Tabs]

Ouch! I used to do the same down the hill in the park but thankfully no bones broken! Only serious cycling injury as a kid was when I discovered too late the brakes were a bit iffy on a borrowed bike and ploughed into the side of a moving car at a junction...

My bad crash was keeping up with my mates who both had motorbikes, (Kwak Ar80 and a Yam FS1E) I was on my racing pushbike - hit an off-camber roundabout at close to 30 mph and tried to lean into the corner. Tyres slid out, and I road-rashed my right side. Arrr, I can still feel the stinging pain from the abrasions. Happy days.

 

[Enfield boy]

Such a pity Raleigh bought Moulton and delayed developments for small wheeled bikes. I rode a pals Moulton in 1966 and it set me on a singular path, faster than most 5sp derailleur bikes of the time, more comfortable and a bit more expensive. The RSW 16 and Chopper were functionally awful but trendy at the time.As were vomit orange shirts and purple flares

 

[stevec67]

Famous video, apologies if you’ve seen it before

That man must have the legs of lance Armstrong. I've done Ventoux from the other side, it's a bloody big hill.

 

[Paul L]

I’ve only done it on Zwift Steve and their version took me the best part of 3 hours! I’ve done Alpe du Zwift twice now, I’m just glad I can still do them virtually in these, erm, sunset years

 

[James]

I had blue mk1 with white lettering. I don't think I'd part with a thousand squids for another.

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

18.4kg with 3 gears. Good luck on hills.

Strikes me as a great bike to electrify to offset the weight

 

[Paul L]

Wow, that’s monstrously heavy. No doubt the titanium version to follow will be 2/3 the weight and 3 x the price…

 

[Tony L]

18.4kg with 3 gears. Good luck on hills.

That was always the failing along with a hopelessly inefficient riding position it amplified that massively. At the time I had a standard road bike (drop bars) Puch with a similar 3-speed hub gear. Almost certainly a cheaper bike than a Chopper, but so much more effective if you actually wanted to get anywhere. I remember swapping bikes for a ride with a Chopper owner and quickly feeling absolutely knackered as the geometry was just so wrong and it was so heavy! The rider position is very wrong too, e.g. you’d risk falling off the back on gradients I can easily get up on my MTB or road bike. To be honest I suspect the extreme weight saved a lot of kids from that. So heavy popping a wheelie is still fairly hard even with the crazy geometry.

 

[Tony L]

PS Just out of interest I’ve attempted to weigh both my bikes. Not the best technique, just standing them upright on the scale with the back wheel locked and holding the bar & brake lever. I get 8.2kg for the road bike (fairly high spec titanium, carbon etc) and 11.1kg for the old-school Kona Explosif (steel frame & forks, but only rear gears). That really puts into perspective just how heavy this thing is, not far off the weight of both my bikes combined!

 

[garyi]

I remember when I saw a mountain bike for the first time, the Raleigh mustang!

 

[Tony L]

I was quite an early MTB adopter and had a 1989 Diamond Back Ascent for around a decade (pics on a blog here). Nice bike, though the oval Shimano chainset was a bit odd! IIRC Raleigh bought Diamond back around a year or two later, which maybe explains that Mustang having a similar paint job. The Diamond Back smoked grey paint was really cool, a key reason I went for it!

 

[Big Tabs]

To be honest I suspect the extreme weight saved a lot of kids from that. So heavy popping a wheelie is still fairly hard even with the crazy geometry.

There was a youth who was a legend in our town - he could wheelie his Chopper around the block. He also did the cleanest Swallow Dives that I have ever seen.

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

What, over the handlebars...?