New Raleigh Chopper inspired by golden era of motorsport

My mate David Neal had one of these and my mum banned me from riding it, because they were so dangerous. Of course I ignored her and had a spin down his long downhill drive on it, which ended with me having only about 20% of my skin left intact. I had to tell her I fell off MY bike, and I can remember my old man look from my perfectly intact bike to me and back, with a quizzical look on his face, but fair play, he kept his mouth shut.

Good ole H&S. I wonder if anyone can dig up an actual documented case of .. er .. Chopper castration?

What could British Standard ( was a pair of initials ever so apt..?) have against the original one piece curved saddle?

Is it an attempt to stop 'backies' perhaps?

I had the sensible pale blue Raleigh 5 speed racer but my mate owned one and they were truly dreadful to steer. How a split saddle will improve steering I can't imagine.

All this evokes for me are memories of the 'rich kid' in my street who of course was the only child to have a chopper bike.

Though in retrospect he was only 'rich' in the sense that 'posh spice' is posh. C2, C1 at best! I think his dad was actually a bus driver, but dammit his family were 'aspirational', he always had far more expensive stuff than the rest of us.

And thanks to him, this style of bike is now forever linked in my mind to casual racism. I concede this association might not be objectively justifiable.

It retrospectively cheers me greatly to read about how bad they were to actually ride!

They were truly awful, but that made an excellent training aid for future bike handling.

I managed to shear the handlebars off at the stem....going round a roundabout! My dad's welding repair and subsequent matt black painting of the bars lasted about 3 days.

That's one ultra violet mark 2 that ended up in the skip!

And 2nd gear always slipped into neutral.

They were awful. Difficult to ride out of the saddle up hills, terminally unstable going down, rubbish handling and braking and heavier than a heavy thing.

One of those "retro" items we should just quietly forget about.

They should just leave it, I know they can't replicate the gear stick and banana saddle because if the standards, so it's never going to be the same.

Still a three speed thumb shift and a better saddle would help, the original was actually made by Brooks.

'This vehicle is not designed to carry passengers'

I had an original decided to take a mate on the back down a long fast hill in town, we all know the end of course crashed and burned. I actually passed out having picked myself off the ground, blood pouring from both elbows no skin now, and the same on tops of my pelvis (front).

A trip to the hospital where they cleaned the debris out more agony and daily trips back for the dressings to be ripped off, ah memories, the good old days

I still loved it though it was the first bike I had ever owned that was new, closing my eyes I can still see it.

British Standards told them not to use Sturmey Archer? I don't believe it. Even if they could not have the castrating gear lever, the hub gears should have stayed.

we don't want this Raleigh, we want how it was, like the Mk 2 in the picture, brilliant bikes, I had exactly that bike, in the purple, fab. Stop faffing around with the seat, and the gear stick, and have it as it was ....

The product range was Chipper, Tomahawk then Chopper... there was also the Chopper Sprint with drop handlebars!

Back in the day, my mum bought me the Mk 1 in scarlet / orange. Seem to remember that she paid approx £30 for it which was roughly twice the going rate for a kids' bike back then.

It was a 30lb beast but it inspired a love of bikes in me which has lasted to this day. I'm now 53 and have never even had a driving lesson.

Remember my bro breaking his Mk1 Chopper and the local agricultural engineer welding the frame back together. They don't build em like that these days......

For the record, British Standards told Raleigh they couldn't produce the new Chopper in the original design for health and safety reasons. Raleigh did look into this before producing the new design. Obviously Raleigh loves the original design as much as everyone else - why would they change a classic unless they had to.

Aww...not the same if it's not like the Mk2.... It's gotta have a one piece loooong seat and stick shift sturmey!
Missed opportunity!

No Sturmey Archer, no sale.

And does anyone remember the smaller version, the Chipper?

That is not a Chopper!
It's nothing like a Chopper. Either make a proper Raleigh Chopper or don't, but for crying out loud stop chucking the Chopper name at any bit of dross you want to make money out of

Fail.

Sorry, but I thought the love for the original chopper was because it was a chopper. The seat, the gear stick etc, etc. Why go to all the trouble to do your own version? It's not for doing a sportive on, it's for messing around on your estate. No gear stick? Get out-a-here man.

Strange.

I was a Strika man, well boy. Broke my arm when I was 4 falling off that thing.

Agreed. The literally half-arsed saddle is a disgrace. The one with the white belt across was an iconic part of the original. It's akin to remaking the classic E-Type Jag and thinking 'Let's not bother remaking the spoked wheels.' Lazy and counter productive.

the Chopper got me into cycling. Not because I had one but because I didn't. I envied one. We all had bikes in those days only my parents were very much StartRite and Clarks people. I had a sensible traditional bike. Not for long though. I did a paper round and started saving and bought some cow horn bars. It still wasn't a chopper though but it did get me in with a group of lads that liked Speedway and liked cycle speedway which they did on makeshift tracks. I was pretty good at that and that started me being interested in cycle racing more generally. Then one Saturday afternoon in the winter of 1972 World of Sport showed some track racing. It must have been a Six day thing. That blew my mind. That was what I wanted to do. I was 11 years old. I had no clue how to do it though. Then in spring of 1973 in Winton (Bournemouth) I saw a track. Well banks anyway. It was tarmac not an oval but more like a three cornered affair around a cricket pitch, but it was track and I rode it to death. On my own mostly but sometimes with mates that I dragged ver there. Then one Friday night in early summer the Bournemouth Arrow Cycling Club turned up at my track. (it was their track actually) I watched with my gob open getting closer and closer to the bikes and the people. I'd probably been there an hour and was by now standing close to the start/finish line. Someone was watching because I was asked if I wanted a go and before I knew it I was on an old club track bike going round on my own (I expect no-one trusted me not to bring them down.) That following Sunday I was on a club run on my sensible one speed bike with cowhorn bars. In the following weeks I rode the track bike with a front brake on and by the end of the summer I'd sold the sensible bike and got a 2nd hand road bike. I've been riding ever since.

I still never owned a Chopper though.

Update: Blimey. There's a web page with the history of that track.
http://www.bournemouth.cc/about-the-bournemouth-cycling-centre/51-histor...

Ooh nice, it looks like a fag packet.

Anyway, I agree with the above. No gear stick, no Sturmey Archer hub gears and the saddle is a disgrace.

It's the bike equivalent of the Phantom Menace.