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Video: Rusty 1984 Raleigh Bomber gets glorious sentimental restoration

Pre-mountain bike classic looks better than new.

Remember the classic Raleigh Bomber of the 1980’s? A single-speed cruiser, it was the Big Heron’s first, hesitant step into 26-inch wheeled bikes before Raleigh jumped head-first into mountain bikes a couple of years later with the Maverick.

Mike Shattock’s brother David had one and when he found it rusting in a family friend’s shed, he decided to restore it to its original glory. Here’s a video that will put a smile on your face.

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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36 comments

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gareth2510 | 11 years ago
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Chappeu,

Great job  41

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pirnie | 11 years ago
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Great video!! And a lovely tribute. Also means I'm gonna be singing motorhead in the lab for the rest of the afternoon!  4

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kitkat | 11 years ago
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Great tribute to Mike's brother. Bike looks awesome and you'd feel pretty awesome doing 30miles on it!

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Guyz2010 | 11 years ago
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Lush and so well done, I'm sure David would rock if he could see this. Well Done. Lovely news.

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CameronB | 11 years ago
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Amazing and a great story.

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Some Fella | 11 years ago
0 likes

Sweet ride.
Beautiful story.
I had a green one - it had a picture of a B17 bomber on the toptube. I remember it weighing about the same as a fully laden B17 bomber too.
I wonder where Mike got the replacement decals from?

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