![]() ![]() I'm hoping that the Dutch buyers, Pon, who also own the presitige bike brand Cervelo, as ridden by British pro David Millar, vow to stop all the sentimental retro-fetishising of the Chopper and make the Raleigh name mighty, credible, modern and all grownup again. The TI Raleigh team (which was, by the way, Dutch) had winners at the Tour de France and the Olympics. But here's the thing Raleigh could've been a contender. Their bikes are carbon fibre and titanium sleek, efficient and chrome-free. Modern cyclists are obsessed with weight and speed. Clumsy, heavy, ill-conceived, and downright dangerous, it's one of those kitsch, jokey 1970s things that, like Findus pancakes, onyx ornaments and racist comedians, hasn't travelled well into the 21st century – despite a celebrity-owners club that includes Damon Albarn, David Beckham and Lady Gaga. So how come I'm not shedding a tear for the Raleigh? Well the truth is that the Chopper was an utter pig of a bicycle. A kid in my village once upped the ante by getting his dad to replace his Chopper's handlebars with a car steering wheel. 10 products Micargi Cyclone Deluxe 2.0 500w Electric Chopper Bike - E-Wheel Warehouse Revi Cheetah Caf Racer 750W Electric Chopper Bike - E-Wheel Warehouse. In the 70s Raleigh had an incredible 60-70% market domination of bicycle sales in the UK and the tarmac was awash with not just Choppers but also Chippers, Tomahawks and (later) Grifters. Cruising around my village and attempting wheelies on my Chopper made me feel free, rebellious and part of the gang. It had a long fat, lazy-boy seat upholstered like a sofa, "Ape hanger" handle bars, a cool kick stand, a Sturmey-Archer "suicide" gear stick that seemed to have been lifted from a Chevrolet and blinging chrome mudguards … that rusted almost immediately. A thinly disguised knock-off of the American Schwinns you'd see in Spielberg movies, it was styled like a motorbike with a big knobbly wheel at the back and small one at the front. To an East Yorkshire boy entranced by the Banana Splits and Evel Knievel, the Chopper seemed impossibly exotic. ![]()
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