raleigh chopper rereleased

hibster
hibster Posts: 58
edited November 2013 in Road general
announced at the start of Nov, done a quic search but can'rt see it mentioned

chopper


appears to have twist shifters instead of the nad shredders of old

Comments

  • smidsy
    smidsy Posts: 5,273
    No slab seat with white band, no gear shifter with red handle on the cross bar - not a Chopper.
    Yellow is the new Black.
  • Loretta Damage
    Loretta Damage Posts: 270
    smidsy wrote:
    No slab seat with white band, no gear shifter with red handle on the cross bar - not a Chopper.

    +1. No testicle removal device on cross bar = not the real thing.
  • Jules Winnfield
    Jules Winnfield Posts: 299
    I remember when i had one of the originals in black many moons ago. I thought i was the coolest kid in our neighbourhood.
    Ribble Ultralite Racing 7005, Campagnolo Veloce groupset, Campagnolo Khamsin G3 wheel set
  • Jules Winnfield
    Jules Winnfield Posts: 299
    Tell you something, love it or hate it, with only 400 being made, they are gonna be worth a bit in the future. A definite collectors piece.
    Ribble Ultralite Racing 7005, Campagnolo Veloce groupset, Campagnolo Khamsin G3 wheel set
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    The chopper was not a great bike, the 70's were just a great (the best) time to be a kid.

    There is no point in any of the new ones IMO. They have all the faults of the original, with less of the good bits.

    You had to be out on a brand new purple original during the long hot summer school holidays. Either that or just get some arty painting of one for your wall.
  • rickeverett
    rickeverett Posts: 988
    Those MILITIS look nice on the other page :shock:
  • Garry H
    Garry H Posts: 6,639
    Looked a hell of a lot better than it rode. Part of the reason why a lot of non cyclists see the bike as no more than a toy. Should have been left to die, along with brown coloured six million dollar man t shirts and ford allegros!
  • craker
    craker Posts: 1,739
    cor, having a look through the Raleigh website they're selling my fixie bike that I found at the dump for £2000

    newraleigh.png

    Europasm.JPG
  • hibster
    hibster Posts: 58
    Carbonator wrote:
    The chopper was not a great bike, the 70's were just a great (the best) time to be a kid.

    There is no point in any of the new ones IMO. They have all the faults of the original, with less of the good bits.

    You had to be out on a brand new purple original during the long hot summer school holidays. Either that or just get some arty painting of one for your wall.


    they do seem to have a proper saddle this time & then a back pad
    cheaper to make this way?
  • gimpl
    gimpl Posts: 269
    Garry H wrote:
    Looked a hell of a lot better than it rode. Part of the reason why a lot of non cyclists see the bike as no more than a toy. Should have been left to die, along with brown coloured six million dollar man t shirts and ford allegros!

    Apologies for being a pedant but is was the Austin Allegro or 'Agro' for those that drove them !
  • giant_man
    giant_man Posts: 6,878
    It looks awful, what the hell have they done to it. Won't be as good as the originals, like my purple MkII I had when i was about 9, great bike.
  • Bookwyse
    Bookwyse Posts: 245
    Just found out that in the corner of my old mans workshop are the three Choppers I had when I was younger, 1 purple, one orange and one black with gold lettering.

    Am going to go get them over Christmas and see what condition they are in. Knowing my younger self they will be probably be scrap but who knows.....
  • Garry H
    Garry H Posts: 6,639
    Gimpl wrote:
    Garry H wrote:
    Looked a hell of a lot better than it rode. Part of the reason why a lot of non cyclists see the bike as no more than a toy. Should have been left to die, along with brown coloured six million dollar man t shirts and ford allegros!

    Apologies for being a pedant but is was the Austin Allegro or 'Agro' for those that drove them !

    Indeed, i stand corrected. My dad had the "Vandem Plas" model. It had a square steering wheel.
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,603
    Loretta Damage wrote:
    smidsy wrote:
    No slab seat with white band, no gear shifter with red handle on the cross bar - not a Chopper.

    +1. No testicle removal device on cross bar = not the real thing.

    Wasn't called a chopper for nothing!

    On a similar note the seat on the old Grifter was a potential torture device. A friend had one and the foam seat had broken away at the rear leaving just the upturned metal that was supposed to hold it in place. I jumped it down a few steps and hit my coccyx on the metal - I can't recall such intense pain at any time since!
  • Dorset_Boy
    Dorset_Boy Posts: 6,937
    Garry H wrote:
    My dad had the "Vandem Plas" model. It had a square steering wheel.

    It also had square wheels.
    I had a friend whose parents owned an Allegro. One day when he was learning to drive in it, he tried to change gear and the gearstick came away in his hand.

    The quality of British engineering and manufacturing in the 1970s summed up in two of the worst cars even built, anywhere.
  • debeli
    debeli Posts: 583
    Garry H wrote:
    Indeed, i stand corrected. My dad had the "Vandem Plas" model. It had a square steering wheel.

    Geek alert!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    The Vanden Plas model did not go into production until after the quartic wheel had been dropped. No VdP models were sold with the square wheel. You may be combining the memories of two different cars and I may have too much time on my hands.

    Geek alert over.
  • rolf_f
    rolf_f Posts: 16,015
    Aggros lasted far longer than most other cars from the 70s. 15 years ago there were still loads of them about when everything else from the time was pretty much extinct. A pretty solid car - one of those things that people hate because they are told to hate them rather than through any actual experience of it. The 80s design of VW Camper Van was a far worse vehicle. Obviously stuff like gear sticks coming off is entirely possible (I heard of an owner of a new Jag discovering a strange box shaped feature in the boot - all painted in the same colour as the body - he prodded it and it came off. Turned out to be a fag packet that had been sprayed into the boot!....) but then how about the Peugeot lease car I once drove where I found a body coloured bolt sat on the sill which turned out to be one of the door hinge bolts and which a while later deposited the under dash trim around my feet whilst I was braking off a slip road? I'm more sympathetic to crap build quality from the 70s rather than the 90s or 00s.

    As for the Chopper - the cross bar shifter was banned in the 70s irrc for health and safety reasons and I think the seat design was changed because the old type encouraged taking passengers which it was hardly designed for. I think that mod also happened in the 70s.
    Faster than a tent.......
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,603
    From memory the 70s version even had a warning that the seat that it wasn't designed for two which by 70s standards was 'health and safety gone mad'!
  • kingstonian
    kingstonian Posts: 2,847
    When i went online tonight the last thing I thought I would be reading was a thread involving Choppers, Grifters and Austin Allegros !!!
  • Garry H
    Garry H Posts: 6,639
    Kingstonian wrote:
    When i went online tonight the last thing I thought I would be reading was a thread involving Choppers, Grifters and Austin Allegros !!!
    And what about brown Maxis as well! And monkey boots
  • smidsy
    smidsy Posts: 5,273
    I remember Moon Boots but not Monkey Boots.
    Yellow is the new Black.
  • Gpfanuk
    Gpfanuk Posts: 142
    Anyone recall the little brother of the Chopper, the Tommahawk? Solid tyres from memory. The chopper I had gave endless weeks of fun with my cousin and I both having identical models (red with yellow lettering and lots of chrome) and pretending to be C.H.I.P.S... lolly sticks in the spokes for that realistic motorbike sound, backwards handlebar races, three people to one bannana seat, additional overdrive shifters fitted alongside the standard gearshift...happy days :D
    Muddy Fox Hardtail Circa 1998
    Triban3
    Felt AR5
    ANC Halfords Peugeot (restored and ridden at Eroica 2015)
    A box of bits that will make a fine Harry Hall when I get round to it.
    Raleigh tandem of as yet unknown vintage - ongoing restoration for Eroica 2016

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