You are brave putting that within beach distance of salt water.
But, the Boxer was the real deal.
Not me, I went from a Raleigh Comanche to a Raleigh Burner.
My sister had a Grifter. I went from a Tomahawk straight to 5-gear racers.
My brother had a gold burner, with all the helmet and shit, even think he wore the special bmx tops you could buy at the time
That’s an intense opinion! Chopper can be challenging.
I had one of these as a child, as an upgrade from a Raleigh Strika, the first bike I owned.
I had a Grifter. Weighed about 100kg and the front forks were like wet celery. Good times.
Had a Boxer then grew into this bad boy. Mine was red and we had many adventures and jumped many home-made ramps together. You know the kind…a few bricks, stacked at varying heights with a plank running up to them. đ
A BMX came next, of course. (Well, it was around the time that E.T. was all the rage).
I was too young for both. I had a fucking Budgie first, copper coloured, then a Striker, metallic green. I loved that beautiful green bastard.
And there was a phase where everyone was getting cowhorn handlebars, the wider the better apparently, my mate even took his handlebars of his racing bike and put a set on!
It was a heavy bastard and the three speed gear setup was totally shit, especially when standing up on the pedals going up a hill, the gears would start missing and you would whack your knee off the handle bars. Always looked good though.
There were two types of kids in the Seventies who didn’t come on day-long bike rides – Grifter and Chopper owners. Choppers were for posing around the estate and Grifters sounded like Mk1 Land Rovers and were about the same weight.
When I was a kid, it was all about racing bikes and the more gears the better.
Raleigh Chopper all the way, but I have to say that is a beauty
We learned no-handed on Grifter XLs in the school playground in the dark.
We also saw UFOs in the sky as you do đ
Loved the grifters as my big brother had one but my choice was the bomber.
When the sturmy? archer gear chain broke, all grifters were stuck in 3rd gear when we had themđ
Had a grifter in red.. amazing and weighed about a ton..
Amazing machine
chuck the fopper
Fuck the Grifter… Raleigh Vectar!
I think mine was the MK1. More of a metallicish red. Brother had the more Ferrari red.
One mate had silver, one had blue .
Everyone wanted the black and gold , thought it was called XL but apparently was called Super Grifter.
We used to go through toggle chains like crazy.
[removed]
Such memories!
When I was at primary school, some kid organised a fight with St Wilfreds, the Catholic school down the road. The plan was for us to meet in the park at 5pm and then we’d all rumble.Â
At 5pm, the kids that had organised it was nowhere to be seen. There was five other people from St Margarets and me, 5 of us on out Raleigh Burners and Graham on his Grifter.Â
There was no sign of any of the kids from St Wilfreds though.Â
We waited around a bit but nothing was happening, so decided to ride off home up Arundel road.Â
As we passed St Wilfreds about 50 kids came running out of the alleyway at the side carrying sticks screaming at us. Â
We all fucking cheesed it and started peddling like crazy, which was easy enough for the 4 of us on Raleigh Burners but not such a simple task for Graham on his Grifter.Â
I turned around and I was making a good distance on everone but you could see the mob rapidy catching up with Graham.Â
I really didn’t know what to do. I mean, in your head playing war games at school, you’d always go back and help to save your mate and stuff wouldn’t you. Ultimate sacrifice, me and you vs the world stuff. But when the chips are down, I showed my true colours and fucking kept on pedalling like crazy occasionally looking round at the mob as they homed in on my mate.Â
Luckily for Graham though, just before he got caught he finally managed to build up enough momentum to get the Grifter moving properly and start to build up some speed and get away from them.Â
When we slowed down and he finally dragged the thing along to us, we all obviously laughed at him and his solid steel Grifter. Kid must’ve had legs like a fucking bodybuilder after riding that lump around for years.Â
I had a hand me down Grifter. Seat like arm chair, the weight of a piano but a beautiful gear change
Anyone else remember the handlebar grips had a rim on them (the side near your thumb knuckle when holding them) that would rub the skin off?
Too fucking heavy pal and those stupid pedal back brakes were a nightmare when trying to get away from someone/something sharpish.
I had the grifter and my brother had the budgie đ, memories unlocked
Had a Red one, weighed a feckin ton
Tensor Foxbat all the way.
Yeah, none of my friends had heard of it, either. đ
I had one- it was dark blue- and I remember it being heavier than a heart attack
You could kick the front mudflap under itself to make the sound of a motorbike
32 comments
You are brave putting that within beach distance of salt water.
But, the Boxer was the real deal.
Not me, I went from a Raleigh Comanche to a Raleigh Burner.
My sister had a Grifter. I went from a Tomahawk straight to 5-gear racers.
My brother had a gold burner, with all the helmet and shit, even think he wore the special bmx tops you could buy at the time
That’s an intense opinion! Chopper can be challenging.
I had one of these as a child, as an upgrade from a Raleigh Strika, the first bike I owned.
I had a Grifter. Weighed about 100kg and the front forks were like wet celery. Good times.
Had a Boxer then grew into this bad boy. Mine was red and we had many adventures and jumped many home-made ramps together. You know the kind…a few bricks, stacked at varying heights with a plank running up to them. đ
A BMX came next, of course. (Well, it was around the time that E.T. was all the rage).
I was too young for both. I had a fucking Budgie first, copper coloured, then a Striker, metallic green. I loved that beautiful green bastard.
And there was a phase where everyone was getting cowhorn handlebars, the wider the better apparently, my mate even took his handlebars of his racing bike and put a set on!
It was a heavy bastard and the three speed gear setup was totally shit, especially when standing up on the pedals going up a hill, the gears would start missing and you would whack your knee off the handle bars. Always looked good though.
There were two types of kids in the Seventies who didn’t come on day-long bike rides – Grifter and Chopper owners. Choppers were for posing around the estate and Grifters sounded like Mk1 Land Rovers and were about the same weight.
When I was a kid, it was all about racing bikes and the more gears the better.
Raleigh Chopper all the way, but I have to say that is a beauty
We learned no-handed on Grifter XLs in the school playground in the dark.
We also saw UFOs in the sky as you do đ
Loved the grifters as my big brother had one but my choice was the bomber.
When the sturmy? archer gear chain broke, all grifters were stuck in 3rd gear when we had themđ
Had a grifter in red.. amazing and weighed about a ton..
Amazing machine
chuck the fopper
Fuck the Grifter… Raleigh Vectar!
I think mine was the MK1. More of a metallicish red. Brother had the more Ferrari red.
One mate had silver, one had blue .
Everyone wanted the black and gold , thought it was called XL but apparently was called Super Grifter.
We used to go through toggle chains like crazy.
[removed]
Such memories!
When I was at primary school, some kid organised a fight with St Wilfreds, the Catholic school down the road. The plan was for us to meet in the park at 5pm and then we’d all rumble.Â
At 5pm, the kids that had organised it was nowhere to be seen. There was five other people from St Margarets and me, 5 of us on out Raleigh Burners and Graham on his Grifter.Â
There was no sign of any of the kids from St Wilfreds though.Â
We waited around a bit but nothing was happening, so decided to ride off home up Arundel road.Â
As we passed St Wilfreds about 50 kids came running out of the alleyway at the side carrying sticks screaming at us.
Â
We all fucking cheesed it and started peddling like crazy, which was easy enough for the 4 of us on Raleigh Burners but not such a simple task for Graham on his Grifter.Â
I turned around and I was making a good distance on everone but you could see the mob rapidy catching up with Graham.Â
I really didn’t know what to do. I mean, in your head playing war games at school, you’d always go back and help to save your mate and stuff wouldn’t you. Ultimate sacrifice, me and you vs the world stuff. But when the chips are down, I showed my true colours and fucking kept on pedalling like crazy occasionally looking round at the mob as they homed in on my mate.Â
Luckily for Graham though, just before he got caught he finally managed to build up enough momentum to get the Grifter moving properly and start to build up some speed and get away from them.Â
When we slowed down and he finally dragged the thing along to us, we all obviously laughed at him and his solid steel Grifter. Kid must’ve had legs like a fucking bodybuilder after riding that lump around for years.Â
I had a hand me down Grifter. Seat like arm chair, the weight of a piano but a beautiful gear change
Anyone else remember the handlebar grips had a rim on them (the side near your thumb knuckle when holding them) that would rub the skin off?
Too fucking heavy pal and those stupid pedal back brakes were a nightmare when trying to get away from someone/something sharpish.
I had the grifter and my brother had the budgie đ, memories unlocked
Had a Red one, weighed a feckin ton
Tensor Foxbat all the way.
Yeah, none of my friends had heard of it, either. đ
I had one- it was dark blue- and I remember it being heavier than a heart attack
You could kick the front mudflap under itself to make the sound of a motorbike
Street Wolf with the sound box.