# Your best/favourite bike from your youth?



## superbadger (14 Sep 2011)

Was on another thread and somebody mentioned Grifters!!! Remember them? Well i just thought it would be fun to hear your past bikes which are probably a million miles from what you ride now!!!!. I had a Raleigh Striker as a 1st bike in the early 80's and then when i outgrew that my dad produces a 2nd hand(mint condition) Raleigh Rodeo which was cool coz they were a bit different but almost the same as the 'Chopper'. He picked it up at a boot sale or somewhere?. A lad up the road had the coolest bike of all though...... A Raleigh Vektar!. We were soooo jealous of that damn bike!!!! I ended up with a raleigh record so i used to burn him off everytime i saw him!!!!!. Happy days.


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## HLaB (14 Sep 2011)

My first bike was a Raleigh Chippy





I then inherited my brothers Chopper, then his 10 speed racer.

I then during the trends of the late 80's early 90's got a Raleigh BMX (can't remember the model) then a Raleigh mtb (Raleigh Marauder)




I think my Marauder was my favourite bike from back then, not because it was anything special but it was my first taste of freedom and its lasted well, 20 years later I've still got it and cleaned it up a few times for the family to use.


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## biggs682 (14 Sep 2011)

my first bike i remember was a moulton of some kind , i also remember having a chopper , then moved on to a Viscount Aerospace and a Holdsworth with 531 not sure what model , wish i had them know .


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## superbadger (14 Sep 2011)

that chippy is fab!!!! . And the Marauder looks a good one too.... Well impressed you still got it!!! WOW . yea i went down the mongoose route in my teens but the race bike (record) was fab. Strange that i do touring with MTB now???. Ahhh yes thats it..... I can't afford a road bike!!!


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## JonnyBlade (14 Sep 2011)

My very first bike was a fixed wheel 3 wheeler and I used to ride it with Dad's driving gloves. Never knew the make but it was my big red beauty


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## MontyVeda (14 Sep 2011)

one of these... (in metallic amber)






...still got it


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## vickster (14 Sep 2011)

I had a Raleigh Boxer


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## MontyVeda (14 Sep 2011)

superbadger said:


> Was on another thread and somebody mentioned Grifters!!! Remember them? ...



ah yes... built like a battleship with a seat like a sofa


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## Shut Up Legs (14 Sep 2011)

I had a Malvern Star dragster, which magically appeared in the family living room on the morning of my 8th birthday! . It looked a bit like this, I think:


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## superbadger (14 Sep 2011)

Did Grifters have the first twist-shift gears? I dont mean in the world... but on a mass produced bike?


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## superbadger (14 Sep 2011)

Wow Malvern Star..... Bet they very rare now? Was hoping would see something out the ordinary....


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## The Brewer (14 Sep 2011)

I could ride a bike, but in 1977 I got a sky blue chopper. On long hills I could put my feet up between the handle bars and try and impress Paula Mountain....in third gear ....yeah I was cool.....until the hill hit a wall and wrote the chopper off


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## Night Train (15 Sep 2011)

Back in the mid 70's my Dad wouldn't get me a Chopper so I made my own.






I made seven of them in all up until I was about 14 or 15 years old. 
The last one had drop bars, bikini fairing, brake lights and 'dashboard' switches for the lights.






I am very tempted to make another chopper.


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## Bobtoo (15 Sep 2011)

superbadger said:


> Did Grifters have the first twist-shift gears? I dont mean in the world... but on a mass produced bike?




The Raleigh Commando had them, I think it pre-dates the Grifter but that's just based on seeing Commandos around before I saw Grifters.


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## riggsbie (15 Sep 2011)

My first new bike as a kid was a Grifter......my older brother had a Chopper but I was not allowed anywhere near it !!

I recall the hexagonal blocks on the Grifter tyres used to wear down in no time thanks to all the skidding and the twist shift and slipping gears was always fun !!

Paul


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## Cubist (15 Sep 2011)

I only wish I could find a picture of my beloved Crown Comet. It was a ten speed with 531 tubing, handbuilt in Birmingham in the mid to late 1970s. Mt father has done some work for them (he was an architect) and they had done him a pretty good deal when my (other beloved) Raleigh Olympus was stolen. It was a thing of great beauty with a leather saddle, ten speed gearing, and gloss black paintwork. 

One morning when I was cycling to college in Sheffield the dropout gave way, dumping the mech into the rear wheel. I couldn't get it straightened (or so I thought) and I left it in a shed on Woodseats Road.


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## Orange (15 Sep 2011)

I had a wonderful red, green and white touring style cycle, with black and silver mudguards. It was very smart and (to me) quite expensive- can't remember the make. I stupidly only kept it a year before selling it to purchase a beat up Suzuki 100.


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## abo (15 Sep 2011)

My first bike was a 2nd hand girl's bike. This was before we moved to a bigger house when I was 3 so it must have been 1975. My dad sprayed it blue before teaching me to ride on it. I guess that's how things were done in the '70's 

I had a Raleigh Comanche after that:






And the a Grifter XL






Heavier than a heavy thing, I used to try jumping on it but the weight was a problem. It was so bad the forks bent over time, so badly I had to remove the front mudguard...

I used my dad's bike after that, in my teens. Some sort of '60's Dawes racer in black which I wish we still had.


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## Portex (15 Sep 2011)

1948 if memory (failing) serves. I think it was a Triang made just after the war from old aircraft parts. Note the riding gear


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## Oxo (15 Sep 2011)

I can't find a picture but my first bike was a Hercules with 'sit up and beg' bars and rod brakes.


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## abo (15 Sep 2011)

Portex said:


> 1948 if memory (failing) serves. I think it was a Triang made just after the war from old aircraft parts. Note the riding gear



Who needs lycra?


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## Andrew_P (15 Sep 2011)

Had a few I guess what would be mow described as BSO's, until my 15th birthday when I discovered covered outside in my back garden my beloved Peugeot Competition she truly was a thing of great beauty, I had a "burn up" with a mid twenties "roadie" all around Croydon, and kept up with him but didn't scalp him. Pulled up at the lights in North End Croydon (in the days when you could drive down the high street) and he said you ride well why don't you pop along here and gave me a Dulwich Paragon business card! 

Felt like I had been talent scouted and one of my regrets was never following it up! Bit strange riding around with Dulwich Paragon cards though lol


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## wiggydiggy (15 Sep 2011)

*Raleigh Activator 2* Ltd Edition






Loved that bike, used it until it was destroyed and took it on some big rides. I think my fondest memories are at the top of a very big mountain my front brake cable snapped, in my youthful wisdom I decided the front brake wasn't important and positively flew down!

Another time we were negotiating a descent and what we thought to be a path turned out to be a dried up river bed complete with boulders the size of a mini, suspension coped surprisingly well with that.

Lastly I think managing to hit 42mph on a descent of a 1:7 single track road, it is still the fastest I have ever been on a bike!

Amusingly the source for the picture mentions the bike needing new front brake cable!


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## superbadger (15 Sep 2011)

Night Train said:


> Back in the mid 70's my Dad wouldn't get me a Chopper so I made my own.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



They are awesome!!!!!


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## superbadger (15 Sep 2011)

Hey portex.... That trike looks tougher than a grifter!!!!!


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## MontyVeda (15 Sep 2011)

superbadger said:


> They are awesome!!!!!



They certainly are.


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## superbadger (15 Sep 2011)

A lack of girls bikes on so far so just asked the GF and hers was a Raleigh Apple.

she had a dolls seat on the back of hers.


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## Globalti (15 Sep 2011)

I had a Triang trike which made a clattering noise because the six-sided hubs were gradually wearing six-sided holes in the steel wheels as they rotated. Then I had a Raleigh roadster and a couple of 10 speed racers. When I was about 15 my pal and I fished an old delivery bike out of a river, cut off the basket part of the frame and built it up as a chopper with apehanger bars. I was very upset when it was stolen from our cellar.

My first modern bike was in 1987 when I was between jobs and I spotted a Raleigh Maverick MTB in a bike shop in Harrogate. It was a glorious yellow and white with red decals and I fell in love with it; as soon as I saw it I knew that was the bike I needed so despite being unemployed I hit my Barclaycard for the £199 to buy it. I rode it home with the tyres under-inflated; it was only seven miles but by the time I got home I was absolutely exhausted. I didn't touch it for several weeks after that bad experience but gradually it needled me until I got it out and tried it off road; I remember my first feelings of amazement at the way it rode up and down hills and coped with mud, which had always been a problem when I took my roadsters off road. Then followed 23 years of mountain biking until I embarked on my present road riding obsession, which didn't really get going until I found a carbon road bike in a river - that's another story though!


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## mickle (15 Sep 2011)

Pashley Pickle trike then my bro and I were bought a pair of yellow solid tyred Tri-angs then then it all goes blank until a Raleigh Chopper which we had to share  then a Raleigh Flyer in my early teens which was the bike that ignited my passion for cycling - they couldn't keep me off it. Ended up treating it very badly, threw it off a bridge at one point and then sold it to a guy who, two weeks later, came hobbling up the drive with his arm in plaster and a bandage around his head. I ran away but he said to my mother; I know there's nothing I can do but I just wanted to let you know that I was riding that bike you sold me down a hill when the front wheel fell off.' The headtube had sheared. Rather him than me.

Then a lull before I bought a second hand Rory which gave way to a brand new Claude Butler Dalesman touring bike circa 1983.

It ended up possibly saving my life but certainly from serious injury when a drunk driver mowed me down and then tried to drive away over my prone body. The bike got caight up underneath the car preventing it from moving.


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## DiddlyDodds (15 Sep 2011)

Cow horns ,,, no bike in 1970 was worth its salt if you didnt have Cow Horn Handlebars ,, no brakes just your foot on the front tyre (and a belt around the head of yer mum for ruining your beetle crusher shoes)


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## Rhythm Thief (15 Sep 2011)

victor said:


> I had a Malvern Star dragster, which magically appeared in the family living room on the morning of my 8th birthday! . It looked a bit like this, I think:



I had a few bikes like that, back when we lived in Kuwait when I was little. The one I remember best had a sort of mock motorbike tank and fairing and looked like a trail bike. If you squinted.


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## rowan 46 (15 Sep 2011)

my fondest memory is of my blue mk1 chopper like a previous poster I put the handlebars right back for wheelies a friend had a 10 speed chopper in infra red that I coveted


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## PaulSecteur (15 Sep 2011)

Raliegh striker. (Not my photo, it was the nly one I could find on the web. Although I did have a very similar hairstyle)


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## superbadger (15 Sep 2011)

PaulSecteur said:


> Raliegh striker. (Not my photo, it was the nly one I could find on the web. Although I did have a very similar hairstyle)



They were fab bikes.... i thinks thats me in that pic .... We must have used same barber....


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## PaulSecteur (15 Sep 2011)

superbadger said:


> We must have used same barber....



I dont remember seeing you when my Mum had the scissors and basin out!


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## superbadger (15 Sep 2011)

PaulSecteur said:


> I dont remember seeing you when my Mum had the scissors and basin out!


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## Arch (17 Sep 2011)

PaulSecteur said:


> Raliegh striker. (Not my photo, it was the nly one I could find on the web. Although I did have a very similar hairstyle)



Can anyone imagine a boy consenting to wear those shoes these days?


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## Little yellow Brompton (17 Sep 2011)

Portex said:


> 1948 if memory (failing) serves. I think it was a Triang made just after the war from old aircraft parts. Note the riding gear



No helmet! How did you survive?


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## Little yellow Brompton (17 Sep 2011)

superbadger said:


> Was on another thread and somebody mentioned Grifters!!! Remember them? Well i just thought it would be fun to hear your past bikes which are probably a million miles from what you ride now!!!!.



A metallic red Moulton Super 4 :-) wish I had it now! :-(


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## Timmo (17 Sep 2011)

I had one where the front wheel was bigger than the back wheel, I can't remember what it was. I was about 12 at the time so it would of been 1999-2000 ish possibly earlier.


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## MontyVeda (17 Sep 2011)

Arch said:


> Can anyone imagine a boy consenting to wear those shoes these days?



...or those shorts! Man they're short!

I think i had that haircut too... although it was so blond it always over exposed!


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## superbadger (18 Sep 2011)

I had shoes like that!!!!!. Damn parents said i looked good....


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## superbadger (18 Sep 2011)

I had shoes like that!!!!!. Damn parents said i looked good....


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## Willo (19 Sep 2011)

MontyVeda said:


> one of these... (in metallic amber)
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Ahhh, the memories. I had one just like that. All the presents under the tree had been opened when I found a note from Santa in the branches telling me to look outside and there it was, a Tomahawk. By far the most memorable present I've ever received. Alas, mine is long gone so thanks for posting and bringing back the memories. After that it was a Grifter that stood out as by that age it afforded me some real freedom. Remember tucking the mud guard under to make a motor nose (which obviously didn't do it much good). Remember that being metallic blue I think. Then it was on to a silver racer but no idea what make it was.


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## Angelfishsolo (19 Sep 2011)

HLaB said:


> My first bike was a Raleigh Chippy



OMG That was my first bike as well. I also later moved to Chopper and then to a Coventry Eagle Red Dragon 10 speed drop. I didn't get another bike until I was in my mid 30's!


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