And nothing beats hearing cheers of “ Allez, allez, allez ” as you buzz along the flat in a close group – even if we are closer to Portsmouth than Paris. When we are grinding up a farseeing mound, a murmur “ Courage ” from a fellow rider constantly spurs us on. Our obsession with Le Tour lends a welcome touch of french flare to all things bicycle related. The Mk1 remained the bike of choice for ultimate coolness and fun!Ī new Mk3 version was launched in 2003 and continues to be sold today, although I haven't seen any kids riding one in our neck of the woods.Read more: Black Element Racing Shocks 24″ Mountain Suspension Fork Bike Parts 296-2 The sheer fact that you were riding a dangerous bike was the whole point for many kids, and the smaller seat meant it was almost impossible to fit two riders onto the bike. Of course, these improvements made the bike a lot safer to ride, but they also destroyed some of the coolness, too. To stop the rider from pulling back the handlebars to look even cooler (this made the bike almost impossible to steer!) the handlebars were welded to the stem. The seat was moved slightly forward and was shorter for improved balance which helped to prevent the bike from tipping backwards. The gear lever shifter changed from a knob to a T-bar-style shifter, and this is the easiest way to differentiate between the Mk1 and Mk2. There were several significant changes to the second version, and most were for safety purposes. I remember the younger brother of a friend riding around on a blue Chipper and the older brother used to tell everyone that his Chopper had given birth to it - too funny! It's success spawned a number of mini bikes for younger children and these were the Chipper, Tomahawk, Budgie and Chippy. The original prices were £32 for a standard bike and £55 for the deluxe version. Indeed, it became Raleigh's saviour and caused a turnaround in the company's slumping sales which they had experienced in the 60s. There were an increasing number of reports of children being involved in accidents, and because of this, t he Chopper gained a bit of a reputation for being dangerous to ride - this is probably why my parents, unfortunately, decided not to buy me one.ĭespite all of its problems, the Chopper sold in its millions, and continued to be produced until 1981. The wide tyres caused rolling friction and the bike was prone to wobbliness when you reached even a moderate speed. For a start, the small front wheel made it unstable, and the bike was generally heavy and slow to ride.
However, as cool as it looked, it wasn't a practical bike to ride.
The frame-mounted gear lever console had many kids salivating (I was one of them!) along with the high-back seat, high-rise handlebars and the different sized wheels. Quite simply, it was the quirkiness of the design which made it stand out from every other bike on the market - it was pretty radical. Apparently, Alan Oakley at Raleigh falsely claimed that he was the designer, but it was actually Tom Karen from Ogle design who was responsible.
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