Red Tomahawk, just like this one!

Still remember blasting down our hill with my mate in chuckie mode, both no handed,
all going well till we hit the bump in the road and both went flying, how we laughed/Cried!!

Raleigh Chopper, purple 5 speed, had two gear levers… I was da man when i was 9!

loved my tomahawk, mine had mag wheels like this one but mine was gold

had a skyway tuff 2 burner aswell but when things started getting serious i got one of these, a DP Firebird Delta but my kit was red. If only my dad hadn’t tipped it when i went to uni, worth a mint today

Well it had to come didn’t it?

At the time, you felt this bike was capable of marvellous stunts, cos it kinda just looked like it should be. Ermmmm, it wasn’t. It was impractical, slow, drove off road like a pig, flew like a brick and was dangerous. Good for ramming things and ferrying multiple mates around on though.

I loved my chopper mk 2 to bits

The first bike I had was a really old solid tyred effort but I did do jumps on it as some of the older kids built jumps. Next I had a ‘Stambecco?’ or something like that, again with solid tyres and a rack at the back which formed part of the frame. I cut the tyres off that and rode the rims which was like riding on ice.
The bike I learnt to ‘trick’ on was a Raleigh Striker, the silver one (most green ones had pedal back brakes IIRC). Followed by a Grifter which I mastered wheelies on. The next was Puch BMX and then a Mongoose ‘wire wheel’ BMX. Fond memories of all those bikes.
I was in my mid twenties before I got my first Raleigh Chopper. For a time I had a mk1 and mkII – great bikes for riding around town p*ssed up after a few beers.

Purple Tomahawk 😀

had a raleigh commando used to peg playing cards into the spokes, sounded coool. raleigh bomber five, got me into the big bikes , when everyone else had burners. had a db harry leary turbo for a while, pulled off all the plastic coatin to give it the chromed look. mate had a chopper, only one in town, dangerous bike that ………..

i dont know what it was but a lad i knew had a full sus chopper style thing, 4 inch on the back and about 3 on the front, that thing was piss yellow/green but awesome!!!!!!!

swisstony I had one of those tommahawks with the mag wheels, favourite was a Chopper SE silver n balck stickers, mag wheels, and black(not red) gear knob £72 in 1976!

a wrong chopper

but it’s a perfect match with the carpet

Another here who had a Strika. It was my first new bike. I remember proudly telling my mum that I could do a wheelie, even though it only involved hefting the front wheel a cm or so off the ground. This photo was taken back in 1984.

In 1987 I ‘upgraded’ to a second-hand Bomber. I’ve only just noticed how much rake those forks have! It was great for pulling skids, and the sprung saddle was good for riding off curbs while sat down.

I used to do the aforementioned ‘phantom rider’ thing. The fun had watching your bike sail off into the distance and uncontrollably crash into something – brilliant!! Jumper’s for goal posts, etc…

my fave was my torker 280 xl bmx 🙂

+1 boxer, a yellow one too.

i fell off that bike more than all the other ones since, put together

Purple Tomahawk here too. Used to ‘pretend’ it had a gear stick on that pointless plastic panel where the Chopper had one. Also de rigeur lolly stick in the spokes.

Black Strika was my first ‘proper’ bike after a hand-me-down tricycle. Just like this in fact:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-Raleigh-Strika-bike-Grifter-Boxer-Burner-era_W0QQitemZ290296638649QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Collectables_Bicycle_RL?hash=item290296638649&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1684%7C66%3A4%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

Tempting restoration project…

Followed by a black Raleigh Burner, then a 14″ black and pink splatter Kona Firemountain; also a contender.

Strika owners; did yours make that clicking sound when you pedalled? Not sure if it was some undiagnosed technical problem with mine! Remember the front end being pretty heavy.

My first proper BMX was one of these:

And I wanted (but never got 🙁 ) one of these:

i learnt to wheelie on a Budgie. awwwww, happy days.

God you lucky feckers. I wanted ALL those bikes at one stage or another of my childhood.

All I ever got was catalogue rejects (mum worked at Freemans)with names like ‘super 16’ and ‘Tuff Terrain’

I’m sure my obsession with expensive bikes has something to do with being so deprived as a kid

Commando – loved that bike..

Yup, another Black Raleigh Striker here as well. That was my first non-hand-me-down bike. I fitted a “cool” speedo that ran off the rim of the front wheel… Loved that bike, then had a Raleigh “BMX” type not sure what that was until I got my Raleigh Pursuit which is still at my folks place.

Fu

another raleigh burner owner here – couldnt afford the mags tho!

btw thats not my one :O) !

Silverpigeon – I feel your pain, had an Extra Burner, (with some ace components TBH), always wanted a GT pro-performer or a Skyway. Think that’s why my first 4 MTB’s where GT’s!

I had a Super Tuff Burner after my Strika….. 8)

Jedi-is that a Torker?

yeah

HAHA, these bikes are so funny…. i had a Grifter,it had 3 gears,dunno why,it was way too heavy to ride uphill!if i remember rightly the gears never worked very well anyway.Then i had a raliegh Night burner,the same as my brother,but he spent months picking off the strange smokey plastic finish to reveal a lovely “chrome” bike…. then i saved up my pocket money and bought myself a DP Firebird Freestyler;anyone remember those? Got any pics?????

had a yellow chopper just like this one; it was great, used to ride everywhere on it, even offroad in calverley woods, resulting in a couple of trips to A&E…

my favourite was my tracker that I made myself.
It looked a lot like this….

but existed a lot earlier than that one did, obviously.

I bought this because it was exactly the same as my childhood one…

My other favorite was my Redline MX11 almost exactly like this one..

Blue with gold Araya rims, yellow seat gold flute seatpost…

Chippers/Choppers were too pretentious for me, but I did have a secondhand girls bike aged about 7.

I was disappointed because it looked girlie (ie no crossbar = no street cred). Believe it or not (Ahem, about 1973), it used to be possible to actually BUY a bike crossbar on it’s own, – specifically for this purpose – and to bolt it on!

It was a pressed steel thing with a inverted u section and boyish graphics on the side. My father fitted it up, and I was soon the prowd owner of a boy’s bike complete with a real crossbar!

Aged seven – at the height of my power, skill and riding ability. 8)

Really wanted a Curtis, but never owned one.

After the chopper, grifter, burner etc, this was my dream ride 8)

After what seemed like a lifetime or paper rounds I finally talked my mum into letting me buy one from her Kays catalogue, think I paid for it over 2 years or somat at about 5 quid a week 😆