The xmas present thread got me thinking about a bike I got for my birthday when I was fourteen. I’ve tried looking for information about this bike but no luck so far.

1979.
The bike as I remember it was the nearest thing to a mtb before there were mtbs. It was black with b&w chequer decals and distinctive in having pointless chrome braces on the forks. I thought it was called a ‘Trekker’ but this doesn’t yield a fruitful search.

It was a bike made to make kids think that it was tough enough for the wilds of anything that wasn’t tarmac. Phillip Harrison shattered that myth for me buckling the forks on collision with a wall after hurtling down an impressively steep bank. Months later I finished it off riding on the verge and lodging the front wheel in a drainage ditch. Perfect somersault, crumpled forks and frame and strawberry-picking plans for the day in tatters.

There must be someone here who knows what this bike was, maybe owned one. STW?

No one?

this is ringing bells with me.. I remember the chequer decals for some reason..

around 79 I was a little bit younger than you and it was all Strikers and Boxers for me.. progressing to a Bomber around 81 or 82.. (I never owned any of these but I wanted them sooo bad)

It wasn’t a bomber was it..?

Grifter maybe 😐

Raleigh Strika? (or striker – cant remember which) – i had one which I subjected to numerous Kick-Start style courses in the back lane

Closest I can recall to that kind of thing was the Raleigh Bomber.

Kind of similar to a MTB but no chrome forky thing going on.

It was similar to the Raleigh Bomber. It didn’t have the smaller wheels of Grifter type bikes and seemed like a purposely designed version of the bikes that me and most of friends had which were ‘racing’ bikes with cowhorn handlebars and no mudguards and bigger tyres.

The clincher on this pseudo mtb is those pointless chrome bars in front of the forks. Can’t remember the gears but think they may have been Sturmey Archer. Is that the same on the Bomber?

Can’t remember the gears but think they may have been Sturmey Archer. Is that the same on the Bomber?

Yep, 3 speed. Wish I’d kept my Bomber all these years, would be nice to own something now considered retro.

1979.
The bike as I remember it was the nearest thing to a mtb before there were mtbs

Don’t let Charlie Kelly see that… 😉

I had a serious hankering for a bomber when I was little.

looks more mtby without gaurds

I had a serious hankering for a bomber when I was little.

I’ve told this story before on here but it’s xmas related so I’ll tell it again..

Everyone was bike crazy in our street.. and never a day passed without a ramp being constructed from sneakily aquired car tyres and pallets and milk crates and sheets of board.. time nursing grazes and bruises was spent discussing ‘red lion’ bmxs or looking through grubby and well thumbed coveted copies of catalogues or a magazine nicked from an older brother..

When I was 8 or 9 my mum had a decent win on the old bingo and as a result I was promised that I could choose whatever bike I wanted as an xmas gift as a change from the usual reconditioned numbers my old man had procured..

Well… seeing as I had a poster cut from my mates magazine of a Bomber on my wall.. and had dreamt about one every night for months it was an obvious choice.. Raleigh team colours would be a bonus but not essential.. only 9 weeks til xmas.. I swear I didn’t sleep a wink in all that time through sheer exitement..

Imagine the pain in my poor little heart when I came downstairs on the day to be greeted by the sight of a drop handlebarred Raleigh Equipe race rep.. no shoddy bike by any stretch of the imagination.. fully loaded too with 10 gears.. one of those battery operated sirens and brand new lights with a dynamo.. The guy in Halfords(?) had persuaded my gullible old mum that no self respecting lad wanted a clunky old Bomber and racers were where it’s at..

I sucked it up though.. and passed of my tears of disappointment as tears of joy to prevent causing my immensely smug and overjoyed folks any heartache..

I soon added cowhorn handlebars and proceeded to take that bike through the woods and fields and over the handcrafted ramps we all built in the street til my old man was driven half crazy trying to straighten out buckled wheels and burst tyres.. he just couldn’t understand it at all..

The guy in Halfords(?) had persuaded my gullible old mum that no self respecting lad wanted a clunky old Bomber and racers were where it’s at..

Arrggghhh that’s irritating. When I invent a time machine we’ll put this right first.

2retro4u
Marin County, Cali

Kunstler

1979.
The bike as I remember it was the nearest thing to a mtb before there were mtbs

Tree-Magnet

Don’t let Charlie Kelly see that…

Too late. Let me point out that by 1979 even though the term “mountain bike” had yet to come into use, I had been riding a custom off-road bike built by Joe Breeze for a year or so. His production run of ten bikes of which mine was the second after Joe’s is considered by many to be the first true “mountain bikes.”

Here I am in 1978, a year before you got your bike. Sure looks to me like I was “mountain biking” or whatever you want to call it.

supposedly the first ritchey in the u.k (according to the photographer who took the cover shot)

http://gallery.me.com/garysmithphoto/100035/My%20Photo_3/web.jpg?ver=12924412350001

can’t seem to embed mobile me pics

I had a super bomber, my dad said i was to big for a
bmx (9 or 10?)anyway bent two pairs of forks jumping
it then got my first Bmx 😀

Could it have been the Reebok Trakker?

or a Raleigh Commando

1978-9? I was 5-6 years got taught how to ride a bike on a raleigh boxer. down a little cul-de-sac. When my dad dies, I’ll always remember that moment.

When i was about 15 (1982)i got a team murray baja mtb.what a cool bike that was.
ramps and wheelies.those where the days. 🙂

I was 8 in 77 and I definitely had a Trekker too but mine was a very dark purple colour. In my memory it was like a small Raleigh Chopper, and I’m fairly sure it was a Raleigh (bigger than a Chipper and a Tomahawk but smaller than a Chopper).

I had this discussion recently at work but despite my best efforts at googling, I couldn’t find it. 🙁

Raleigh Commando

+1… I’m almost certain it’s the one you’re talking about.. I had completely forgotten of it’s existance but memories have just come flooding back..

Trekker

I wondered for a while if that was where the term ‘Tracker’ came from which was the name given to custom bikes built by just about every kid in town with help from their dads. I got mine built up when I was about 12, possibly younger, and that was in ’78, ’79 but I know they were going long before that.

Trackers were the Uk version of a mountain bike and were certainly around at the same time that things were taking off in the states. Obviously these bikes were built with components that had already been manufactured, mostly for cyclocross. Mine had a BMX headstock, was singlespeed and had motorbike handlebars with blood on them.

Ha Charlie you’ve found me out. I’m both honoured and humbled.

I’d like to point out that my childhood was spent in a part of England that is as famous for it’s mountains as is Holland. We still put cow horn bars on our road bikes and attempted to ride them down any slope no matter how short a ride that might be. This place was and seemingly still is thirty yars behind the rest of most of civilisation.

My bike wasn’t like a Commando. The geometry and scale was akin to 80s/90s mtbs. Did no one else have this bike? C’mon, chequerboard decals and stupid, pointless chrome brace bars on the forks… I’m not going mad here.

having just googled the commando.. I’m pretty sure that they must have made a mark II.. becaus the one I remember was very similar to the bomber..
All the images online only show that chopper shaped one though..

EDIT: it was a long time ago.. and my memory is notoriously bad… maybe I’m getting all these golden age bicycles confused with each other..

I wondered for a while if that was where the term ‘Tracker’ came from which was the name given to custom bikes built by just about every kid in town with help from their dads.

That reminds me, back in the early 90s, there was a company called Tracker that made skateboard trucks (the axle bits), and I could have sworn I once saw a pic of a bike they’d made (or just had their logo slapped on). Wonder if it was ever released?

I’m sure I remember these – it’s bugging me now too! Could it have been a Peugeot or Puch? I’ve tried googling various things, but can’t find anything.

Yunki – your story brought a tear to my eyes – you’re a good man, you’ll go to heaven (if such a place existed).

I’m sure I remember these – it’s bugging me now too! Could it have been a Peugeot or Puch?

Bells ringing very loudly here.

Google doesn’t turn up with this specific bike but there a few Peugeot bikes that have chequerboard decals. Did you have one of these too Hicksy?

I didn’t have one myself, but was as into bikes then as I am again now!

My “Tracker” was a frame from the tip with track ends (which for some reason we called “reverse fish gates”) 😕 which I painted in a camo design with some rattle cans! Wheels and tyres were from a cycle speedway bike, single speed “cottless cranks”, hoooge cow horns, very short stem and seatpost, BMX saddle, straight blade forks and just a rear centre pull brake – ahh, that brings back memories!

I’m sure someone at school had one like yours though – seem to remember the chrome fork bits going rusty.

I’ll take it that as someone has seen one of thses bikes, I’m not going mad. Actually, I may be but that’s nothing to do with trying to remember this bike. Mine never got the chance to go rusty. It’s ‘ruggedness’ just had to be tested. Too far though…

My bike before that was a Halfords Olympic road bike. I had to eat Frosties for months to get the money off vouchers. I think it cost £40. It was a really lovely dark green but eventually I sprayed it silver and black and put those cow horns on. I don’t think that mine were too huge but seem to remember some of my friends having trouble biking through some of the alleyways in the town. And the ape-hangers?… never good when you’re playing ‘it’ on bikes.

You’re probably not going mad. Maybe!

I did nearly impale myself on the bars when the handlebar grips came off during a rainy jump session in the local car park. For some reason the fairly liquid that I’d used to put them on with, wasn’t very sticky in wet condition!

“Trackers were the Uk version of a mountain bike and were certainly around at the same time that things were taking off in the states. Obviously these bikes were built with components that had already been manufactured, mostly for cyclocross. Mine had a BMX headstock, was singlespeed and had motorbike handlebars with blood on them. “

The term “Tracker” was in use in my neck of the woods long before anyone (British or American) even thought of a mountainbike, early sixties, and referred to something loosely based on a cycle speedway bike, perhaps even with bars made from old tubing in the shape of motorcycle speedway bars but more suited to road use ie it had brakes.

In similar vein to the OP has anyone got, or know where I can find, catalogue or the like for the Raleigh Redwing? Google hasn’t come up with anything.