A jeep. It was from Hare’s Cycles of Livingstone Road in Bath and was my 9th birthday present. I remember it wasn’t there in time for my actual birthday because a flu epidemic meant that the bike shop was shut for a week.
Tiger trike. Rode it until I was way too old for it and the back snapped off. Fixed, one wheel drive so any downward gradient required riding 2 wheels. Later, a Raleigh Maverick 5 speed. This is the closest pic I could find. So heavy it generated its own field of gravity. Eventually killed by being run over by a builder truck.
First one I remember was an Orange racer, no idea what it was but it was a Raleigh.
Then a Styler mag BMX.
Then a DynaTech MTB that was actually my brother in laws. When I eventually gave it him back he chucked it in a skip!!
Raleigh Mustang in Pink. I still remember exactly how much I paid (£189.99) and how it died…under the wheels of boy racers at Liss station. Very sad times 🙁 but I replaced it with a lovely steel Marin Pine Mountain and suddenly the world of spending too much on bikes opened up!
Raleigh Medale
Mine looked exactly like this, right down to the light.
I could wheelie one handed the whole length of our street on it, so why can’t I do it now??
In the summer holidays when I was about 11 it was confiscated by my Dad because I went “missing” on it and was found by Police on the other side of Manchester and brought home in a panda.
I thought Raleigh were the dogs dannglys when I was younger. Just reading through this I don’t recall owning so many but here’s what my old brain can recall
1first bike boxer
2 strika
3budgie
4Chopper
5atleast 3 different types of burner
6 first mountain bike was a mantis
7I currently still run a retro Raleigh twenty and it is one of my favourite bikes.
Like many here, a Raleigh (Tomahawk) was my first bike and the bug that bit me for life.
Over the years:
M-Trax (rigid cromo variety) x 2
Stowaway
Twenty
Apex (Reynolds K2 lugged brute which was exceptionally hardwearing and weirdly got me back into cycling after a decade of swapping hardly-ridden garage-queen lightweights )
Proudest bike-build moment was when my restored/customised retro M-Trax 150 was given highest praise over on that there retro forum (by lurking RSP head of products no less)
Seem always to have one Raleigh in the stable. Latest was a surprise gift from an old friend who moved house and decided to give me his old Scirocco. Requires full respray/restoration but I’m up for the challenge! It may be some time…hope to do it by sourcing old bits via bidding and blagging/talking to the bloke at the tip 😀
Forgot to add my first ‘proper’ bike (Carlton Cyclone) to the list, apparently that was a Raleigh brand too at the time (early 80s). Safe to say I have a soft spot for Raleigh steelies. A real shame about their eventual demise as a manufacturer/brand as they had many a ‘Golden Age’, the last being the 90s. Used to chat a fair bit back then with Barrie Clarke who was always keen to show us the newest and lightest Team Raleigh M-Trax/Dyna-Tech rides/innovations he had knocking about his shop. He was starting up his own lightweight XC brand ‘Venom’ back then, but I moved away from the area so no idea what happened to that. Rarer than hen’s teeth I’d say?
I had a red Strika and was envious of my brother with his Boxer. My 2nd MTB was a Yukon; loved that bike more than my Dawes Kick Back and as much as any of my latest bikes.
We sold those Amazons and Mustangs in their hundreds. Awful things, and no misty eyed reminiscing will convince me otherwise. Now, can we talk RSP… some lovely bikes…
i had a strika, then a raleigh flyer road bike and finally a 5 speed maverick. The flyer was a little too big for me, and i still wince remembering the many crashes involving my body meeting the toptube at speed.
My first love – A Raleigh Kite Convertible circa early ’70s (Google image) [url=https://flic.kr/p/SMq5jt]Screen Shot 2017-03-09 at 00.47.21[/url] by Paul Tarrant, on Flickr 😀
I had a Raleigh Olympus that was purchased from a next door neighbor, actually it was rescued from a ditch where he had dumped it, but that was my only one. When BMX’s hit, I initially had a no brand cheapo from exchange and mart, then after mucho saving, a GT Pro performer frame and forks that I built up, but lots of my mates had Burners.
However, before BMX’s hit the scene where I lived, I hankered after a Raleigh Bomber that was always in my Mums catalog. Remember them?
Was horrifically heavy, had flexy plastic canti’s and the most uncomfortable saddle known to man! Didn’t stop me riding it relentlessly for 4 years everywhere I could pedal to within a 30 mile radius of home when I was a young teenager though. It was an upgrade from the Apollos I had before it and I distinctly remember buying it as my dad had scraped together the £150 it cost for weeks after I’d snapped the previous bike in half 3 months previously.
I had a early 90’s (93 maybe?) Raleigh Team Edition MTB that was painted to look like the M Trax Ti bikes that Barry whosisface rode. Lovely looking thing, but the bar had no bend at all, and my dad insisted on my having a 21″ frame so that I’d grow into it. It still wouldn’t fit me now, I was only 10 when I had it, I’m fairly sure it contributed to my biggest crash ever when I knocked myself out and broke my collarbone.
Edit – it was 1994, looked like one of these but was chromo rather than ti.
In order
Tomahawk
Hustler GT (sturmy archer 3 speed with full length mudguards – not cool when you’re 11)
Chopper (classic purple)
Ultra Burner ( upgraded with Renthal bars and Aero mags)
Raleigh Record
I started off with a hand me down Grifter then progressed to a Raleigh Supersport which was a posh version of the Raleigh Winner. It had blue foam “bar tape” which would soak up rain and then stay wet for hours… 😀