What was the best bike Raleigh ever made?

Anybody remember the Chopper Sprint? A chopper that came with drop handlebars- so cool to a 10yr old, but absolutely lethal(well, my mate’s saw him in hospital anyway).Metallic green in a 7up shade, with fluoro orange stickers long before MTBers invented anything that garish.

My God the Budgie could wheelie for miles. Had a purple one. Loved it!

wow this is just the best thread ever,

i had a yellow chopper in 1977 i think, until i got a team peugeot racing bike which started a interest in the dark side which lasted until i bought a second hand commando off a friend, on of my mates had a team murray bmx and that was me then,

first bmx: red burner like the one above,
second bmx: chrome burner,
then first mountain bike in 1987 i think: diamond back accent ex.

i think my favourite was always my first burner.

The first proper bike I can remember (when stablisers came off) was some purple Raleigh thing that had solid rubber tyres and no suspension. That would be classed as hard core these days!

duntstick – Thats not a proper Grifter ! Proper Grifters had nothing left of the front mud guard where it had been turned over to rub on the tyre to make a ‘motor bike’ type noise.

I had one of these:

Great bike, until I went into a car wing at over 30mph. Driver didn’t think he needed to look at oncoming traffic before turning across into a side road…

Forks bent up under the down tube, twisted frame…

The car didn’t do too well either – Dented wing, dented bonnet, broken windscreen and broken number plate!

For me it was the 5-speed Raleigh Royale I owned round about 68-71. I did miles on it including almost 120 miles coast to coast in a day when I was 16 or so. Racing green, Mavic brakes, Teesside to Ipswich in 3 days then back. I wish I could ride like that now.

I had to give up cycling in the early 70s, flares were too tight around the crotch and too flappy in the legs.

🙂

Good man molgrips! I had 2 or 3 Speedways BITD but couldn’t remember what they were called. Remember the mudguard and number plate though… happy days. Then I had a Super Grifter as opposed to one of the namby pamby normal ones.

<edit> in silver and blue – like this one!

http://www.rcchatzone.com/rgoc.org.uk/RGIZ/Images/rgbsilvsupgrif.jpg

*misty eyes*

1974 Raleigh Record. 10 Speed when most of my mates
had 3 speed Sturmey Archers. Saved up for YEARS. It cost £57 from Halfords. Gave it away in 1985, wish I hadn’t.

After the Burner it would be one of these but with cowhorns or MX bars – great on singletrack around Barrow park lake!

I’ve still got my Mag Burner with yellow dimplex wheels, it’s ace.

Burners are the best.

Also, can anyone remember the Street Wolf? It was a bit like the Vektar and had a weird computer thing on the handlebar that made noises.

Cool as you like.

Such memories.

In order, I had the following:

Budgie (purple – inherited from my sister when I was 4!)
Strika (lime green – I thought I was so cool!)
Grifter (first proper growed up bike)
Arena (check out those angles and deep mudguards in the tops5 picture!)
Record (gold groupset – mmmm)
Mustang

For me, the Mustang stands out as it was my first mountain bike and gave me the bug. Raleigh just don’t seem to drive the market now. All of those were iconic.

black and gold super grifter for me…..

@ Rich_s

As the creator and owner of the website on which the image included in your post is hosted, please either quote the source website or kindly remove the image from your post.

Also, you are “Stealing” bandwidth from the host website by posting the image here. It costs money to have decent bandwidth and as there have been no “Requests” to use a direct link to an image hosted on that site either, I am justified in making the request I do.

Pedantic? no! If permission is sought, there is rarely a problem.
Bottom line? next time ASK, or, quote the source for the image.

@ rgoc

Now he can’t edit the post, it’s time for some fun…

Find something more appropriate to display 😉

Always liked these the 1992 team Raleigh with Campag gear.

Though the only Raleigh’s I owned were two racers a Criterium and a Equipe.

My generation thought Raleighs were dross.

But our parents thought the Superbe was ace.

(Pic lifted from Sheldon Brown)

And most Superbes ran faultlessly for distances that would look incredible today.

rgoc – Member

@ Rich_s

As the creator and owner of the website on which the image included in your post is hosted, please either quote the source website or kindly remove the image from your post.

Also, you are “Stealing” bandwidth from the host website by posting the image here. It costs money to have decent bandwidth and as there have been no “Requests” to use a direct link to an image hosted on that site either, I am justified in making the request I do.

Pedantic? no! If permission is sought, there is rarely a problem.
Bottom line? next time ASK, or, quote the source for the image.

just out of interest, do you have the permission of the original copyright owners to reproduce the image on your website?

THE classic Raleigh

I thought this was the fastest bike ever when I had a go on one

I’ve got one of these in the shed back home, my Dad still wheels it out occasionally.

Really very nice riding bike.

My brother had a Grifter Lazer

Which was loads better than my Pacer

(not our actual bikes)

Dez i was just about to post that pic! Never had one but was jealous of my mates.
I only ever had a Strika (but in black), but my mates had Mustangs, Yukons as well as a Team Banana. For some reason I had Falcons (a really nice alu one in white pearl type paint, and a pale blue road bike), a Peugeot mtb green to pink fade, and then a Ridgeback in yellow and blue, but no other Raleighs

My first bike was a Raleigh Strika in silver. It was great despite the fact I fell off it a lot. When I got a little older I moved onto a ten speed Raleigh Ace in Red. I seem to remember not being able to get the hang of the gears at first.

When I was a teenager I had a metallic turd brown five speed Maverick with cow horn bars. It weighed about 3 tonnes and wasn’t actually all that nice to ride

When I went to university I took my mums old Raleigh Shopper as she didn’t want it any more. It was the ultimate student bike. It had bombproof hub gears, space for a case of beer on the rear rack and enough room for two men at work signs in the front basket 😀

Holy thread resurrection, Batman!

Holy thread resurrection, Batman!

Yeah, the chap with the Raleigh Burner fanclub took 2 months to get upset about someone posting one of his pics!

I wonder when the trial date is.

I recently revived one of these for a mate:

You can’t really see in the picture but the ‘aerospace contour’ spoken on the frame stickers is that the (steel of course) seat tube is a bit squeezed in the middle. My mate’s also had a gold space shuttle on either side of the seat tube. I’d have bought it from him if it had been big enough for me…
[edit] isn’t flickr great? 😀

Oooh – I had a Pacer too, thanks for posting the pic ir bandito – that brings back many memories 🙂

Particularly the feeling of excitement on Christmas morning when I was given it. I’m getting goosebumps

wow – old thread.

Chopper with a gripshift? Never seen one of them – only ones with the huge lever between seat and bars.

+1 for the Grifter though
-1 for the Raleigh Winner

i had one of those beautiful blue bombers with the 4 foot wide bars in the early 90s.. tragically i think it must have been skipped :/

all i can really remember about it is the weight mind.

God – seeing that picture of a Commando just about brought a tear to my eye! Had one for ages and loved it – no idea what happened to it sadly.

on word – Mustang

My Pacer used to get ragged around the local woods, chasing my mate on his Marin Palisades Trail (which he still has!) until it was replaced with a Diamondback Topanga

I had one of those 5 speed Arena’s in 1976. IIRC it was the first bike to have those suicidal brake extensions. At least I remember the guy in the bike shop telling me that, though he didn’t mention the suicidal bit. It was my first bike with drops and gears.

avdave2 – don’t forget the suicidal slip gear my Arena always seemed to drop into when I least needed it to. Many a bruise from that.

My Raleigh history:

and a 94 M-Trax I can’t find a piccy of.

Raleigh Road Ace. Shimano 600, 1987 two months wages (or something). Still got it, although most parts except frame fork and crank replaced etc.

Amazed no-one’s mentioned the Raleigh Maverick. Got mine in 1986, first MTB and suddenly opened up literally tens of miles of wilderness to my spindly 16-yr old legs.

Of course, the first thing you do with a 40lb steel behemoth is bolt on bash guards, derailleur guards, front & rear racks and bullmoose bars, then race cyclo-cross on it. I got fit quick!

Pic pinched from Gravy Monsters thread on retrobike

This was my first ‘proper’ bike (Raleigh Even More Extreme), but to be honest i never really liked it. Don’t tell my dad that.

I had one of these . . . . Tomahawk!!

Superbe – my neighbour has one. He bought it new in the 50s when he came out of the army. Ridden nearly daily and still going strong.

A Night Burner was my first bike, so loved that bike!