Who’s got or ridden a Chopper….(BBC CiN)

Listened to him set off at 8.15am….. Slightly concerned that by now (half 6) hes only done 50 something miles and still has a fair schlep to get to Preston.

Now, I know us ‘keen cyclists’ might not think the distance is all that much where a non-cyclist might but still – hes got a long week ahead of him if 5mph is the average pace!

He’ll have loads of distractions though – photo-ops and the like.

Nowt wrong with 3sp SA gears – I have one today that dates from the 60s.  Its just folk never set the cables right

I had a chopper briefly back in the 60s.  Cool but shite

He’ll be staying about 100m from me on Thursday night, and then leaving from just up the road on Friday morning for the final leg into Glasgow. I wonder if he’d welcome some of my inane patter if I pedalled along with him on Friday AM? I have form for being an irritating encourager of knackered athletes, mostly on WHW support runner duties, but I can sure distract sufferers with a near-constant stream of verbal pish.

Gawdaful things Choppers. Mate had one that we all took turns on. So much weight on the rear that the front washed out on turns and lifted at the first sign of a bump. Great for posing and skidz, useless at everything else.

It would help Paddy if he wasn’t wearing ‘baggies’, which are ok while mtbing, when we’re moving around a lot, on and off the saddle, but not so good for continuous pedalling.

I’ll be donating as Paddy has 3 children, all with special needs.

Couldn’t afford one, plus my dad, who made motorcycles work better as a hobby, insisted they were crap. So he made me a tracker out of a frame from the local scrappy, a long saddle he fabricated himself, and genuine motorcycle handlebars that were nice and wide. Looking back on it, much more cool, and loads of fun to rag and eventually destroy down the woods.

He’ll be staying about 100m from me on Thursday night

He ends, and starts the next day, around 200 metres from us on Wednesday/Thursday, we were wondering where he was staying, he must have booked an hotel locally, as it’d be grim doing that and not have a proper bed for the night.
Then he has Beattock to get up after a couple of hours of not much downhill from here too. in fact, I dont think he’ll manage the hill out of the village (Ecclefechan) without getting off and pushing.

He’s got a camper van, but not sure if he sleeps in it. Raised over 4 million already, good on him.

I had one of the originals in the 70s, and just so @redmex doesn’t get upset, it was (very) secondhand off my cousin. I remember it being pretty crap for what we did which was dicking about in the woods as the front tyre was basically a slick and kept washing out on corners. They were a bit of a one trick pony – ideal for wheelies and cycling two streets down to your mates house like in american movies but completely useless on muddy cowpat strewn roads and tracks in rural England. Soon got rid and made up my first ‘rough stuff’ bike and yeah it had cowhorns!

My father salvaged a (what must have been Mk1) frame from a skip and built it up using skis instead of wheels. My brother and I only managed a few “rides” one winter before it snapped.

Had one when they had gone out of fashion.

Awful thing to ride, but the best bike in the world as it was mine and I was riding it.

We manged 5 on it at one point – 2 on the seat, 1 on the rack, one on handlebars and one the top tube(s).

Props to McGuinness for riding the version with the knacker smasher gearshifter.

He’s got a camper van, but not sure if he sleeps in it. Raised over 4 million already, good on him.

He’s staying in hotels, it was Smiths at Gretna last night, probably the best hotel locally after finishing in Ecclefechan. He didnt get to Fechan until around 8pm, then set off this morning at 7am, so he’s certainly no slouch. He was really good with the local children last night too, when he must have been shattered after pedalling from Kendal over Shap. Then he has Beattock this morning.
What did surprise was how slow he was, but found out later he is stopping multiple times, and when feeling bad, he has a massage/rest in the camper van, it took him nearly 4 hours from Carlisle to Fechan yesterday for the 22 or so miles.

Anyone remember the chopper sprint?  Now thats a confused bike 🙂

I’ve never seen that abomination but one of my mates younger brothers who was well off had a black one imported from the states with 5 or 10 speed and super wide handlebars that had a proper clamp style stem – by that time everyone was on bmx though so nobody took much notice!

I’ve got a ’79 Quicksilver ?

I’ve said it before, someone should jump him a la tour de France.

Some influencer type would do it, but I just hate them.

I had a Commando which definitely wasn’t as cool as a Chopper. Was Raleigh the only kids bike manufacturer back then? Feels like it.

Never had one. Rode several: friends had various different models over our childhood years. Looked cool. Fun for backies. Awful for riding generally. Terrible for off road and jumps.

in keeping with a lot of Raleigh bikes the mild steel, poor design, and questionable weld quality meant one friend’s dad was forever getting the brazing torch out to fix the rear end.

The swap from long chopper saddle and mid-mount car-style shifter to twist grip and standard saddle removed its main reasons for being. That plus the earlier change to a fixed stem rather than a pinch bolt one.

like folks say BMX rightly and justifiably killed the chopper and the grifter. Even the awful low end Raleigh BMXs were significant all round improvements over those iconic end of era Raleigh bikes.

and the gear shifter had been changed to a twist shift (still 3 speed).

Choppers were re-released about 20 years ago and this was the key modification.

Mate had a Chopper Sprint GT similar to the one above, but green and 5 speed (but I could be wrong on that bit…).  It appeared very exotic in comparison to the other Choppers.

Kudos to Paddy TBH – yes, in comparison to some of the serious cyclists on here it appears to be a nothing much ride, but he is achieving the end-game of £’s for charity.  He seems like a decent lad.

Out of curiosity, I just had a look on Ebay – £650 for a box full of rusty Chopper bits, getting on to £3,000 for a full bike in decent condition!!! There are also some bikes going for much more, but they are rare versions.

My sister had one in the mid seventies it was orange and black and looked really cool.  I had a bog standard “racer”   I wanted a shot on the chopper ,but  for the reasons described by others a couple of shots was enough. Sister wanted my bike so she could win races even though she had to stand on the pedals all the time. Shes still racing now but the chopper went to the scrappy long ago

Anyone remember the chopper sprint?  Now thats a confused bike

Ha! Talk about having an identity crisis!

Never had a Chopper, I was a bit too old and big to fit one, and I already had a ‘proper’ bike by then – a BSA Star Rider, 3spd SA, 650b rims, which were standard touring rims/tyres back in the 60’s; I put a set of ‘crosser bars on it, and Avon cyclocross knobby tyres as well. Great for ‘tracking in the local woods and around the local lanes. Wish I still had it, it was a great bike and would have made a terrific single-speed with lighter kit on it.

£7.5 million is a real achievment. Well done Paddy

Hats off to him. I had a black Mk2 in the late 70’s – loved it, but they didn’t handle. Progressed to a road bike in early 80’s when I was 13 or 14.  Mate had a Grifter. We did some mad shoot on them, but I do remember saving up for a new rear tyre on the Chopper as I did ride it a lot, and did a paper round.

Well, I’m most disappointed in you all.

For him to complete the ride without any smutty innuendos given the thread title is a poor reflection on where this place is going…

Yes this place is going uphill. That’s not much fun on a chopper either.

There was some Chopper chat in the pub last night, and a fella told me about the Chopper GT, or Sprint, as above. Couldn’t believe it when I googled I never even heard of it when I was a kid. Madness.
I was a Tomahawk, brother a Chopper.

Well I take back what I said on the other thread.

I thought it was going to heavily modified.

The BBC mention a different saddle and different brakes, it seemed to have neither.

His knees must be absolutely shot after that, the geometry looked to be absolute  agony.

Fair play to him.

Having watched the documentary I was impressed by how much he stopped/slowed down to interact with the supporters at the side of the road, definitely not a case of putting his head down and getting on with the ride. Fair play to the man

Had one in the early 70’s. The gear chain broke regularly so 90% of your riding was done in 3rd gear. Always wanted a Grifter but the 2nd hand chopper was only £15 so that’s what I got.