Anyone fancy my Chopper?

Rox

The gears work ok - but the orange selector highlight is missing.  The rear wheel is a replacement.  (Already on it when I bought it.)

The chrome is a bit rusty now, and I know there's a lot of work to do on it but I'm open to offers. 

Danny1969

I had a few choppers and to be honest they were awful in terms of design but we thought they were cool at the time and they are certainly cool now. I remember them being heavier than Grifters but the internet will probably prove me wrong if I googled it

I discovered a neat trick when I was about 12 when my cobble chain broke leaving my Chopper stuck in third gear. What you do is take a spoke from an old wheel and the thread is the same as the cobble chain, so you wind out the broken cobble chain, wing in the spoke, pull the spoke out until you have the gear you want and then bend it over so it can't slip back in. I must have done half the neighbours Choppers and Grifters like this as we were all too tight to replace the cobble chain

ennspek

I had a Grifter. Proper bike that was.

harpo

If you went too fast downhill you would set up a cadence wobble of the front wheel ....I came off badly with one of those !

streethawk

I had a commando and a budgie, both stolen, and later graduated to a bmx!

Only problem being that the 'BMX' was in fact a Grifter xl, none of the bmx gang would play with me and I became known as The Grifter Kid. 

Rox

I'm sure my back problems stem from my childhood... both having a paper round and the added stress of trying to pull a wheelie on a Grifter which was the weight of a Ford Cortina.

I had one like this:

Danny1969

The forks on the Grifter used to bend if you used it as a BMX bike, loads of em had bent forks in my street. The Burner was the first proper BMX I saw but couldn't afford one, I used to do tricks on a women's Shopper bike 

Rox

Danny1969 said:

 I used to do tricks on a women's Shopper bike 

Did the women ever find out?

Nunogilberto

@col_decker - Wow, that brings back memoris - I remember a mate of mine having a Raleigh Budgie - until I saw your pic, I'd probably not seen one since his bike. And that would have been late 80s at least...

Gadgie

lol, I remember those. Always wanted one but mum couldn't afford it. I think M1 were around 32 quid new. Yellow or Orange. Round gear knob(i think) and round seat 'cissy bar'

I also wanted a Triumph 20. which had easy to adjust seat and bar stem. this working with just a single lever/screw type thing. And a very important for me at the time....twist grip 3 gear selector.

However, due to mum not having much cash I got a Pegasus thing. No gears, no fancy adjustment levers...bah!!! God I wish I had it now though. Poor mum.

thermionic

I also had a Tomahawk, partly because I was too small for a Chopper, and partly due to my parents' largely unfounded fears of me injuring my precious pre-pubescent 'nads on the gearstick. Still a great bike though.

I've been a regular 150 mile/week cyclist all my life and I have recurring dreams where I can wheelie all day like I could on the Tomahawk.