Re: Raleigh Chopper/Grifter 70's bike : Sat Oct 12, 2013 10:41 pm  

I had been through the Chopper phase, though I'd changed the handlebars to cow horns (remember them ?), and had a Raleigh Commando when the Grifter came out. We'd never see nowt like it, twist grip gears ! Proper fancy ! Think every lad I knew got a Grifter for Christmas that year.

Re: Raleigh Chopper/Grifter 70's bike : Sun Oct 13, 2013 12:40 pm  

just watch out for those thieving gets trying to nick your toggle chain , had me a red one in 79, also had the a red Tomahawk and a blue commando, ended up getting a chrome burner after the grifter then a few other burners, a falcon pro zeta before getting a raliegh maverick mountain bike in 87/88

Re: Raleigh Chopper/Grifter 70's bike : Sun Oct 13, 2013 6:53 pm  

Done a great job there Classy Cas!

I got a Grifter for Christmas in the late 70's. They were a remarkably tough bike, only problem with it was the gears...rode around with it stuck in 3rd gear for years, good for building leg strength though I guess!

Re: Raleigh Chopper/Grifter 70's bike : Sun Oct 13, 2013 7:55 pm  

Derwent wrote:

I had been through the Chopper phase, though I'd changed the handlebars to cow horns (remember them ?), and had a Raleigh Commando when the Grifter came out. We'd never see nowt like it, twist grip gears ! Proper fancy ! Think every lad I knew got a Grifter for Christmas that year.

Yes i remember the cow horns put some on my racer bike back in the 80s to do better wheelies

Re: Raleigh Chopper/Grifter 70's bike : Sun Oct 13, 2013 8:03 pm  

duke street 10 wrote: Done a great job there Classy Cas! I got a Grifter for Christmas in the late 70's. They were a remarkably tough bike, only problem with it was the gears...rode around with it stuck in 3rd gear for years, good for building leg strength though I guess! Cheers not bad for a 35 year old bike, having problems with the gears at the moment they change fine on the twist grip but the toggle chain aint moving,so bought a new gear cable as the old one looks like its seen its days. I joined a raleigh grifter forum to get help in rebuilding the bike back together some useful stuff on there and some good restorations too. http://www.raleighgrifter.proboards.com/index.cgi

duke street 10 wrote: Done a great job there Classy Cas! I got a Grifter for Christmas in the late 70's. They were a remarkably tough bike, only problem with it was the gears...rode around with it stuck in 3rd gear for years, good for building leg strength though I guess! Cheers not bad for a 35 year old bike, having problems with the gears at the moment they change fine on the twist grip but the toggle chain aint moving,so bought a new gear cable as the old one looks like its seen its days. I joined a raleigh grifter forum to get help in rebuilding the bike back together some useful stuff on there and some good restorations too. http://www.raleighgrifter.proboards.com/index.cgi

Re: Raleigh Chopper/Grifter 70's bike : Mon Oct 14, 2013 11:47 am  

I had a Raleigh Commando similar to this one. Ace bike apart from, as already mentioned, sturmey-archer gears that never worked properly..

Re: Raleigh Chopper/Grifter 70's bike : Mon Oct 14, 2013 12:04 pm  

I had a Raleigh Commando similar to this one. Ace bike apart from, as already mentioned, sturmey-archer gears that never worked properly..

[Bullseye]

Re: Raleigh Chopper/Grifter 70's bike : Mon Oct 14, 2013 12:23 pm  

Superb pics! Brought back some happy memories. I had a silver Grifter with the larger mudguard. I loved it. The blue, yellow and red gears, the comfy saddle. Miles better than a BMX. Had a Budgie before I was big enough for the Grifter.

Re: Raleigh Chopper/Grifter 70's bike : Mon Oct 14, 2013 12:29 pm  

Great job that CC!

Doing them up like that you should start a little business knocking 'em out.There'll be plenty of old un's like us who would have one

Re: Raleigh Chopper/Grifter 70's bike : Mon Oct 14, 2013 5:44 pm  

I love the Grifter and what a great looking restoration job.
I had an old Chopper that a paper round customer gave me one Christmas. Somehow I managed to bend the frame, but undeterred I made what we used to call a scrambler. You took an old "racer", swapped the back wheel for one from a Chopper/Grifter/BMX (no back brake obviously) and turned the drop handlebars around to point upwards. It must have looked feckin stupid, but there were plenty of them around at the time.

Derwent wrote:

I had been through the Chopper phase, though I'd changed the handlebars to cow horns (remember them ?), and had a Raleigh Commando when the Grifter came out. We'd never see nowt like it, twist grip gears ! Proper fancy ! Think every lad I knew got a Grifter for Christmas that year.

I remember seeing a few Choppers with cowhorns, they looked so wrong!