OV9

speedingfine wrote: Fri Aug 07, 2026 9:14 am Did the Chopper come with the Beetle? Seems to be some overlap at car shows I've been to

Quite possibly

I think I had a Budgie, Chopper (in the period when it was terminally uncool) and Mirage.

I had a Commando that my dad built from a scrap frame, sent off to Raleigh for all the decals etc that was passed round kids on the estate for a good few years then I had a Super Burner

A couple of people I knew had burners as kids, and Mustang mtbs seemed very popular in the early to mid 90s when people had grown out of bmxs. Since then haven’t heard or seen much of them.

I had hand-me-downs. A Boxer and a Strika. By the time I was big enough the Grifter wasn’t a thing anymore.

I remember being allowed a brand new Raleigh Burner for Christmas but couldn’t find the one I wanted (gold with black mags and pads etc) so ended up with green one.

I also vaguely remember having a Raleigh Vektar but it was sent back to the shop and swapped for something that wasn’t complete shit

While I’m on memory lane (early 90s now), Emmelle! 21 gears with under bar shifters

I had a Corniche for two weeks before it was nicked out of the bike sheds at school and replaced with a Cortina. It was white with a smoky type paint job towards the bars and front forks. I thought I was IT.

Fuck me there's some family money on here

My parents were dire buying Xmas gifts I typically ended up with whatever the older kids had a couple of years ago in our street.

Mid 80s I asked for a BMX and the kids in the street and my school mates had various Raleigh Burners.

I had a "Chopper" as my Dad called it. A Woolworths Temu Chopper

The frame snapped at the headstock about 3 months later doing jumps with the BMX kids. I still have a detached tendon in one of my fingers!

240PP wrote: Fri Aug 07, 2026 7:11 pm I had hand-me-downs. A Boxer and a Strika. By the time I was big enough the Grifter wasn’t a thing anymore.

I remember being allowed a brand new Raleigh Burner for Christmas but couldn’t find the one I wanted (gold with black mags and pads etc) so ended up with green one.

I also vaguely remember having a Raleigh Vektar but it was sent back to the shop and swapped for something that wasn’t complete shit

You have to admit, the Vektar looks fucking incredible in an 80's futuristic kind of way. If it performed as well as it looked (yes, I know it didn't), it could probably fly.

Found this today at the back of the latest house renovation project. It's a Raleigh RSW Mk2


https://ibb.co/RGH3TCLB

And the whole front brake on the left thing is a euro/us (mainly) thing. Generally countries where you drive on the right will have the front brake on the left and back brake on the right, and vice versa for counties where you drive on the left.

Delphi wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2026 4:39 pm

240PP wrote: Fri Aug 07, 2026 7:11 pm I had hand-me-downs. A Boxer and a Strika. By the time I was big enough the Grifter wasn’t a thing anymore.

I remember being allowed a brand new Raleigh Burner for Christmas but couldn’t find the one I wanted (gold with black mags and pads etc) so ended up with green one.

I also vaguely remember having a Raleigh Vektar but it was sent back to the shop and swapped for something that wasn’t complete shit

You have to admit, the Vektar looks fucking incredible in an 80's futuristic kind of way. If it performed as well as it looked (yes, I know it didn't), it could probably fly.

I had a Vektar, and it was definitely a bit crap. The immense weight did mean that I could go faster downhill than any of my mates! Swiftly moving on to mountain bikes, I stripped all of the plastic and computer off it and put a normal BMX seat on to give to my cousin.
A Raleigh Mustang followed, then a Mirage, before moving on to Marin.

The Mirage was a good bike, and probably their last competitive product at the price point - I turned it into my London runaround when I came to Uni and really enjoyed riding it again. Sadly stolen from my father-in-laws building car park some years ago.

I misremembered that it had a speech synthesiser but no, it's just some electronic noises:


It is hard to comprehend how different my opinion of it is now compared to back in 1985.

240PP wrote: Fri Aug 07, 2026 7:11 pm I had hand-me-downs. A Boxer and a Strika. By the time I was big enough the Grifter wasn’t a thing anymore.

I remember being allowed a brand new Raleigh Burner for Christmas but couldn’t find the one I wanted (gold with black mags and pads etc) so ended up with green one.

I also vaguely remember having a Raleigh Vektar but it was sent back to the shop and swapped for something that wasn’t complete shit

My brother had a Puch (yes the motorbike people) that was like a Grifter only a LOT heavier! It didn't do jumps it just flattened them. It even had motorbike brakes!