RIP Mr Chopper Designer

**Berries** · 22nd May 2012, 18:05

Another RIP thread. This guy came up with the design for the Raleigh Chopper on the back of an envelope apparently.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...shire-18136787

Only posting because I grew up in the same town as Raleigh and was an unofficial test rider of pre-production bikes like the Grifter in the late 70's. Just a shame that Mr Triumph and Mr Ducati have yet to see the same ability in me and offer me free bikes to doss around on.

**Brian d marge** · 22nd May 2012, 18:29

Weak frame , I tried to jump one , frame snapped at neck

Terrible

Stephen

**Zamiam** · 22nd May 2012, 18:32

Less power than a Harley, just, but the same street cred

**Laava** · 22nd May 2012, 18:54

Did he invent the dayglo flag too?

**Swoop** · 22nd May 2012, 20:06

Fooken awesome bikes!

I still have the scars from coming off of mine.

**YellowDog** · 22nd May 2012, 20:13

Originally Posted by Brian d'marge

Weak frame , I tried to jump one , frame snapped at neck

Terrible

Stephen

Yes, but street cred and looking cool were far more important:

**Laava** · 22nd May 2012, 22:35

Originally Posted by Swoop

Fooken awesome bikes!

I still have the scars from coming off of mine.

Yip, I made a good size dent in my street with my forehead after going over the bars!

**MisterD** · 23rd May 2012, 08:57

Originally Posted by Laava

Yip, I made a good size dent in my street with my forehead after going over the bars!

You gotta wonder how many children have not been conceived thanks to that gear-lever placement...I was lucky in that regard.

**nudemetalz** · 23rd May 2012, 10:00

They were quite good to wheelie because of the seat position over the rear wheel and the high bars.

**Paul in NZ** · 23rd May 2012, 11:59

It gets worse....

http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/di...ote-dies-at-96

**jasonu** · 23rd May 2012, 12:10

Originally Posted by Berries

Another RIP thread. This guy came up with the design for the Raleigh Chopper on the back of an envelope apparently.

All the cool kids at my school (except me) had one of those bikes.

**Taz** · 23rd May 2012, 12:12

I had a raliegh chopper back in the day. Loved it. The grifter was pretty neat too.

**Kornholio** · 23rd May 2012, 12:32

Originally Posted by jasonu

All the cool kids at my school (except me) had one of those bikes.

Yeah me too, until I got my HMX500 then I was all go... but then someone would get an HMX600(the one with mags!) ... meh

Good times

**ellipsis** · 23rd May 2012, 12:39

...there was only one in the whole town when i was a lad...the t-shift was cool..the seat was cool...the bars were cool...couldn't come to the party in the off road shit we used to play at...was totally useless at going up hill, as any power to pedal had the silly little front wheel off the ground...was totally cool, but there was not a lot of angst about not having one...just having the freedom of a 24 or 26 inch boneshaker that was yours, was more important...specially if you could come up with the funds for a banana seat...banana seats didn't look all that cool with ordinary old handlebars though...one of our friends had the ultimate in cool...26" rear wheel, 24" front with a tiny cut down guard and full western bars with Triumph handgrips... super cool...they were cool days as kids...out on the bikes at 8am til tea time in the weekends and holidays...blood, guts and simple joyousness...and no girls allowed...