Memories
It was the MK2 I dreamed of’: readers recall their Raleigh Chopper rides
The death of Tom Karen, the British designer behind the classic Raleigh Chopper, shifts the gears on owners’ reminiscences
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Alfie Packham and
Guardian readersSat 7 Jan 2023 07.00 GMT
‘I won it in a colouring-in competition’
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Pete Acini and Charlie Cairoli. Photograph: Guardian Community
I won a Chopper in a colouring-in competition that was on the back page of the Dick Whittington on Ice programme in the winter of 1975-76. The famous clown Charlie Cairoli presented me with the bike during the interval of a subsequent showing of the pantomime at Wembley Empire Pool. He noticed my surname was Italian and said: “I’m a-glad-a you won,” which became a family catchphrase. I was king of the neighbourhood that year, and I’ve never properly thanked my sister for doing the actual colouring-in. Thanks, Anne.
Pete Accini, 55, Brisbane, Australia
‘My friends and I still take the Choppers on road trips’
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Nick West. Photograph: Guardian Community
Some friends and I, all in our 40s, still own Raleigh Choppers. We have £15 haircuts, like fixing stuff, and are all a bit low-tech – so they suit us well. We take them on road trips to motorsport events around the UK and Europe. They’ve have been to France, Germany, Holland, Luxembourg, and we’re taking them to Belgium in May. Choppers are tough bikes. They get knocked around, chucked in and out of car boots, and ridden like they’re supposed to be. We didn’t actually own them when we were kids, since Choppers had little street cred back in the 80s – it was all about BMX by then. People will always stop to chat, take photos, and sometimes ask for a spin.
Nick West, 48, commercial vehicle sales executive, Northampton
‘I was known as “Chopper Mum” in Camden’
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Vickie’s apple green Chopper. Photograph: Guardian Community
I remember climbing out of my bedroom window with my big sister and sitting on the porch on summer nights in ‘78 and watching the “skateboard gang”, one of whom had the Raleigh Chopper we longed for. She got a purple one for her birthday and my dad dropped hints about a bike for me at Christmas. The big day came … and I received a fold-up bike. It took me many years to buy one of my own. First, a MK3 that I used to take my son to school and to work – I was known as “Chopper Mum” in Camden. Then that red MK2 I dreamed of. Then a horizon blue crossover that I used to ride to work on. Sadly, that one was stolen, so I bought reconditioned parts and rebuilt a blue MK1 that has been my trusty steed for the last 10 years. It was recently repainted apple green.
Vickie, 50, London
‘I used playing cards to make it sound like a Harley’
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Simon Jones in 1975. Photograph: Picasa/Guardian Community
My Chopper MK2 was an eighth birthday present in 1975, in the days when I was innocent enough to invite my friends for a ride on my Chopper without smirking. I was a pre-teen easy rider on the mean streets of Mundford, in Norfolk. I’d use pegs to attach playing cards to the front and back forks to make it sound like a Harley. I was so proud of my gleaming purple machine, and its three-speed gear shift. If we returned home late, I’d still have to take it out for a ride round the block before bed. It was the most reliable vehicle I’ve ever owned.
Simon Jones, Munich
‘My parents could never afford one when I was a boy’
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John Smedley’s restored MK1 Raleigh Chopper.Photograph: John Smedley/Guardian Community
My parents could never afford to get me a Chopper when I was a boy in the 70s. A boy in my street had a yellow MK2. It was fantastic; he let us all have a go. Years later, when I was 55, I started to read up on this iconic bike. I decided to search for the MK1, the rarest of the Choppers. I found a very poor orange 1969 MK1 Chopper, which I then spent £1,500 on new chrome and original Raleigh parts. I now own an immaculate MK1 orange fully working Chopper 45 years later.
John Smedley, 63, gas engineer, Wilmington, Kent
‘I did a daredevil jump over 11 of the local little kids’
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Darren (left) and his brother, circa 1974. Photograph: Guardian Community
That’s me (above) on the Chopper, and my brother on the RSW11, circa 1974. I loved that bike. I think it was the first model that had the square seat and tail bar. I remember setting up a ramp off the kerb at the bottom of a hill on our estate and achieving a daredevil jump over – what must be the record – 11 of the local little kids, whom I’d roped into participating in my Knievelesque endeavour.
Darren, 58, bookseller and fine art printer, New South Wales, Australia
‘We amassed quite a collection’
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David’s partner Sandra and their daughter in 2001.Photograph: Guardian Community
I’ve always loved the Chopper. My parents would never let me have one in the 70s but our neighbours had a whole set of Choppers and Tomahawks [Raleigh’s junior version of the Chopper], which we’d ride over hand-built jumps. In the early to mid-90s, I started to see them at car boot sales and picked them up for sometimes little more than £10 or £20 each. From the mid-1990s to the early 2000s we amassed quite a collection, and our daughters had their own Tomahawks. A lack of space and a growing collection of “normal” bikes meant we had to let them go in the end.
David, south London
‘Back then, bikes were your key to the universe’
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Thomas Conroy, aged 12. Photograph: Guardian Community
I loved the look of the Chopper and it arrived, after much begging, in the winter of 1971. I would accompany my friend on his paper round in the mornings just as an excuse to ride it, even in the rain. Back then, bikes were your key to the universe and I went there in style. I rode it until leaving school in 1976, when it was passed on to my younger brother, who in turn passed it on to my youngest brother – until it was stolen sometime in the 80s. A sad end for a much-loved machine.
Thomas Conroy, 63, aircraft engineer, Cockburnspath, Scottish Borders
