We’ve all had a few, so let’s finish the day right by going back to simpler times when the iconic RaleighBikes_UK Chopper was what every kid wanted for Christmas… cycling
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
As a gloomy Christmas morning came around, Noddy Holder and Slade blared out Merry Christmas Everybody from the kitchen radio as the whiff of minced pies, a slow roasting turkey and over-boiled sprouts filled the house. In that same kitchen was the unmistakable outline of a Chopper, all wrapped in crinkled Christmas paper; although with my dad’s cruel sense of humour, it could well have been just a prank.
Anyone of a certain age can probably relate to what it was like to get a Raleigh Chopper for Christmas. It was, in many cases, a life-changing experience. Both for the good and bad, and to this day the mighty Chopper stands out to many as a much prized and highly valued icon of the 1970s, and rightly so.The 1960s glory days were already way behind Raleigh by the second half of the 1960s, and as more regular people took to motorised transport the humble bicycle was losing appeal.
Just how the Chopper actually came to be is still a matter of controversy. It was long said that Raleigh’s chief designer, Alan Oakley, went to the US in search of inspiration in 1967, and that on the flight home he sketched the outline of a bike that would become the Chopper. However, Tom Karen of the OGLE Design Company has since been credited with creating the Chopper under request from Raleigh in 1968.
Despite its limitations, my very own Chopper was ridden for countless miles, both on and off-road. It was pushed up the steepest hills in the area, and then hurled down them with a flapping flare that went way behind my trousers.Back in the 1990s I did manage to get hold of both an old Mark 1 and a Mark 2 Chopper, which were in a state of disrepair. I did pedal Mark 2 on occasion , but sadly both of these relics were lost to the evil that is a musty shed rust.
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