People have been riding bicycles since the beginning of the 19th century, but for those of us from a certain era, the golden age of the bicycle was undoubtedly the 1970s. This was the decade in which, for some wonderful years, the bicycle was not not just a functional means of transportation, but also a fashion statement. Bucket-back saddles and cow horn handlebars set us apart from all the generations that have come before us and bless us with the opportunity to strike a pose. Flares flapping in the wind and platform heels awkwardly locked onto the pedals, we were the original true kings of the road at 15mph.
The more sensible guys among us eschewed the Raleigh Chopper for the racing bike. Multiple gears, everything in the right place and designed for speed, the “Runner” was as practical as the Chopper was bold. Those who opted for him used to prove his superiority in a speed test to Chopper’s uninterested devotees at every opportunity. We kept going, cutting our gimmicky rubber horns while ever mindful of the fact that a sudden brake propelling us toward the gear lever, situated as it was directly in front of the saddle, could irrevocably alter our lives.
Bursting onto the market in the early 1970s, the Chopper was likely inspired by the earlier Schwinn Sting-Ray, which had seen some success in the United States a decade earlier. In addition to the dragster look, it included tech tidbits like sloping fenders, different-sized wheels (the rear one was thick with thick tread and surprisingly expensive to replace), and a long saddle that led to a backrest that, when used as a its design suggested it should be, it exposed the rider to the danger of tipping over backwards, which was part of the fun. Some owners liked to adorn their handlebars with extra accessories like rear view mirrors and windshields.
For younger enthusiasts there was the Chipper, essentially the same bike but less so, and for the younger crowd there was the Chippy, with optional stabilizers. Raleigh’s attempted foray into enemy territory with the GT Sprint, a chopper with racing-bike handlebars, was not a resounding success.
Towards the end of the decade and into the 1980s, the Chopper was replaced by the Raleigh Grifter, a BMX-like contraption that paid some homage to the Chopper but took the more practical and less flashy approach that the new era demanded. It lasted a few years before BMX fully occupied its niche.
That might have been the end of the story if Raleigh hadn’t relaunched the Chopper in 2004, but the alterations to the original it incorporated said all about the gulf that existed between the brash, adventurous ways of the 1970s and the austere safety-first approach. . of the modern age. The backrest was gone, as was the gear stick that caught the muzzle. And the semi-skimmed, decaf, gluten-free 21st-century version of this once-great bike was made of aluminum.