Raleigh Chopper Owners Club

It all started again for me a couple of months ago when I had a sudden urge to buy a SE Chopper. I was the youngest of 4 and my Dad had left when I was 3 and my Mum scrimped and saved every penny possible to buy me an SE Chopper as I had been after any kind of Chopper for ages.

Within an hour of having it, it was stolen from the garden never to be seen again.

There was obviously no way that she could afford another one so I went bikeless until I earned my own money some years later, but that wasn't a Chopper as they had ceased production some years previously.

A couple of months ago as I said, I got this massive urge to buy one and did so.

I must admit though that as it had been completely restored already, I missed the thrill of the chase to get bits and pieces for it so I decided to look for more Choppers.

A mate then told me that he still had loads of them that he bought off his mates when he was younger and asked me to start selling them for him which I did, but none of them were anything 'different' or special so I never kept any.

I was flicking through a local free ads paper and noticed this ad for a 'Tandem Chopper'. I admittedly thought it was a misprint myself but phoned anyway.

When I found out it was only local I thought it wouldn't harm to go and have a look and if it was s**t,then there wasn't far to travel home after a wasted journey.

I got there and had to wait nearly an hour as he had 'just popped out for a minute to get some fags' and I was just about to go as I was well pee'd off when he came back.

He took me to his garage and was telling me about how he came across it on the way round.

Apparently, his aunt had been to the factory where the Choppers were made with the intention of buying two normal Choppers for her two sons. She saw the Tandem being looked over by a team of Raleigh bigwigs and somehow persuaded them into letting her take it as she had decided she wanted it as she thought that it would encourage her kids to play together more, and off she went.

It was played with for a few years until the lads bought separate Choppers and then hung at the end of a dank garage until they needed parts or used it as a tester for home resprays. That's why the chain guard was missing as it was never replaced after the respray.

It was passed on to the bloke who I bought it off and there it hung for over twenty years until he decided he needed the space and decided to advertise it.

I got on to some American Chopper/muscle bike site by accident and left a note appealing for help in restoring it. I then went off to look at something else and 10 minutes later went to collect my e-mails before I closed down and was stunned to find I had 47 e-mails already in those ten minutes!

Not one offered any kind of help as they all were wanting to know more about it or buy it which is what made me realise how special it was.

I've discovered that it was originally Horizon Blue to start with, with white stickers.