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Raleigh Chopper Owners Club

                                                               Your Stories

                                   This e-mail was sent to us from a Chopper fan in England.

         (As with all the E-mails sent to us, we do NOT publish the senders name or e-mail address)

                                                             `THERE IT IS AGAIN`.
Boo!  Hey Mark here's one.
       In June 1976 my dad finally gave in and bought me a brand new red mk2 from Halfords. we took it home in the car, I was so excited and my mind was full of stuff like no more having to scrounge a go on my friends choppers, no more having to go about on that so un-cool embarrassing rsw16 I was made to have. But the main thought in there was getting the bike home and riding off for hours on it in that gorgeous 1976 summer sun.
       But first I had to carry out the last thought/idea I had had on the way home. I got the bike in the back garden, laid it on a blanket and stripped the front end from it....you see I felt it needed longer forks, I had a pair of 26" racer forks (same thread length) they needed a bracket put in place for the brake & mudguard.... I'm thinking of how when dad comes out and see's the new bike laying in bits, he's doing his nut.
     His moaning becomes a hum in the background as it dawns on me to take forks to the local car body shop (big brother works there) I give him the forks, front wheel, mudguard and brake calliper. There, welded and sprayed flame red. Back home, re-assembled and out I went....What a ride, the best I had been on.
      The following morning I was back on the blanket, I had the seat assembly out and I poured oil into the frame & greased the tubes for the sissy bar & put it back together.
       I kept the bike in my bedroom from autumn till spring, all the chrome greased and the underside of the mudguards were greased permanently.
     I eventually discovered girls and all but forgot about my chopper and sold it in 1981 for £60, £1 more than it cost us knew the people who bought it and although I gave them the very heavy duty chain & lock I took everywhere with me, it was stolen from their house, but later found abandoned nearby.
      years passed, I got married to my now x wife when in 1992 I was walking passed a newly opened bike shop and in the window of the second-hand side of their stock was this yellow chopper (sprayed over), long forks etc...I recognised it straight away. £25, shall I get it I say's to the x, `DON'T BE STUPID` and that was that, anyway it sold some weeks later.
     In 1995 I came across a mk1 and the chopper thing started again for me, I often thought about my first chopper but figured it had long since met its demise. Then in 2000 an ad appeared in the local rag.... chopper bike, good condition £80, a bit steep but gave it a ring. The guy said it was yellow but it had been sprayed and was red underneath. I had a weird feeling and had to go look to satisfy my curiosity. I got to the house just a few miles from my own. The front of the bike was just visible as I approached the house and the it was again , my old chopper bike.
      The guy came out and I was already sitting on it, for the first time in 20 years. The sissy bar still glided up and down, the chrome was still pretty good but was missing the front m/guard, the h/bars were bent, so were the forks and the seat had been recovered in what looked like suitcase.
        I think the guy must have found it at the nearby tip and wanted a fast buck. I told him I once owned the bike, but he wouldn't drop the price none and even gave it the old `I've already been offered £95 for it mate`....I thought, well I've got better ones than that now, although it would have been reel nice to have had my original one in my present collection,7 it will probably turn up again someday.