Hi Mark,

  I was surfing the net, when I came across this story. Hope you like it.

   Being the eldest of four brothers, my prized Raleigh Chopper was handed down and ridden into the ground. I'm not sure when the bike was consigned to the scrap heap, but I presume it was sometime in 1977 when I left home to go to art school.

   In 1990 the loss was so great that I decided to advertise for a second-hand Raleigh Chopper in the Nottingham Evening Post. I stood a good chance of finding one in Nottingham, being home to Raleigh Industries.

   Following up one of the leads, I visited an elderly gentleman in Long Eaton whose children had long since flown the nest. Imagine my delight when he opened up his garden shed, to reveal a well-preserved silver machine. 'They don't mek 'em like this anymore' he said. I found it odd to find him reminiscing about a icon so fresh in my own memory and barely twelve years since Raleigh ceased production of this famous cycle.