The younger brother of the Chopper, the Grifter was the cool bike of the 80's. Like the Chopper, the Grifter was a chunky, heavy, cumbersome bike that felt more like a motorbike than a bicycle.
The most innovative thing about the Grifter was the gear shift which was incorporated in to the handle grips and was controlled with a twisting motion.
Do You Remember Raleigh Grifter?
Do You Remember Raleigh Grifter?
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Anonymous
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i had a grifter xl, i remember jumping over the old tin dustbins from a ramp made of bricks and some old boarding and bending the forks. my dad didnt see the funny side and took the bike off me and sold it.
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Anonymous
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I had a Silver Grifter Deluxe, had many a great trip, also ran over my mates labrador and flew over the handlebars at the same time don't think either of us ran for over a week
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Anonymous
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I am sure the little brother to the chopper was the Tomahawk. I know because I had one, as the little brother to a Chopper owner!! In fact I think the Tomahawk had a smaller variant called the Chipper (I think). I remember well my freinds getting their 1st Grifter. Nowhere near as good for giving 'backies' as the good old Chopper was!! But yes, that twist gear mechanism was slightly cooler from a kids perspective than the cross bar mounted gear stick of the Chopper. I looked at the new Chopper for my son. Where'd that gear stick go? Obviously health and safety got there first!
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Anonymous
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The red bikes with chunky wheels and big mud flaps which you would bend back so it would sound like a motorbike, Yeah right!
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Anonymous
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I had a Grifter when i was 9 years old. I thought it was fantastic....That was until, I fell off it coming down a steep hill because it was to heavy to steer it and ended up putting my front teeth through my bottom lip!!!
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Anonymous
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i?m Spanish but me and my family lived in Portsmouth during three years 80-83 due to my dads work. i never had a grifter (i alreay had a bike by then) but i fell in love the first time i saw it. Everytime i could i would ask someone else for a ride. True it was heavy, true it blistered your hands but it was still the bike to have. Now a days i?m even thinking on geting one. It will sure bring back the best of memories.
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Anonymous
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I had a Boxer, my cousin had a Grifter. He let me have a go on it. I crashed it.
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Anonymous
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The Grifter was class and officially the worlds heaviest bike! It was the 2 wheeled equivalent of a Volvo! So many kids my age couldn't grasp the gears peoperly, and you could often see hundreds of abandoned Grifters on the hill of Middlesbrough, but kids would leave them there - why? When the slip gear engaged, the bike would slow to a halt, and invariably, you would fall off. The bike was that heavy, you couldn't pick it back up, so you would leave it, go get your dad, and he would get it,at a struggle. Fantastic bikes!
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Anonymous
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i had the grifter xl, red & black, i was over the moon when i got this for xmas. it might have been on the heavy side but was my pride & joy for only 4 weeks when some one else decided they wanted it. the frame was found down a playing field, the price to get it rolling again was to high (so my mom & dad told me), so they replaced it with a mag burner for my b'day. i never told them but i would have prefered to have the xl back. and i still think about it today.
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Anonymous
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This looked like the later, much cooler BMX, except it weighed more than an articulated lorry! If memory serves they originally came in blue or red, but as the BMX came around in about 1981/82 they brought out a very 80s red and black one which was much lighter.
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