It’s the middle of the 1970s, and you’re looking at the most fabulous vehicle you’ve ever seen in your entire life. Chrome trim contrasts the bright metal-flake paint on this product of the design geniuses at Ogle, the firm that also made such masterpieces as the Reliant Scimitar and the SX1000. A “floor” mounted three-speed gear selecter with a cool indicator window gauge transfers power to the back, where the rear rubber is bigger than the front.
You’d do anything for a machine like this, and you’re hoping that you’ve been good enough that Santa will bring you one this Christmas.
What? Oh, did I forget to mention that we’re talking about a bicycle and that you’re in elementary school? Well, if you’re a GenXer, the name “Raleigh Chopper” will mean something to you. If not, let me explain.
Rebel Machine For Suburbia
It’s hard to imagine this type of product ever existing today, but the Raleigh Chopper was a “Muscle Bike” or “Wheelie Bike”, a genre of bicycles that were kid’s toys inspired indirectly by the motorcycle culture Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper celebrated with outlaw drug-filled biker films like The Wild Angels and Easy Rider. We’re talking about movies with Fonda diatribes like:
“We wanna be free! We wanna be free to do what we wanna do. We wanna be free to ride! We wanna be free to ride our machines without being hassled by The Man. And we wanna get loaded. And we wanna have a good time. And that’s what we’re gonna do. We are gonna have a good time. We are gonna have a party.”
Honestly, anything that involves Dennis Hopper doesn’t sound much like something to influence children’s playthings, but then I never thought Vampire films like The Hunger would ever transmogrify into tween drivel like the “Twilight” series.
The Raleigh Chopper actually wasn’t the first wheelie bike. The Schwinn Sting Ray debuted in 1963 as a response to a California trend of fitting motorcycle-style accouterments to bicycles such as long “banana” seats, tall “ape hanger” handlebars, and small diameter wheels (often with the rear a larger size).
Parents were apparently hesitant to buy such odd machines for their kids, but eventually, they appeared all over the neighborhood streets. By the later ’60s, the “muscle bike” style accounted for up to seventy-five percent of all bicycle sales, with competitors from most major bike brands (and rebranded ones sold in department stores such as Sears and JCPenney’s when they were still a thing). Outlandish interpretations existed such as Murray’s Fire Cat..
..or the Huffy Slingshot with a Hurst branded shifter like on your dad’s 442 might have had.
Still, there was something just right about the British Raleigh Chopper that came late to the party in 1969, and it was always my favorite.
Ogle’s Tom Karen (or Alan Oakley, if believe his side of the story) got the proportions and angular styling perfect in what appears to be a bicycle equivalent of Ogle’s funky Bond Bug car design.
My favorite feature of the Chopper was the gear selector that made it seem like this bicycle was actually a car, which is what we as elementary schoolers really wanted anyway. Note the gear indicator window behind the giant shift knob (there were also 5-speed models as well as those with tandem gear selectors for models with gearsets in the back and on the crank). Look at that console!! As a ten-year-old I would have tricked out that metallic surface with one of those stick-on LCD clocks, a thermometer, and maybe a compass for full instrumentation. Ain’t nobody be bad like me.
The Chopper saved the Raleigh firm and was a massive success in the UK and across the pond. However, by the time I lusted after these things, the death of wheelie bikes was already imminent. BMX-style bicycles were coming into favor with buyers, and consumer safety groups were more than happy to see Choppers go away. With their tall center of gravity, these bikes were inherently unstable, hard to ride long distances, and the banana seats encouraged passengers to ride. The crossbar-mounted gear levers were, well, not good for young private parts in an accident, especially when the knob inevitably came off of the selector and turned it into a dagger (these were actually banned on new Choppers sold after 1974 in the US). Schwinn ceased producing wheelie bikes after 1982, while Raleigh held for another two years before throwing in the towel.
Today, most bicycles are highly functional machines that are a far cry from these heavy, silly toys of the ’60s and ’70s. Kid’s bikes are usually just scaled-down versions of dad’s Trek, which makes perfect sense, but I’d like to think that children of today might still want a bike that, like the Chopper, is a bit outrageous and aspires to be more than a bike. Our kids liked watching shows such as reruns of the one where father and son screamed at each other built often mind-boggling motorcycle creations. Is there a modern equivalent of these new-school Choppers?
We could actually make it rather easily. We’d take a standard bike like this little girl has and switch to smaller wheels (say 20 inchers on a bike typically made for 24s), allowing for a lower frame but keeping the length from getting ridiculous. Those wheels would not be standard spoked wheels but some kind of cast or molded form (similar to what BMX bikes have done).
For inspiration, I was looking at two things. One was a bright green “Lambo” chopper that ill-fated family from New York created some time ago. The other was a toy from GenXers’ youth called the Green Machine that featured stick-controlled steering, allowing for incredible slides and drifts. I never realized how much the wheels were inspired by Saab soccer balls.
The seat sits low, the pedals move forward so it almost becomes a recumbent bicycle. Lurid colors and graphics would have to be part of the package.
To give a real “chopper” look we can cover the frame with lightweight and durable blow molded body halves (the same production process used for Big Wheels). The blow-molded “body” would have a void space in between but we could utilize that space; note the fake “valve cover” would be a drawer for secret storage.
Reflective graphics could be complemented by add-on LEDs powered by rechargeable battery packs to illuminate the center or even throw “neon” wash light on the ground. Naturally, for the ‘bigger kids’ versions there would be gears, in this case selected by “console-mounted” shifters just like the original Chopper but in this case flush, so if you crash down on the crossbar the pain won’t be enough to make you plan a mass murder, as Morrisey sang.
Recently, certain firms have revived the old-school wheelie bikes, but somehow I’d rather children make memories on a newer style cycle. Another thing that’s nice about the “new” Chopper would be that the center of gravity is painfully low, so if anything it’s safer than even a standard bike. Old or new, I’m glad to see the comeback. The Muscle Bike era was half a century ago, but I think that kids today STILL want to ride their machines without being hassled by The Man. Or Mom. I mean, they did our homework already, right?
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That space in the middle would be perfect for a battery pack and a mid drive electric motor. I see lots of people with customized Super 73 type e-bikes that look like mopeds or café racers, this would be the chopper equivalent.
“We could actually make it rather easily. We’d take a standard bike like this little girl has and switch to smaller wheels (say 20 inchers on a bike typically made for 24s), allowing for a lower frame but keeping the length from getting ridiculous.”
Not a good idea. Do that and at best you’re going to be banging the pedals on the ground in sharp turns, at worst on any turn which can cause a crash.
I did learn from hard cornering early on- make sure the pedal on the side you’re turning is UP.
The chopper you drew looks like the pedals would hit without any lean at all. That could be a problem.
really needs to be more of a recumbent bike where the pedals are higher, seat has more of a backrest
Could a recumbant still have that chopper panache? Possibly.
While such bicycles were indeed cool, especially back in the day for those of age (I had one! Oh so cool!! In third grade. But I stopped riding it in fourth grade, lol) they did kind of perpetuate the perception that bicycles were just for children, especially in the USA, and made it hard for adults riding bicycles to be taken seriously unless they’re affluent ones riding high-end roadie bikes or high-end mountain bikes. (Not to mention the stereotype about adults riding basic old bikes doing so because they’d lost their driver’s licenses due to DUIs.) Plus, these bicycles weren’t great for long rides, as already noted. More than one well-known advocate for bicycles would kvetch about such bicycles, as seen, for example, in Sheldon Brown’s description on his website in his glossary of bicycle terms, in a diplomatically mild (!) rant:
“Wheelie bikes also greatly reinforced the idea that the bicycle was a child’s toy, not a serious vehicle. Wheelie bikes were easy to do wheelies on, but their awkward riding position made them hellishly uncomfortable to actually ride more than a half-mile at a time.”
Which is one reason I and my family ride, to help dispel such silly notions. No DUIs here!
That and we find 80’s touring bikes are awesome for shopping and long rides when the weather is good.
Sheldon Brown, can’t believe how long he’s been gone now. RIP
I had a Schwinn Sting Ray, but a later one with a same size front wheel as back, and no suspension in the front fork. But it did have the “drag slick” flat rear tire, a 5-speed “on-the-floor”, a speedometer (might have been purchased separately?), and headlight (batteries not included). I don’t remember it being difficult to ride as others have mentioned. I remember just using the gears to go uphill, just very slowly.
Having had the misfortune of riding the last chopper bike Schwinn that they made for kids, I can say the long low stretched out bikes look cool, but are a real pain to ride, just like the modern idea of a chopper motorcycle. I could see that being popular as a level 2 electric bike though. then you only pedal on flat surfaces when it is not a real chore to do so.
JDE- I would think they’d be pretty uncomfortable as an E Bike as well. But it is better to look good than to feel good…
The chopper style had a brief vogue in the late oughts when the motorcycle reality TV was at its peak, and some form of stretched out bicycle is still available but very much a niche. Where I live kids ride BMX, MTB or e-bikes depending on interests and parental wallets. I think the electric has more potential as a chopper style since pedaling efficiency is less of a concern.
The local terrain is heavy on BMX parks/race circuits and mountain bike trails where motors are banned so that drives demand.
Yeah I’m surprised this wasn’t mentioned in the article. I’m younger than the author, and grew up in the 90s-2000s, well after the time of these bikes, but I do remember the second wave of chopper bikes. They had some beefy rear tires that I’d imagine cost a fortune to replace.
I had a Murray FireCat Chopper bicycle. The exact one in the photo. My brother got it for Christmas one year, and it was handed down to me a few years later. I sold it to my neighbor friend for $20. Probably should have kept that one. I remember the rear tire was so cool, it had white letters and the tread portion was FLAT, like a real drag slick.
It looks incredibly long, like it would have been hard to store.
I really wanted a chopper bike, but the Schwinn Sting Ray, not a Raleigh Chopper. Raleigh was a girl’s three speed bike in my town and still is, at least if you are of a certain age. I think there is still one in my basement that my mom rode. I especially wanted the Sting Ray with the steering wheel — they may have called it something different.
For some reason or another, (maybe parents who didn’t indulge my every whim) I jumped from my Schwinn Typhoon balloon tire bike (which I also still have, but is un-rideable) to a Schwinn Varsity. I was a Schwinn man – or boy. The Varsity was a 10 speed, with Schwinn’s patented (I suppose) lug-less welded frame and Ashtabula cranks. Road hugging weight must have been a selling point in those days, along with the incredible brand cachet of “Schwinn” among the neighborhood cretins.
I don’t hate the British, by the way. Eventually, I bought a British Falcon road bike (which again, I still have and is rideable) because it weighed about 20 pounds less than the Varsity. I’ve also owned several Jaguars and still have one, so if I don’t hate people from the UK now, I never will. My current Jaguar isn’t in my basement, by the way, but it does throw a lot of trouble lights. The Varsity must have been stolen because I obviously never sell my bicycles.
Anyway, the idea of a modern Raleigh Chopper or Schwinn Sting Ray is a cool idea for those who were watching cable television two years ago or riding the things 50 years ago. I like it a lot, but wonder if motorized Choppers will have to make yet another come back first. I hope I’m wrong as I really think it’s a great idea. The only change I’d make, with nod to modernity and loud British motoring journalists name Jeremy, is that I suggest the manufacturer incorporate electrically operated flappy paddle shifters to replace the neutering lever of past models.
Shimano gear selectors are pretty close to floppy paddles. Maybe just make them a little bigger. Wouldn’t need electricity in that case.
There was a Huffy with a steering wheel I know of, but not sure about Schwinn. Wouldnt doubt it.
I think the steering wheels were aftermarket accessories, but not positive.
You’re thinking of Electroforging, a process Schwinn used to make tubes out of sheet metal.
I never had one of these and I don’t think they were really en vogue by the time I was old enough to ride a bike, but this is reminding me that I thought those shifters were the coolest thing ever. I get that they make no practical sense, but they just look so good!
Needs a storage cubby for a deck of cards and a built-in clothespin on the front fork.
Later Gen-X here and those choppers sucked. I never liked the aesthetic, but the riding experience was even worse with bad steering, brakes, and balance. BMX bikes were replacing them when I was a kid and beat the hell out of those. I loved mine—jumps of highly questionable engineering made from trash-day finds, ghost riding, skid competitions, spinning out the gearing on down hills, bombing rocky paths and concrete slides (a steep slide separated into multiple lanes by steel imbedded into the concrete where you would slide by sitting on cardboard . . . or ride down on a bike and see how far you could travel off the 3′ drop at the end of the slide’s platform before landing). Also used to ride decent distances with nothing but some change to make a phone call from a payphone if I needed to (and I had better have a damn good reason better than a flat I knew how to take care of myself, not that I would have called out of a sense of defeat unless I was being pursued by one of those mythical clowns with the LSD-laced stamps). My mother had no idea I’d be alone over 20 miles away, we just had to be out of the house in daylight on nice days. Back then, though, that’s how it was with everyone. Kids rode bikes everywhere and only ripping dorks with the mothers who still bathed them at 11 years old wore repurposed coffee cup helmets. Now it’s rare that I see kids riding in groups, even rarer alone, and that’s with a massively better biking infrastructure than when I was a kid (there wasn’t one—those rail trails were still rails and sometimes active). It’s little wonder why kids have so much trouble with identity and inability to handle things on their own today.
Anyway, this new one looks as heavy and terrible to ride as the original, so it captures the spirit. The steering angle is too steep. I have an antique race bike and while nowhere near as steep as that, has terrible handling, somehow being both slow and twitchy. The ride height is also wrong—not low enough or with a seat back that can be pressed into for the advantages of a recumbent, but not high enough to get decent leverage on the pedals with reduced visibility in traffic both as a rider and for drivers. basically, this would be good in a really small size for little kids, constrained to something similar to a Big Wheel’s age and typical riding range. And all those plastic landfiller parts would be broken in short time (if the kid actually rode it) and/or ripped off to save weight the way kids largely tossed the fake tanks and such that the old ballooner and middle weight bikes had, bikes that the original choppers largely replaced.
I went the other direction completely (I was older though)! Commuting to a bike-centered college (UC Davis) I needed a bike, but didn’t want to lock it up. Took a basic 20″ gold color frame, added a 27″ bike fork, extended the handlbars up about two feet. Handlebar was about 10 inches wide total (very narrow) with red plastic tape. Raised the seat up about two feet also but at that angle was about to bend, so took a pair of ski poles (painted in spiral red white and blue) to support the seat from the rear axle. Used the narrowest plastic seat I could find. No one stole it. Throw it on the bike rack hanging over the rear hatch on my car (’67 squareback which I still own) turn the pedals to lock in in place.
When I was studying in Utah (as an exchange student) I bought a sweet Schwinn cruiser to ride around town from Craigslist before I bought a car. At some point I noticed that in a smallish Utahnian town no one was interested to ride a bicycle, so I could leave it unlocked anywhere.
However, later when I travelled in California (by car, hauling the bike in the trunk), the first time I left the bike outside, it got stolen even when locked. It’s really a shame, because I intended to bring the bike back home with the car when I imported it to Europe and we basically don’t have any Schwinns in here.
Have you looked into buying one on ebay?
I had one of those in the 70’s. Road the snot out of it for many years until I got too tall to ride it anymore (and also could not find new front tires anymore. Went through three). I loved that bike. I even was able to sell it to a neighbor whose little kid wanted it.
All the kids near me are riding the 26″ BMX, and mountain bikes right now, I miss the 20″ BMX bikes, but still have my Schwinn Pro Stock stashed at my parents until the kids are old enough. The Chopper II looks like it would end up with, and probably benefit from having some electrification. Since its green partner with Ryobi for an 18v pedal assist chopper with a 12mph top speed.
Raleigh actually revived their original chopper this year, and there are other companies making even, uh, choppier bikes that kind of resemble the Bishop’s design.
Do kids even play outside these days? How would their helicopter parents let them out of sight?
My parents had no idea where I was when I was a kid. Out on my bike or hiking in the woods or just over at a friends house. I just knew to be home at 5:30 for dinner. I feel sorry for the kids who will never know that freedom. As a parent, I understand the ever watchful eye.
Air tag them. Hide it on the bike like a private eye throws under the bumper of a subject’s car. Not that we do that with our kids..(and they don’t read my shit anyway so they won’t see this)>
People hide AirTags in their bikes all the time to track them when they get stolen.
My GenZ kids had bikes, and hardly ever used them despite a great biking neighborhood and our encouragement to go out and explore. They’re still hanging in the garage.
Your kids or their bikes?
Bikes still hanging in garage. Kids still hanging in basement, kitchen, bathroom, etc.
Do you have a lot of kids, or did you chop them up before hanging them? Also, ignore those sirens headed towards your house, I’m sure it’s completely unrelated…
I ride with my kids all the time. We go exploring and have great adventures. Got to seize the opportunity before they grow up and it’s too late.
eh, my daughter got her Black Belt at 10, she has an original chopper bike(not shifter, but still), actually two if you count the old blue western flyer. She likes the the banana seat and laid back riding angle over her BMX bike. She has my original 80’s Mongoose as well, but she tends to gravitate towards the old Huffy Desert Rose when she decides to ride her bikes, though I do understand why she often just pulls out the Electric scooter. Life 360 on her phone is about as helicopter as I get. .
I’m just guessing because I’m so far out of the loop that I’ve lost sight of it but aren’t kids these days just buried in their phones and games? Don’t they want to avoid the real world and just live in the fictional ones that offer them ‘likes’, ‘popularity’ and similar things?
Also, get off my lawn! I’m going back to my ‘73 truck now..
My oldest desperately wanted one of the chopper-style bicycles that came out when he was about 12, 20 years or so ago. They were kinda expensive back then, so he ended up with a regular BMX bike.
A few years later, he actually thanked us for not buying him one. Apparently, it was one of those things that was really cool for a very brief time, then became cripplingly uncool.
In the late 60s, I finally saved up enough allowance and lawn cutting cash to replace my beat up old Sears coaster bike with probably the most stupid bike ever. Bowing to parental disapproval of a chopper style bike, my choice was a black AMF Roadmaster with a 3-speed, hub gear set in a style we used to refer to as an “English bike.” In other words, a bog standard, upright, conventional bicycle with one exception: instead of a simple, sensible thumb-actuated gear selector in the handlebar, mine had a white-knobbed stick shift mounted on the crossbar! No chopper, fire sure, but man a stick shift! And being 11 at the time, of course, I added a Mattel V-rroom “engine” to the down tube. Scandalous. Can’t tell you how many times I wracked myself on the stick shift until dad put a longer cable on it so that we could move the mount as far forward as possible on the cross bar. Blessedly, battery acid corrosion quickly ruined my V-rroom and that came off in favor of a tire pump. A few years later I moved on to a baby blue Mercier Eddy Merckx commemorative 10-speed racer and never looked back.
I ended up with an English style bike at one point in high school. It was so uncool that when I locked it to the fence at school, someone stole the lock and left the bike.
Too funny.
at least they didn’t do the ultimate disservice by leaving you another one.
Do choppers have the cultural cachet they used to? Feels like the american chopper show was the last high point. Maybe kids would rather have a bicycle version of a gixxer.
Fixies are still a thing with the youths apparently. So, maybe a super stripped down cafe racer or similar? There’s also the bicycle overlanders (bike packing) that’s all the rage with the old ex-fixie kids.
“Fixies are still a thing with the youths apparently”
Those seem like an excellent way to break a bone.
great for your knees too, but fun to ride.
I’ll take your word for it.
For me, I’ll stick with my multi speed free wheels and cassettes.
Frackle- I agree. I just wanted to do a successor to the original chopper, and I did try roughs of a gixxer and it didn’t really work. The cladding looked too cartoonish; it looks cartoonish on the chopper as well but then the real chopper has a cartoonish vibe to begin with.
Motocykes were VERY goofy and the concept of replacing fairing on a children’s bicycle whenever they dropped their bike was probably a nonstarter for parents. but they were pretty rad as a kid.
I met some friends at a bar a couple of months ago, and we unknowingly stumbled onto a meeting of owners of lowrider bicycles. These are highly customized bikes, somewhat like the chopper style, ridden by adults. There must have been around 40 of them in front of the bar. There’s a Facebook page for these things at https://www.facebook.com/WillMclaughlinIv1985/ which shows some pretty crazy ones. The bikes at the bar were set up for slightly more practical riding than those.
There are a bunch of bicycle lowriders clubs in Southern California, they roll through Downtown LA all the time.
I’ve seen those- with the giant boom boxes strapped to the back!
Counterpoint: Those bikes kinda sucked with too much weight over the rear wheel and a short wheelbase. The Bishop choppa semi-recumbent proposed would also suck, with too much headtube angle for easy steering, a hilariously long wheelbase making turning hard, and my god, it must weigh 40 lbs. Also recumbents are dorky bikes for people with back problems, not kids. (apologies to Toecutter).
Classic example of design based on appearance rather than function.
Recumbents are an excellent base to build hilariously fast microcars out of. Of course, by the time you get finished, very little of what was once the original bike will remain.
Recumbents have the advantage of reduced frontal area and overall drag reduction that comes with it. This is what lead to UCI banning them in 1934. A rider of average capability beat the top athletes, and the sponsors who sold “normal” bicycles and their components were very upset and did not want this superior form of cycling to take over because they felt it would hurt their sales.
What the Bishop is proposing is a semi-recumbent. It’s about as laid-back as a “cruiser” style motorcycle it mimics. It doesn’t confer much aerodynamic advantage, but the comfort advantage is definitely there.
I agree, the reduced frontal area is everything until you get into velomobiles and a low CD and a reduced frontal area. Wicked fast bikes until you get to an uphill.
I meant to show this video in the above comment, but it wouldn’t let me edit it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKAMus3oSdw
Imagine that with a full suspension and an aerodynamic body shell, DOT rims/tires, hydraulic brakes on all three wheels, everything reinforced to handle the added forces, and then geared to do like 130 mph.
I’m laughing so hard right now: that video is just what I expect from homebrew e-recumbent nerds. BRAVO
It does 0-50 mph in 4 seconds according to the owner.
The one I built isn’t nearly as fast, but I was able to drag race a V6 Dodge Charger and stay ahead of it until roughly 30 mph.
When I upgrade to AWD with a motor in each wheel and 30-ish horsepower, I might be able to mess with Hellcats.
ES- choppers were never about comfort. I did ride a friend’s Chopper in period and reluctantly admitted that you’d die in the first hundred feet of the Tour De France on one. Honestly, when I see dudes on motorcycles with ape hanger bars, arms out crucifixion-style, my shoulders hurt just looking at them.
Yeah they were awful twitchy things but fun for fucking around on.
I remember wanting a bicycle with extended front forks and flames on the seat. Mom said no because SHE did not like them. I ended up with a crappy KIA (bicycle) that rusted after only a few years.
I saved up for eons (3 months) to buy an Orange Krate (dad paid for half). It was uncomfortable, slow, shifted like crap, and had questionable brakes. It was the coolest vehicle I’ve ever owned!
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Like every other kid my age in the mid-70s I had a 20″ Schwinn in the most garish possible lime green with the chopper bars and the banana seat. They were fun to pull wheelies on and play on, but pretty much a terrible bike for any utilitarian purposes.
I think the looks of your proposed bike are awesome but the seat is too low and the pedals too far forward. Recumbents are fine because you have a high seat back to push against but with no seat backing I think pedaling and balance are not going to work all that well; ask every kid who rode a Big Wheel without a seat because they were just a little too big. You’re hanging onto the handlebars for all your leverage and that makes maneuvering a bit fraught.
I think the rear “fender” needs more of a “seatback” on it to make it work. Looks clunkier but obviously probably needs it.
Or the trashed Big Wheels at the playground where the seatback was long gone