We’re watching those daft Facebook posts about drinking from garden hoses & playing out until dark become a political force. Grifters, ironically, feature in both…
Replies
Did once want one, until I realised they weighed a ton... Living in Kinver at the time, all the kids made 'Tracker bikes' by putting flat or cowhorn handlebars & knobbly tyres on 5 or 10 speed racing bikes, terrain around there was perfect for them... Later mountain bikes were invented...
jul 27, 2025, 1:18 pm • 1 0 • view
Our local Facebook has moved on to AI nostalgia for neighbourhood busybodies.
jul 27, 2025, 1:57 pm • 1 0 • view
Had a red one. Broke a kids leg with it.
jul 28, 2025, 6:30 am • 0 0 • view
Safer than choppers though but I note they stalk the earth still. www.raleigh.co.uk/gb/en/bike-k...
jul 27, 2025, 2:07 pm • 0 0 • view
Grifters got to grift.
jul 27, 2025, 1:22 pm • 1 0 • view
My god! I had a red one of these! They were the land-rover defender of the bike world. Indestructible.
jul 28, 2025, 4:30 pm • 0 0 • view
Raleigh ad from 1977 https://youtu.be/e5aCB_mW5O8?feature=shared
jul 27, 2025, 1:16 pm • 0 0 • view
A more innocent time when making shit up was fine because checking meant a visit to the library. Farage told people to vote brexit then tory in 2019. He's raging at getting what he told people to vote for. He's never asked about it.
jul 27, 2025, 1:23 pm • 1 0 • view
I do feel sort of nostalgic for times when fascists didn't have the Internet to spread their propaganda. Back in my day you'd actually have to go to a National Front rally to hear their dross.
jul 27, 2025, 1:07 pm • 11 1 • view
Amazing bike. Built to last. 3 gears on a twist grip was so much better than the weird nutcracker gear shifter on the crossbar of a Chopper. Indeed, there are plenty of grifters around today making way more noise than mereley having a lolly stick in the spokes.
jul 27, 2025, 1:29 pm • 0 0 • view
Plastic from yoghurt pots worked better I seem to remember...
jul 27, 2025, 1:32 pm • 1 0 • view
Ooh, la,de,dah, get you with your fancy yoghurt pot upgrade. :😜
jul 27, 2025, 5:02 pm • 1 0 • view
Striker > Grifter
jul 27, 2025, 2:36 pm • 0 0 • view
Farage has one, it's chauffeur ridden
jul 27, 2025, 1:01 pm • 3 1 • view
I'd love to know what they built the Grifter from because it weighed more than a Mini 3 gears with a twist grip were cool, but they weren't getting you up any hills Seat was big and comfy though 😊
jul 27, 2025, 1:29 pm • 3 0 • view
It was likely Depleted Uranium from what i remember. Trying to do a wheelie on one was an achievement.
jul 27, 2025, 1:43 pm • 3 0 • view
My friends used to lie in front of a ramp as I did an Evel Kneivel over them on the Grifter. Looking back, this seems like a death wish
jul 27, 2025, 2:09 pm • 3 0 • view
I did the Evil Kneivel. My record was 6 mates laying there trusting me Did it and landed a wheelie. Mum.saw me out of the kitchen window and battered me whilst the lads cheered me on . I was so stupid but had no fear 🤣
jul 27, 2025, 7:58 pm • 1 0 • view
Whoever was number 6 had nerves of steel
jul 27, 2025, 8:00 pm • 0 0 • view
I drank straight out of streams & never had a Grifter, I feel I have missed out somehow 😂😂
jul 27, 2025, 1:05 pm • 1 1 • view
No Choppers?
jul 27, 2025, 1:06 pm • 2 1 • view
My Dad couldn’t afford a Chopper for me, he trawled all the second hand shops and scrap yards to build me my very own special version. He called it a Chipper 😎😂 I loved that bike, even if it was hand painted with brown emulsion 🫣 Oh happy days 💜
jul 27, 2025, 3:29 pm • 1 0 • view
Putting one in red gear was like throwing out an anchor. It weighed enough to start with 🤣
jul 27, 2025, 4:11 pm • 0 0 • view
Desperately wanted one but had to make do with the Woolworths version. Half the price and just as good. According to my parents. It was actually pretty neat and took a hell of a beating.
jul 27, 2025, 3:15 pm • 0 0 • view
A grifter nearly killed me, it went very fast, and I took a 45 degree ramp. I flew so high I rotated right over and landed on my back and couldn't breath for what felt like ages. I only found out 40 years later I'd smashed a couple of ribs.
jul 27, 2025, 1:07 pm • 5 1 • view
My younger brother got a Grifter for Christmas one year, while I got the Chopper, which was way cooler 😁 And the Grifter has heavy AF, too 😬
jul 27, 2025, 1:12 pm • 2 0 • view
Depended on age... The Chopper was the early 70s, whereas the Grifter was the late 70s segway into BMX. It was a Grifter, red one, all over for me!
jul 27, 2025, 2:41 pm • 1 0 • view
Heavy AF doesn't begin to describe it. I could never keep up with my friend on his drop-handlebar racing bike.
jul 27, 2025, 1:26 pm • 1 0 • view
The later Raleigh Burner, a precursor to the era of mountain bikes, was much cooler, & lighter.
jul 27, 2025, 4:05 pm • 1 0 • view
Now you've posted that, I've realised it was the Raleigh Bomber I was thinking of, specifically in blue.
jul 28, 2025, 2:48 am • 2 0 • view
Different times with different settings for danger. I think there was a lot of unseen 'collateral damage' (people harmed), and not talked about. I was appalled to see the National Front listed, when I first voted. Not being aware of the awfulness was easier for children, and adults not living it.
jul 28, 2025, 10:17 am • 0 0 • view
Drinking from a garden hose/being able to 'play out until dark' nope. Being able to play without supervision in a safe suburban street until a meal time, at the weekend. Plus warned not to go to the park, yes. As your parent could look out of the window and see you. I got bullied in other settings.
jul 28, 2025, 10:01 am • 0 0 • view
maybe we could head them off at the pass by bringing back white dogshit?
jul 27, 2025, 1:11 pm • 1 0 • view
I had a Chopper. My brother had a Grifter. It weighed a tonne - pretty sure it was made of cast iron.
jul 27, 2025, 2:38 pm • 0 0 • view
I just got shit, bent hand-me-downs Now I've got a motorbike!! Yey
jul 27, 2025, 1:06 pm • 3 1 • view
NF his initials do have that apt and yet truthful ring about them. Wrong about everything spews hatred yet doesn’t the media just love him. Obvious exceptions excluded.
jul 27, 2025, 1:06 pm • 1 1 • view
I ALWAYS wanted one, but being a girl in the 70's I ended up with a shopper bike, complete with basket at the front 🥺
jul 27, 2025, 1:08 pm • 5 1 • view
I was a boy in the 70's. Asked for a Chopper. I too got a Shopper. So, so close. Just 1 letter out, years of embarrassment. It's still in the garden after 50 years. Tyres are flat and the gears are seized though.
jul 27, 2025, 2:33 pm • 1 0 • view
They were terrible bikes. Weighed about 7 tonnes. All the braking power of a man on a water slide. It's fake nostalgia for those who don't have the brain capacity for change.
jul 28, 2025, 4:24 pm • 0 0 • view
People still use Facebook?
jul 27, 2025, 1:53 pm • 0 0 • view
Nostalgia is Big there
jul 27, 2025, 3:08 pm • 0 0 • view
I wanted a Chopper would have settled for a Grifter, got a Spanish Guitar for Christmas instead, life’s full of disappointments.
jul 27, 2025, 1:06 pm • 4 0 • view
I had a Grifter and hated it other than the neat twist gear selector. Weighed about the same as a small planet, slightly less after the dog bit a chunk out of that foam seat.
jul 27, 2025, 2:39 pm • 0 0 • view
I always preferred the chopper to be fair James…
jul 27, 2025, 1:02 pm • 3 1 • view
A classic. (The bike, not the arseholes)
jul 27, 2025, 1:02 pm • 3 0 • view
Gripshift Sturmey Archer 3-speed, but a very heavy bike.
jul 27, 2025, 1:13 pm • 4 0 • view
I flipping loved my Grifter. Skidding, and ramping... over my mates 😂 back in the day I was known as daredevil Debs. Oh happy memories 😊
jul 27, 2025, 7:54 pm • 0 0 • view
Like Farage ?
jul 27, 2025, 1:35 pm • 0 0 • view