Raleigh grifter restoration

[Cowhornbars72]

Is the grifter mk1 back wheel the same as any other wheel used by Raleigh bikes
And are there any other parts that I can take off other Raleigh bikes to keep things cheaper

[J4CKO]

Wasnt the back wheel share with a Chopper ?

[StuntmanMike]

Yes it was, I had a secondhand Chopper and a new Grifter.

Different tyres though.

[StuntmanMike]

Any chance of a picture of it as it stands?

[StuntmanMike]

Brakes, Chopper. Pedals and crank Chopper. Light brackets Chopper.

[J4CKO]

The part number was different as the Chopper used steel and the Grifter was Depleted Uranium, only explanation for them weighing as much as a small car.

Will never forget a small girl round our way who used to ride her brothers, it looked utterly implausible this tiny kid on this huge (relatively) bike, remember my dad looking worried about his paintwork when she appeared as it wasn't entirely stable.

I really wanted a Grifter but wasnt old enough so ended up with a Strika, remember being jealous of my taller mate who go a Grifter until I had a go and realised it was much bigger and heavier and no pedal back brake for massive skids, felt like it was twice the weight and not as stable, plus it used to drop out of gear at inopportune moments.

[davidd]

I had a Grifter, so heavy it developed it's own black hole.

Would have been great if they had made it a bit lighter. I had a Commando before it, loved that.

[anonymous-user]

davidd said:

I had a Grifter, so heavy it developed it's own black hole.

Would have been great if they had made it a bit lighter. I had a Commando before it, loved that.

The grifter was definitely heavy,

The seats and handlebars were fairly unique, that foam in them must be hard to restore or remake?

[slk 32]

Ah.. the Grifter, weighing as much as a fully laden 747 with it's notorious slipping three speed twist grip.

I remember as a 12 yr old pedalling as fast as I could standing up, only for the gears to slip and landing on the crown jewels on the cross bar...I consoled myself with the fact that I never wanted kids anyway.

The bike ended up in the River Nene a couple of weeks later, complwtely unconnected of course..

[vixen1700]

Got a Raleigh Olympus racer a couple of months before the Grifter came out, and was a bit gutted until I had a go on a mate's ice blue one and realised just how heavy it was.

The Olympus soon had cow-horn handlebars, rubber grips and tiny mud-flaps.

[Countdown]

slk 32 said:

Ah.. the Grifter, weighing as much as a fully laden 747 with it's notorious slipping three speed twist grip.

The twist-grip gears was the best thing about it, especially for those of us who were keen fans of CHiPs

[SydneyBridge]

Did it have the 3 speed sturmey archer hub gears (excuse spelling..)

I had a tomhawk (little brother of chopper) and can remember the colour and weight of a friends Grifter

[Louis Balfour]

davidd said:

I had a Grifter, so heavy it developed it's own black hole.

.

Raleigh peddled (hah) some proper rubbish when I was a lad. Bikes that looked the business but actually were assembled from pig iron by feckless Midlanders.

Their early MTBs were similarly crap, so when they later brought out some bikes that were actually quite good, no one wanted to know.

[slk 32]

SydneyBridge said:

Did it have the 3 speed sturmey archer hub gears (excuse spelling..)

I had a tomhawk (little brother of chopper) and can remember the colour and weight of a friends Grifter

My mate had a gold special edition tomahawk with mag wheels. It looked the bks, until he jumped it off a scaffolding plank ramp and broke the front wheel.. then it was just bks

[vixen1700]

slk 32 said:

My mate had a gold special edition tomahawk with mag wheels. It looked the bks, until he jumped it off a scaffolding plank ramp and broke the front wheel.. then it was just bks

I had one of those, the Tomerhawk Formula Three. None of the other kids had seen wheels like them, and thought they were plastic.

[SydneyBridge]

I had a very early MTB and it had platform pedals, 12 gears and mini bmx handlebars. Was very proud to be the first in my school with one though.

[BlackG7R]

Countdown said:

The twist-grip gears was the best thing about it, especially for those of us who were keen fans of CHiPs

Ahh the memories, spent most of my childhood either eating Chips, watching Chips, or playing Chips with my mate on Raleigh Boxers, Strikers, or Grifters.

[StuntmanMike]

J4CKO said:

The part number was different as the Chopper used steel and the Grifter was Depleted Uranium, only explanation for them weighing as much as a small car.

Will never forget a small girl round our way who used to ride her brothers, it looked utterly implausible this tiny kid on this huge (relatively) bike, remember my dad looking worried about his paintwork when she appeared as it wasn't entirely stable.

I really wanted a Grifter but wasnt old enough so ended up with a Strika, remember being jealous of my taller mate who go a Grifter until I had a go and realised it was much bigger and heavier and no pedal back brake for massive skids, felt like it was twice the weight and not as stable, plus it used to drop out of gear at inopportune moments.

I had a new Grifter, Mk1 red.

The thing about them was, you were without doubt the coolest kid on the block.

You were king on your Grifter.

Then BMX’s came out and suddenly you were completely irrelevant, yesterday’s man.

[splodge s4]

At one point I had pretty much the entire 80's raleigh action bike range, now down to a Mk2 Chopper, tomahawk & a budgie



A Grifter I restored but completely the wrong colour blue



A Bomber I restored a few years back

[CoolC]

My claim to fame is that I managed to break the frame of my Grifter.

It was second hand when I got it, so maybe the previous owner had used it to demolish power stations or something.