Thursday, July 23, 2009

A bit of nostalgia


Raleigh Super Burner

I had one of these. A christmas present when I was twelve or thirteen. Totally fantastic bike. I was the only kid in the neighbourhood to have one. Most had the bog standard burner, one or two had the ultra burner, but little me had the best of the lot, the super burner.

It got stolen, twice. The first time I had an idea who took it. I marched down to his house and raided the shed in his garden, recovered my bike and dispensed justice via a punch to the nose. The second time I never saw it again. My mates and I recovered a frame, with the serial number filed off but I couldn't prove that it was the decaying carcass of my pride and joy.

Happy days.

13 comments:

subrosa said...

Oh the joyous memories of youth. In my youth nobody would bother pinching a bike because only one out of about 50 of us had one.

There's a lot to be said for all the people to be kept in poverty at times :)

What a bluddy country.

banned said...

You piss taking cunt !
I never had a proper chopper, just some pissy imitation one that even the girls knew was rubbish. At least it never got stolen.

A lesson well learned, never ever go for the cheap option and if you can't afford the real thing, go without.

RantinRab said...

I've just spent the last hour googling grifters, burners, choppers, strikas and tomahawks!

Anonymous said...

I had a Night Burner, black with a red finish, and stunt pegs front and back. My cousin had the Ultra burner, the wheels on them were the dogs!

The Last Of The Few said...

I had a big chopper!!!!

RantinRab said...

We're talking about bikes LOTF!

Anonymous said...

My mode of transport was roller skates, those 4 wheel clumpy things with the massive breaks on front. No protective gear in those days.

microdave said...

I had to make do with a Raleigh RSW - it weighed a ton, but carried thousands of newspapers over the years I did a local round. AND I got a severe bollocking from the local bobby for riding it on the pavement....

Great Big Billygoat Gruff said...

You know you are really old when nostalgia has passed you by.

The End (Bye Bye!) said...

I had a red Grifter. The twist gears were fucked on it and it was a huge pain in the arse. Naturally, it was stolen in the end - I was glad to see the back of it.

RantinRab said...

The gears were always broken on Grifters, usually stuck in 3rd. Heavy buggers too.

Kevin Boatang said...

Oh fuck me rab, I had a Burner and it was my true love! Yellow and red it was.

Then like a complete fucking twat I sprayed it white when I was about 13 and BMXx were 'out of style'*. It was just a bog burner though.

*my area was a tad hilly, which makes such a bike a bit of a pain the arse.

Jim said...

A red Raleigh Grifter, my pride and joy despite it's monumentally useless gears. I thought it was heavy until my mate got a Commando.

Eventually I grew up and got a 5 speed raleigh bullet (been a smug twat ever since ;-) )