The Raleigh Grifter was the younger brother of the infamous Chopper bike. Popular in the 1980s it was a chunky, heavy and cumbersome bike that felt more like a motorbike than a bicycle. It really was the only bike to be seen cruising around on in the late 70s, early 80s.
The Raleigh Bicycle Company was a British bike manufacturers originally based in Nottingham, UK. They first released their Raleigh Chopper bike for children in the 80s and it was such a huge success that more and more Raleigh varieties started emerging. Many believe that the much sought-after Raleigh Grifter was the perfect bridge between the Raleigh Chopper and other BMX models. It wasn't the intention of Raleigh to eradicate the Chopper, but after the popular BMX was denting sales something had to be done to revive Raleigh.
The Raleigh Chopper was targeted towards younger male teenagers and it enjoyed a position at the top of the range for quite some time. There were limits however. Unfortunately, doe to the limited roadster-orientated technology at the Nottingham factory the bike had be brazed. This meant that it never really stood a chance in popularity against the welded framed bikes being shipped over from the states - it was just so heavy and required a lot of pedal power to build up any good amount of speed to feel the wind in your hair! One positive point of having such a chunky frame was that it could take a bit of battering though - you couldn't offend it by slamming on those insensitive brakes and throwing it down in your front garden. This bike had a heart, but a heart of tensile steel!
Between June 1976 and May 1983 there were six different Raleigh Grifter models available. All kept the same basic shape with large, upright handlebars, crescent seats and rear mudguard but they varied slightly in finer detail.
First up was the Mk1 Grifter. Released in 1976 the Raleigh Grifter Mk1 was available in metallic blue, bronze and metallic red. The Grifter SE came with a black frame and red mudguards. The Raleigh Mk2 Grifter was brought out shortly after in 1979, available in red and blue, although it lost its metallic sheen. Sporting a very similar frame the Mk2 SE Special Edition Grifter was released early in 1980 (although confusingly just after Christmas Day) and was only in one colour - metallic silver. Things got a bit darker and more sinister looking with the Grifter XL out in January 1981 that was only available in black with red mudguards and handlebar tube. The Grifter XL had a distinctive bubbled seat and firey 'Grifter' logo on the crossbar. Finally, in January 1982 the last Super Grifter was released and was available in black and gold or silver and blue. The Super Grifter was available until May 1983.
The Raleigh Grifter had the distinctive styling of motocross and thanks to the Sturmey-Archer 3-speed twist grip handlebars you could really feel like you were on a motorbike when changing gears - a mere flick of the wrist was needed.
With a frame that measured around 13-inches and was made of high tensile steel, the tires of the Raleigh Grifter were pretty big at 20-inches in diameter with 36 spokes per wheel.
Unfortunately, like all good things that must come to an end the Raleigh Grifter was knocked off the top spot in the early 80s. However, at least it was for another Raleigh - the Raleigh Bomber.
Raleigh is one of the oldest bike companies in the world.
The average weight of the Raleigh Grifter was around 35 lbs - that's a heavy bike!
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Bobby G said:
I had a grifter and my brother had a chopper, and we used to argue about which was the better bike. They ended up rusting in the shed, of course.
Tuesday October 21, 2008, 09:25 AM
Lesley said:
I loved my heavy weight grifter but my friend had a equally nice chopper, he ran over me at the bottom of a hill and OMG it really hurt.
Wednesday October 29, 2008, 01:58 PM
steve edwards Raleigh Grifter Forum said:
With reference to your description of the Grifter , i would just like to clear a couple of points up , the silver grifter was just a standard mk2 , it is easily confused with the silver se chopper , but was never called an se , and the last of the line of these wonderful bikes i believe was the GS which are now rare as hens teeth , these were black frames with red guards and were similar to the xl .
Other than that it was a nice piece well written , thank you
Wednesday November 26, 2008, 11:05 AM
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Tuesday June 9, 2009, 10:10 PM
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Tuesday June 9, 2009, 10:10 PM
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Tuesday June 9, 2009, 10:10 PM
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Tuesday June 9, 2009, 10:11 PM
fitzy said:
what was the smaller version of the griffter called
Friday June 12, 2009, 04:34 PM
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