Raleigh Winner

I remember a friend jumping over some whoops on a grifter wearing a pair of stay press trousers about 25 years ago. He hit them so quickly, he cleared them by miles but nose dived down and went otb, forks bent up towards the handle bars, which were basically road forks and could no way handle any force of a jump over the curb let alone an Evil Kenevil attempt at the local BMX track.He managed to rip a huge hole in his precious stay press trousers, oh and a great graze to his knee. No helmet, no pads, or gloves and clearly no brains were used. But a couple of Rothmans cigarettes managed to calm his nerves and heal any wounds for a 14 year old.
Back to the subject the closest thing I thought Raleigh had to a mountatin bike back then was The Bomber which was the same as the clunker. It used to be the last bike in the back of the Freemans catalogues.
Ok I have lost all the aussies on this now

it was the ' sturmey archer'(as mentioned in this conversation earlier) rear hub with a three speed 'gripshift' type full grip

Ah yes, indeed... the Grifter was the top notch bike for a kid in the 70s. Or a Chopper (you, know - the thing with the silly small front wheel, but super cool shifter on the top tub that looked like an automatic car gear lever!):

As for me... no Chopper or Grifter... before the Raleigh Winner there was a sky blue tricycle (with solid tires no less!), some little blue bike (I think it had fat, white tires) that had training wheels (stabilisers?) on for a while... well, until I went round a corner too fast and the little plastic wheel on the left literally disintegrated (ah... I can still visualise it now!). Then Dad said it was time to take them off.

It's amazing memories this brings back... there was a 'big' hill (100m long, 10m vertical tops) by our house that one could really fly down. I once chomped on a fly on this hill and spat it out, only to see it land on my leg then fall trying to brush it off. Not pretty. I also recall ripping all the skin from my left arm after a fall on the corner at the bottom. Think this was on the little blue bike, or maybe even the tricycle!

Finally though, and the bike I rode most as a kid was.... <drum roll>... some generic folding bike! Smaller wheels of course, countless problems with the brakes. Folding mudguards too - I jumped off a kerb once and the impact of the landing rammed the rear guard against the wheel, which grabbed it and literally folded it in half! Anyhow - point is here, that was the bike I spent most time on, riding around in the woods... countless hours of fun.

Ahhhh... some things never change!

Ooops... I rattled on a bit there, huh... good memories... sorry!

Oh oh! That pic of the silly chopper thing just threw about 1000 vivid picture memories into my head.
I had one all blinged up with direction indicators, speedo run by the front wheel turning (ughh), and some ridiculous mascot thing attached between the brake cables.
Yes, I was the epitome of 'cool'. (not)
I loved nothing better than going out riding with 'the crassman' throwing it up and down this 'jump' we found in Willoughby. Completely out of control, all the finesse of an elephant, comparing scars at the end of the day.
As you say, Rob, over 20 years between bikes and nothing's changed.
Music starts...meeeemorieees

Got it when I was about 8 I spose...red with tassles in the bar ends. Would use a clothes peg to hold cardboard in the spokes for a great effect.
Had the three speed gear shifter. That stoopid sturmey archer gear chain broke every time the bike was laid over on that side....years later just didnt bother fixing it and pedaled around in 3rd...good leg conditioning!! Got a mechanical speedo a few Christmases after and managed 15Km up and down my cul de sac on Christmas day with a top speed of nearly 35Kmh. Maybe I was 10 or 12 at this stage. The speedo had a mechanical gearing device on the front wheel with a nylon cog, of course I managed to smash the teeth off it in no time.. We would draw a track on to the road at the turning circle and the whole street would race on it, sometimes in relays.

My mate got a Mongoose and was the envy of everyone the other had an MX bike with full suspension!! I recall the Mongoose cost about $250-300 at the time, big dollars!
This prompted me, now about 14 to transform my dragster into a BMX with the small seat, single piece cranks (oh cotter pins is another sad tale of the day), bmx stem and handlebars and tange forks (chrome of course). Didnt really look like a BMX but that was as close as I was gonna get. Smashed it up hitting a telegraph pole at speed taking a wide line around the bottom corner of the cul de sac. Probably 16 now.

The MX bike had twin coil over rears, cant remember the front, think they were spring as well. Tried to look like a motorbike even had the long seat bolted to the frame. Talk about heavy. We eventually snapped it in two jumping a monster 3 milk crate high jump. The jump had a single milk crate support in the middle to make the angles work and I think we jumped about 8 people lying under the flight path.

The bike gang at the time even tried to build a bmx track in a local park. Well we didnt get that far, the ground was very hard with a shovel and mattock so it didnt scale the heights we had hoped. Got a few pics of us doing the jumps!
A friend from school lived at Loftus and took me out to RNP to ride some of the single track, some of these trails were referred to as death trails due to the technical nature and steepness.... he, the lucky bugger, had a real BMX track in the bush at the end of his street in good old Loftus.

I had a chopped single speed racer for a while. It had dragster handle bars for that laid back cool ride. Ancient frame and single speed back pedal brakes. Think this was a contra deal for a bike of mine.
Got a 10sp Apollo 2 between 16 and 20 for longer road trips before I had a car. Rode many miles on that bike mostly to see chicks I had met at concerts and through school.
Had another proper BMX at this stage as well. Built it up from just a frame I got for free and gave it away when I got a car.

The 10sp got stolen which prompted me to buy my first mountain bike about 1988. $600 21 speed and shimano bio pace cranks/chainrings. Chrome moly and alloy rims. Not even close to light though. I remember riding up a muddy incline thinking granny gear was just amazing! could ride up anything.
I hated this bike so much it was so un-ergonomic and poorly sized. I threw it out 6 months ago.

Got reintroduced to riding around 2000 and bought the Giant XTC hardtail after a few months on a $400 bike from ebay making sure I could still balance. (Is learsport as bad as huffy to admit to owning?) Well its the pub bike now that wont be too likely to get stolen.
Rode RNP for a year or so before moving up to Belrose and meeting the NOBMOM lads in 2002. A 2 hr lap of the dam would be the weekly ride and I would be ruined for the rest of the weekend!
After breaking the bridge on the forks of the XTC (wondered why the handling was weird) I figured I should step up to something a little more robust and got the Stumpjumper 2004.

Have some pics I will have to scan for a good giggle.

Ah memories... Craig

i had a freespirit red metallic chopper with a 2 foot sissy bar

i didnt like the ape hangers though and put on some handle bars off a peewee 50

oh how jealous the other kids were of that
hjahahahahhaha

and talking jumps i remember the days spent trying to jump this creek up in avocca
looking back now it was 2 foot wide but back then evil kenevil would have struggled to clear it

hahahahhahahha

Kurt