![]() ![]() It has been adapting to the cargo and electric bike market for a number of years, with ebikes becoming a core part of its business in 2018. The brand was bought in 2012 by the Accell Group, one of the biggest electric bike manufacturers and brand owners in Europe. Kidger says ebikes provide an opportunity for Raleigh to expand: “We’ve identified that as a real growth area for the business, and we’ve pivoted Raleigh into that emerging market,” says Kidger. Kidger hopes the Chopper will appeal to people’s hearts and minds. “Electric bikes are the single biggest benefit to a lot of the challenges the UK faces at the moment, in terms of congestion charges, and net zero and sustainability targets that have come in,” he says. In turn, Raleigh’s electric bikes provide practical solutions to facilitate this move to more frequent cycling, and Kidger suggests they could help people take kids to school, replace a second car and help with wider issues. Kidger says this is where releasing heritage models joins up with the more modern side of Raleigh’s business: electric bikes.īy pulling on the hearts and minds of people in evoking the heritage of the brand through bikes such as the Chopper, Kidger hopes Raleigh will convince people to cycle more. Kidger says the Raleigh Chopper created a “movement” in the 1970s, with the bike encapsulating a sense of joy, freedom and fun.ĭesigning a new Chopper, which so closely resembles Choppers of old, is a way for Raleigh to help people rediscover what Kidger calls the “contagious joy of cycling”. The Chopper was designed in response to the Schwinn Sting-Ray bicycle first manufactured in 1963.Lee Kidger says Raleigh wants people to rediscover the “contagious joy of cycling”. However, its design has sparked debate with claims made by both Tom Karen of Ogle Design and Alan Oakley of Raleigh. The Chopper was manufactured by Nottingham's Raleigh Bicycle Company and stood out because of the dragster-style handlebars and long saddle. ![]() The bikes became a symbol of 1970s and 80s childhoods and each cost around £34 new – the equivalent of £361 today. Raleigh Choppers are highly collectable items and in 2020 an MK2 model which had never been ridden sold for £1,250. I hope its new owner will enjoy restoring it to its former glory." However, it has now been saved for posterity. Due to its rusty condition, it was destined for the skip. He bought it second hand from some chap."Īnd auctioneer Charles Hanson said: "This was an exceptional result for an iconic bike. "The advert featured a bike with a T-bar gear shifter but this one has a single-lever shifter. I remember seeing the Chopper advertised in Look-In, a kids' magazine at the time. "It's got the original gear shifter - not the later T-bar from those pesky safety people. READ MORE: Derbyshire couple's sorrow as premature baby girl dies hours after birth It was mine in the late 1970s and early 80s when I was nine or 10. I didn't realise it was there, just rusting slowly. The seller, aged 50, said: "It was in my dad's shed. It fetched £692 when it went under the hammer at Etwall firm Hansons Auctioneers, Staffordshire Live reports. Now the three-speed bike has sold for more than six times its estimated value of £100. It was covered in rust, its seat patched and had two flat tyres. The iconic 1970s bike, with its dragster-style handle bars, had spent 35 years in a garden shed before its owner almost threw it away during a clear out. An old and very rusty Raleigh Chopper bike saved from being thrown in a skip has sold for hundreds of pounds at auction in Derbyshire. ![]()
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