J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I remember when I was a kid, your bike was your most valuable asset and was cherished, polished and carefully parked, you needed it to get around, do your papers and keep your freedom. My kids have bikes but due to traffic and their general cluelessnes they aren't allowed off the road, plus they treat them like dirt, they drop them on the floor, leave them out on the pavement etc. I have only bought cheap ones or second hand because of this.

So, I am trying to get them to look after them better and i may buy them better bikes, my middle lad needs one to do his cycling proficiency but looking about the available bikes are crap, I used to have racers, fast, fairly light and simple but nowadays all the kids bikes have full "Suspension", disk brakes and are huge, so consequently are very heavy and horrible to ride, we have one dual suspension kids bikes and it weighs 40 pounds, now if you only weigh 60 pounds that is a big proportion of your weight and I cant blame them for not wanting to ride one, for comparison, my racer as a kid was 26 pounds.

So, does anyone know where you can get kids racing bikes or lighter, simpler bikes that aren't mega expensive ?

WRX_Dazza

theres a raleigh arena on ebay for 9.99. these are quality bikes, and used to get me round the paper duty and greengrocer work as a kid!!!

the hours i used to spend with autosol on the wheels, mudguards and brake assemblies!!

kids today respect nothing i'm afraid!!

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Yep, I had an Arena !

Just been to Decathlon and got him a hardtail Mountain bike that isnt too heavy for £129, lighter than the rigid bike at 89 quid cos its made of aluminium rather than pig iron.

I am tempted to buy some bikes like the Arena, he turned his nose up at the racer I showed him.

How about a Strika or a Grifter, when I was a Strika owning nine year old a Grifter fulfilled the role that an R8 does for me today, an unobtainable dream !

And this, I saved for ages and didnt ever get when I was 15, I copped out and bought the much cheaper Equipe, this below the Record Sprint still gives me tingles today !

j4ckos mate

big bugbear of mine as well, they dont know how to clean it or prop it up on a wall they just let it drop on the floor when they get off it

j4ckos mate

what about them crap ones that advertise in the paper,

or go and see threadgolds

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Got him one from decathlon in the end.

sti-04!!

Grifter gets my vote

Sonic'

I had an arena as my first racer, then moved on to Peugot, and ended up having two of those after one got stolen

I used to spend a lot of time looking after mine and keeping it clean, and more importantly cycling some 20-30 miles a day/night every night

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Grifter was great, but as per any 3 speed Sturmey Archer was apt to slipping sending you off down the side of a parked car.

cwt

iTrader: (19)

Hey i know what you mean i have my own bike shop and the repairs i get in are unreal, mum says its Only 6 months old i,m thinking it looks like its been dragged up from the sea bed and towed along the motorway behind a car......
Any way if i can be of any help too any of you in the future for any cycling needs give us a shout, i have only been running a year now and can do with all the sales i can get.

Regards Craig.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Where are you based ?

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Both my lads were taught from an early age to strip and rebuild parts of their bikes.

By the age of 12, either could do an entire bike, and the eldest could rebuild a wheel

It's given both of them an understanding and love of bikes that seems to have endured........

Alcazar

j4ckos mate

remember the striker a smaller grifter my racer was a peugeout premiere a ruby red one

Robert Rosario

This thread really brings back some memories.

I had a raleigh spider, but bypassed the grifter and went straight in with an Elswick Turbo 12! It was "metallic bronze" which means it was brown, but a cracking bike. Treated it like it was an R8 with Jessica Alba in the passenger seat!

Always fancied a Raleigh bomber in that metallic blue though.

My son is 8, and due to lack of general respect for bikes, bought him a twenty quid BMX from a bloke at work whose son used to race with it, until he discovered stella and girls. It is superb, but only has a back brake which rules out a few tricks, but is a good bike.

WRX_Dazza

hahahha, lol, the old "between yellow and red" Slip gear.....

my shins still have fond memories of this!!!!

i had a nice stand for my bike, again, highly autosol'd and used to park it up with the wheels turned slightly in the sun, to show off my hard work...
the smell of 3 in 1 on the chain cleaned with my dad's old string vest!!

then a quick application of simoniz liquid diamond on the mettallic blue painwork!

also had a yellow police/ambulance/fire siren, so me and my mate could play "chips" riding side by side, no handed!!! - again, have the cuts to prove this!!

also had one of them "wear the side of your tyre out" speedos, which was excellent for looking at, while a car pulls out in front of you!!!!

oh the fun we had.....

shame those days will never return!!

also got a stern bollocking off my old man for nicking his best "brag" playing cards, and coupling them with a couple of clothes pegs, for that "Harley" sound. while returning empties to the offie and trading them in for sherbet fountains or cola cubes.

then my pocket money went on a spoke tightening key..!!!

edited to say "cow horns" were the bar of choice in my day, great for getting snagged between a bus and a parked car's door mirror!!

happy days!!

Dazza

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Cow Horns, yes, remember them, allways on "Trackies", basically an old racer frame sprayed black with some fillets welded in, a single gear and no freewheel, forks straightened, "Reo" wheels (reinforced rim with a bigger hub) and cow horns, ridden by 70s, 80s tough boys.

Bmx's were Huffy's and Mongooses, too expensive for me, I liked them but preffered the higher top speed and relaxed pedalling of a racer. If you were poor and wanted a BMX you got a "Garage job" which was a cheap chinese copy sold from a forecourt. My mate Rob got a DiamondBack Viper after his Garage Job and turned up on it, may as well have been in a Porsche it was so exotic.

Raleigh Bomber, proto Mountain bike in a fifties cruiser style, massive baloon like tyres, Bomber Graphics, black paint, mean and moody and cool, but quite slow and heavy.

Chopper, never had a new one but bought a sh1tter for 2 quid, the fram had snapped on one of the welds, still rode but wobbled, managed to t-bone Stuart Cartlidges mongoose and bend it but no further damaged to the chopper ?, horrible to ride really with the constant threat of becoming a Eunuch, mine died when Johnathan ***** (appropriate name) Decked off it across a road letting it cruise unridden into the path of Granada which hit it, the driver got out, visibly shaken looking for the dead kid, he checked everywhere, under the car, in gardens and theres us hiding, me pissed off that my Chopper was ruined. A lad I know had a 5 speed chopper, it was like the RS500 of its day.

Strika, I had one, great bike, had a back pedal brake which had me skidding and getting through a tyre every other week. It got restored and recycled into a "BMX" for my brother, then sold by my dad for 15 quid, talk about getting your moneys worth.


I have fixed the 20 quid second hand bike I bought 5 years ago for the kids, oiled, removed the broken plastic disk on the chain, pumped the tyres up and oiled it. Have repainted the go-kart we bought from the school toy sale for 5 quid ages ago for my nieces.

Recycling in action, why tip stuff for a flat tyre ?


Raleigh Arena, indestructable, used to ride mine on the road, off road, anywhere.

Sonic'

I had a chopper that I sprayed Vauxhall Jade Green

IIRC it was an American one, with the gears on a twist grip on the handlebars, and these handlebars were much further back (closer to me) than on the standard chopper

I had a Raleigh Commando (junior Grifter) which I hand painted matt black, and used it like a BMX long before BMX's were even heard of

magepaster

iTrader: (2)

God, I remember having a chopper that me and a mate took the front forks off of and fitted some forks off a racing bike to it. We then stuck the front wheel from said racing bike on and road around the neighbourhood leaning so far back that we couldn't see the floor in front of us and we thought we looked so cool.


I also remember having a Tour de France Racing bike that I loved to bits. Wiped it over after every ride and oiled and greased it regularly.

I had my brand new grifter stoled from me by a gang of lads after only having it for three days. I have never been in so much trouble in my life as I was that day.

WRX_Dazza

This is one of the funniest reads ever.... can relate to all of the above posts!!

The Commando was a great bike. Looked stunning in gloss black!! (just done a picture search for it and got some interesting results!!!)

going down halfords and buying a new colour (from their end of stock basket) was always fun...
Used to test it out on a bit of the garage wall beforehand. and the back lawn used to have a paint coloured silhouette of my bike in Battleship Grey Primer lol

I also had a chessington elite 5 sp racer (second hand in silver, the fastest colour ) and a tornado before that, which was a bit like a tomahawk.

all my bikes spent a great deal of time upside down on the handlebars, whilst i "tuned" it.... hahahhaha

WRX_Dazza

oh, and i remember the "token rich kid round the corner" - who's dad was a market trader, funnily enough, having a lovely new Grifter....

He used to let me ride it and i rode it like it was a rolls royce, cruising with one hand on the foam bit across the handlebars lol - He used to make me sick the way he just threw it to the ground, each time he dismounted
He was very kind to me though, and i kept it while he was on holiday one year (put a blanket over it in my garage) !! sad git that i am!