‘Owning a Chopper made me a trendsetter – I simply want I had stored it earlier than it was too late’
Having a Chopper was cool – but just not in 1987 in west London for our reporter John, who was a geeky eight-year-old and far from being cool
The Chopper was cool – but not when our reporter had one(Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
The company that owns the British bike manufacturer Raleigh faces insolvency, spelling the end for the iconic bike the Chopper, inspired by motorcycles from films like Easy Rider.
Before it rides off into the sunset, our man John Ward looks back on his childhood with one
I remember being eight years old and like almost every eight-year-old in Britain in 1987 I was desperate for a BMX.
I yearned to have one as many kids round my way did, and they looked effortlessly cool as they glided by on the mini wonders and flew off kerbs doing tricks in the air.
BMX arrived in Britain from the United States around the beginning of the 1980s and quickly became part of youth culture.
I was hooked on them and remember being glued to the screen watching the Kellogg’s BMX Championships on Channel 4.
I asked and begged and pestered my mum and dad for ages. Every Christmas and birthday I only had one item on my want list.
I remember even writing to the weird-looking yellow-haired bloke on the telly with gold chains who “fixed” things for kids to ask for one
A BMX.
A Chopper certainly wasn’t a BMX(Image: Courtesy Sarah-Jane Nichols/SWNS)
But it was the 80s and times were hard and I wasn’t aware that a brand new BMX would have broken the bank for my hardworking old man. But I knew he wouldn’t let me down.
Pat the builder from County Tyrone would move heaven and earth to please my little sister and me.
And one Saturday morning I remember him ushering me down the stairs to say he’d got a surprise for me, a gift he’d got from a fella he met down the pub for a knockdown price.
I went out into our tiny backyard and saw it, a sheet that was covering the present of my dreams.
Excited, I whipped off the covering as I imagined racing my new bike around the dirt track at the local park.
And there it was. And there it certainly wasn’t. It was a bike alright. But not the sleek and beautiful body of a BMX.
It was some ungodly looking contraption with long handlebars and one big wheel at the back and inexplicably a smaller one at the front.
It had the word Chopper blazoned on its side. ‘Er, what’s this’, I said.
‘That’s a funny thank you’, my dad replied.
‘What. Is. This?’
I’t’s a Chopper.’
‘A what?’
‘A chopper. Now go and bloody ride it or I will chuck it in the skip.’
So probably after a well-deserved strop, I took the extremely heavy – it felt like what I imagined lifting a Ford Escort would feel like – oddly-wheeled cycle out to the street and gave it a go.
Young John was no cool dude…. cute though?
And boy did I fall in love.
But it was a tough relationship.
My dad said these bikes were cool in the 70s but this was west London in 1987 and I was as far away from being cool as was possible.
A gangly, geeky, seriously shy mess with scruffy, curly hair that stood straight up and cheap Gola trainers.
Riding on this mysterious-looking machine from a bygone age around the streets of Ealing made me less cool and, if anything, more of an oddball.
Pals with BMXs pointed and stared. I was called poor, weird and a loser for daring to ride something different.
Ok, I couldn’t go round the council-built dirt track or do any jumps on the ramps and it was so cumbersome it was like trying to drive a tank up a multi-storey car park.
But I didn’t care. It was a dream to ride.
I grew to enjoy the tricky shifting up from gear 1-5 on its signature frame-mounted gear shifter.
It was fast, it was steady and with my arms outstretched on handlebars that were just a bit too far away to be practical, I felt like king of the road.
Had I known what Easy Rider was back then, I would have felt like the coolest kid in the hood.
The Chopper made you feel as cool as a Hollywood star(Image: Getty Images)
I rode it every day and long into the summer nights. I’ve had many a bike since, but nothing ever beats the memories of skidding along on that belter of a bike.
I wasn’t a weirdo; I was a trendsetter. But sadly I didn’t know it, and a year later a pal of mine gave me his used BMX and the Chopper was left to rot by the back gate.
If only I’d kept hold of it. When I was in my 30s, self-titled cool hipsters were shelling out thousands for them.
And I didn’t blame them. They’re so cool.
I found out too late how lucky I was to have one.
Long live the Chopper!
