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Video: Rusty 1984 Raleigh Bomber gets glorious sentimental restoration

Pre-mountain bike classic looks better than new.

Remember the classic Raleigh Bomber of the 1980’s? A single-speed cruiser, it was the Big Heron’s first, hesitant step into 26-inch wheeled bikes before Raleigh jumped head-first into mountain bikes a couple of years later with the Maverick.

Mike Shattock’s brother David had one and when he found it rusting in a family friend’s shed, he decided to restore it to its original glory. Here’s a video that will put a smile on your face.

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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36 comments

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Jack Osbourne snr replied to dave atkinson | 10 years ago
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Dave Atkinson wrote:

Morning everyone! we all sweetness and light today?

 3

Mornin Dave!  4

Is it just me or are some Stim-isms missing this morning? Makes the comments in response seem unbalanced. Maybe a wee trim of the whole thread back to before it got silly?

Anyway...

It's a touching story and what looks like a great restoration. I remember lusting after a Bomber... Until I tried to lift one!

Avatar
Lycraman | 10 years ago
0 likes

Morning. All good with me. Thank you for all the positive comments and thank you Stim for deleting your previous comment. I am guessing you didn't even look at the clip before posting.

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velophilia | 10 years ago
0 likes

Great job. The postman's comment nearly brought a tear to the eye. My first bike was a Striker and then a Burner. Then a blue racer, cannot remember the name. After that, a 531 Corsa with 105 and the Bio-pace rings. Nearly everyone one of my bikes were Raleighs.

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Vikeonabike | 10 years ago
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Hope to see this on my local roads.. fantastic and needs to be ridden!

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paulrbarnard replied to Stim | 10 years ago
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Stim wrote:

Had to put the video on mute,what the hell is that all about?
Raleigh Bomber-horrible contraptions,remember this gangly youth with a long nose called Neville and his twin brother having a pair of these bloody awful things in black back in the early 80s
I used to challenge them to races round the block on the council estate in the midlands i lived in at the time,i was on my Raleigh Burner and used to lap these idiots despite all their huffing and puffing,atrocious bikes,heavy,unwieldy,slow,good for nothing except the scrap cart along with choppers,Raleigh Grifters and the rest of those hideous pieces of crap
What on Earth possessed this guy to renovate the pile of junk ive got no idea,probably middle aged nostalgia for a childhood long long

Perhaps if you had read the text on the screen you would know why he restored it. It was his brothers who died.

Avatar
mingmong | 10 years ago
0 likes

That's a great restoration. The colours are just fine. Beautiful.

Smile deffinately on my face.

I didn't have a Bomber, I had a Grifter. Loved it.

Have a nice Monday.

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