First Published: Nov 15, 2013
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.
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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.
For their own safety, cyclists shan't expect motorists to pay attention to them. Like it or not, we are the most vulnerable road users. Consequently, we better anticipate the worse case scenario. Suburban areas being particularly hazardous.
Whatever one do on two wheels, they are wrong - too slow on climbs, too fast on twisty downhills. That said, safety shall prevail at all times. It can be frustrating to be stuck behind traffic, but this is also the opportunity to eat, drink and relax.
back in around 2013/14 I was attacked and robbed of my bike in Bermondsey, very close to where this incident happened. They were in a large group of around 15-20, one of whom came up behind me and whacked me with a hammer. fortunately he missed my head and hit my neck/ shoulder. anyway some kind person called the police & 2 plainclothes officers arrived after a few minutes. I got into their car and they drove to a nearby housing estate. the officers went into a building and returned a couple of minutes later with the bike, which I still have and often ride. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it's the same group doing it all these years later.
I'd be wary of quoting Vincent on anything. He's notorious in London for opposing segregated cycling infrastructure.
Oh, the driver reporting this is just, is my conclusion. The team's response is also somewhat troublesome: " does not reflect the values or standards that govern us as a team". Except, their riders will be riding like this in training all the time, almost certainly. Pros are not exactly slow on descents...
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Theres something that blows my mind about drivers and logic. "Then they ask for 1.5m after one cyclist does this. The absolute temerity of it!" For some reason, every cyclist negatively represents all of us in car brains. Lets try this with cars. "Look at that guy in the ditch after crashing his car. And then drivers ask for cheaper insurance premiums".
Those figures I quoted were from the Crime Survey for England and Wales which has been running since 1982 (originally the British Crime Survey) which assesses the true level of crime, not just reported crime.
Also, as I said on a previous news item about a cycle lane closure... (Unless the cycle lane has solid barriers all the way along it, there is nothing stopping a cyclists walking past the end of the cycle lane that has the "closure"/sign and simply hopping on to it. So, in the same way, the gaps in the barriers on Oxford Street won't be small enough to prevent people in wheelchairs or parents with baby buggies getting through ... and thus also cyclists. The question of how feasible it is to then cycle through throngs of pedestrians is a different matter.
Cyclists are just a lot faster than cars on those twisty mountain descents. Faster than motorbikes too often, IF the straight bits are not long enough for the motorbikes to accelerate away again . You have to overtake somewhere, and by the nature of a narrow road you will pass close by the car as you do so. Usually in Spain the locals, if they react at all, cheer you on as you pass!
36 thoughts on “Video: Rusty 1984 Raleigh Bomber gets glorious sentimental restoration”
Sweet ride.
Beautiful
Sweet ride.
Beautiful story.
I had a green one – it had a picture of a B17 bomber on the toptube. I remember it weighing about the same as a fully laden B17 bomber too.
I wonder where Mike got the replacement decals from?
Amazing and a great story.
Amazing and a great story.
Lush and so well done, I’m
Lush and so well done, I’m sure David would rock if he could see this. Well Done. Lovely news.
Great tribute to Mike’s
Great tribute to Mike’s brother. Bike looks awesome and you’d feel pretty awesome doing 30miles on it!
Great video!! And a lovely
Great video!! And a lovely tribute. Also means I’m gonna be singing motorhead in the lab for the rest of the afternoon! 😀
Chappeu,
Great job
Chappeu,
Great job =D>
Heartwarming
Heartwarming
That’s a lovely story, good
That’s a lovely story, good effort.
=D>
That made my day – lovely
That made my day – lovely story. I hope Raleigh see it too.
Brilliant story. My mate had
Brilliant story. My mate had one too. He has never forgotten his.
Raleigh have definitely seen
Raleigh have definitely seen it Neil! Great to see the heartwarming story. Fantastic restoration. Now that reminds me, that Europa in the garage ain’t gonna restore itself!
Great stuff.
I still have
Great stuff.
I still have most of my old ’85 Maverick in my loft. I should rebuild it.
I rode a few bombers bitd and my mav had that same front light till some tea leaf wandered off with it.
Magic stuff…..supercool!
Magic stuff…..supercool! =D>
I had a black one in my
I had a black one in my childhood. It was a great bike!
Had to put the video on
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
Stim wrote:Had to put the
You don’t read, then? And the music was entirely appropriate.
Stim wrote:Had to put the
*that’s* your first post? i guess it’s good to nail your colours to the mast, first impressions and all that. i await your incisive contribution to the debate.
Stim wrote:Had to put the
At last! Someone who hasn’t lost their rosy tinted specs, but stamped them into little plasticky splinters. The Bomber, Grifter and the sod-awful Chopper were dreadful bikes. Really, really horrible.
If someone wants to relive part of their childhood then great, that’s lovely, but the bikes were shit.
The Raleigh Hustler on the other hand was completely ace.
Stim wrote:Had to put the
Perhaps if you had read the text on the screen you would know why he restored it. It was his brothers who died.
great story taking me back to
great story taking me back to childhood as for stim’s comment about consigning grifters to the scrap heap how dare he i used to kick ass against bmxers on the many improvised tracks in our local park although i did prefer the burner that took it’s place
Great restoration job, though
Great restoration job, though the tyres are incorrect – they should be snake-belly (chevron) pattern treads, such as these:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PAIR-26×2-125-SNAKEBELLY-BLUE-GUMWALL-RALEIGH-BOMBER-CRUISER-TYRES-/190966529619?pt=UK_sportsleisure_cycling_bikeparts_SR&hash=item2c767dfe53
I had a new one in 1985, a black and chrome 5-speed version, which I thought was blimmin marvellous at the time.
Heavy, yes, but what a brilliant paper-round bike – super-durable, and comfy for morning and evening paper deliveries, while being versatile enough for a weekend thrash about the woods or towpath, or commute to the station.
I was jealous when my friend got one of the first Maverick MTBs, so I set about upgrading my Bomber to 15 speeds with a triple Sakae chainset, and later, alloy rims, which made it into quite a formidable mud-plugger!
I later sold it and went over to mountainbikes, but the Bomber had a certain magic about it, a bit like the bicycle equivalent of a Harley-Davidson.
Good to see that they have a decent following. 😀
It’s irrelevant whether the
It’s irrelevant whether the bikes were good or not. This Raleigh Bomber was my younger brothers pride and joy and I decided to restore it, end of. I’ve enjoyed restoring it and I posted the video for his old friends to take a trip down memory lane. I didn’t ask for it to be posted on this site but I’m grateful for the positive feedback. I am sorry if I have offended anyone with loud music (Bomber by Motörhead) and non Snakebelly tyres (the ones on e-bay aren’t Cheng originals) but I’ve restored it for me and how I think my brother would have liked it. I have had hundreds of positive comments and three negative ones, two on here, so that’s not too bad.
.
.
Lycraman – guessing Mike –
Lycraman – guessing Mike – some people are…well…just massive fucking wankers?
As you say the ‘quality’ of the bike, if that’s even an issue, is hardly the point. The quality of the restoration looks awesome to me – top job.
Thanks Jellysticks. I bought
Thanks Jellysticks. I bought another Super Bomber in case I needed spares. I may restore that in pink just to piss off the purists. Mike.
Stim, if you actually took 3m
Stim, if you actually took 3m 40s to watch the video you will see that my brother died tragically in 1992 aged 18 and that his pride and joy Bomber went missing for 15 years.
Stim you really are a
Stim you really are a miserable cunt aren’t you? Or a depressingly effective troll. Either way, you’re thoroughly deplorable. Do fuck off and stop ruining a great tale for everybody else.
Can someone ban Stim before
Can someone ban Stim before he makes more of a dick of himself than he already has?
Stim, shtoom.
If you’re gonna
Stim, shtoom.
If you’re gonna get pissed up and then go on the Web, go somewhere where that’s the norm.
I’m not normally one for censorship, but I think that this is a case where deleting all posts from just before Stim arrived and locking new comments would be justified… Otherwise there’s likely to be lots of unnecessary swearing and abuse getting posted.
Morning everyone! we all
Morning everyone! we all sweetness and light today?
😉
Dave Atkinson wrote:Morning
Mornin Dave! 😀
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!
Great, but sad story, massive
Great, but sad story, massive congrats on the restoration =D> ! Just ignore the knobheads
Morning. All good with me.
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.
Great job. The postman’s
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.
Hope to see this on my local
Hope to see this on my local roads.. fantastic and needs to be ridden!
That’s a great restoration.
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.