The death of Tom Karen, the British designer behind the classic Raleigh Chopper, shifts the gears on owners’ reminiscences
Photograph: Guardian Community
I won a Chopper in a colouring-in competition that was on the back page of the Dick Whittington on Ice programme in the winter of 1975-76. The famous clown Charlie Cairoli presented me with the bike during the interval of a subsequent showing of the pantomime at Wembley Empire Pool. He noticed my surname was Italian and said: “I’m a-glad-a you won,” which became a family catchphrase.
My Chopper MK2 was an eighth birthday present in 1975, in the days when I was innocent enough to invite my friends for a ride on my Chopper without smirking. I was a pre-teen easy rider on the mean streets of Mundford, in Norfolk. I’d use pegs to attach playing cards to the front and back forks to make it sound like a Harley. I was so proud of my gleaming purple machine, and its three-speed gear shift. If we returned home late, I’d still have to take it out for a ride round the block before bed.
I loved the look of the Chopper and it arrived, after much begging, in the winter of 1971. I would accompany my friend on his paper round in the mornings just as an excuse to ride it, even in the rain. Back then, bikes were your key to the universe and I went there in style. I rode it until leaving school in 1976, when it was passed on to my younger brother, who in turn passed it on to my youngest brother – until it was stolen sometime in the 80s. A sad end for a much-loved machine.
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