Same
life was simpler!
That bike wouldn’t have been around in 1980; just saying.
Possibly correct, think I still had my Raleigh Grifter ![]()
Probably around 83 for BMX’s to start hitting the streets?
Always wanted a grifter I had a strika with back pedalling to break.
I had a Grifter. It had 3, maybe 4 gears controlled by a grip twist shifter. It might have been red, yellow and green gears so perhaps it was 3 gears. I passed my cycling proficiency on it in 1988.
Was 3 I think. I had a Boxer before my Grifter.
What is sad is the amount of pump tracks, skate parks etc. around the UK now is quite high, but very few kids seem to have a BMX to enjoy them properly. I was never into BMX as a kid, but now I have a lovely light-as-a-feather Redline 20” race bike and a sleek but tough as old boots 24” Felt and >10 different tracks and parks within easy riding distance, plus plenty of street furniture. Probably ride them more than anything else as it is more fun and less bike wear and maintenance.
I had a boxer and then a Tomahawk which was a poor mans chopper.
Yes!! Me too. That rear brake was great fun..
My son messaged me earlier to wish me happy Back to the Future/World War 2 equidistance day
14,703 days ago Back to the Future was released in the cinema. 14,703 days before that WW2 ended
They had a little chain that kept snapping which went into the rear hub for the gears.
The Raleigh Burner apparently came out in 82 but took off more in 83 after ET quite literally took off in a BMX in the film
I thought it was possibly a year or so earlier TBH but they were probably around in the states a few years earlier.
Also remember that Aussie film, BMX Bandits, terrible but everyone loved it because of the action scenes and stunts ![]()
At one point there is a chase scene at they go down water slides with their bikes IIRC
Saw that flick at the cinema
I think I remember that, a very young Nicole Kidman as well.
Matching PJs and slippers, proper posh!
Slippers?!
Another Grifter owner here. My little brother got the Raleigh Striker at the same Christmas. Afraid to say that my next bike after that was a Halfords Turbo BMX. Why I didn’t get a Raleigh Burner, I’ll never know. My best mate at the time had a Tuff Burner. I did upgrade my wheels to ACS Z rims. They were very stupid polymer rims that you could bend. The 13 year old me thought that was a very cool thing to have.
Love the curtains. The wallpaper. The deep pile carpet. The orange and brown palette.
Wonder what people will make of late 2020s decor in 2070?
Feeling very hard done to as never had any sort of cool bike like that. Do remember aged 8 having a too-big orange shopper with white handlebars and 3 speed, once I fell off it while riding with a plastic pumpkin full of marbles and the other kids stole the marbles.
I didn’t have a bike until I was 10, my parents didn’t have much money, so it was a 2nd hand flat bar Raleigh something, kind of a shopping bike.
I used to go everywhere on it, and I was heavily into coarse fishing then, so the design meant I could head down the Somerset Levels to ‘Fenney Castle’ carry my gear and go fishing.
Coming back from one of those trips, I took the main Glastonbury Road home to Wells. (not sure why) and was hit from behind by a truck. Broke my hiop and my arm and was in BRI for a while.
When I came home from hospital, there was another 2nd hand bike waiting for me, but this time it was a proper ‘5 speed racer’ ![]()
So I never had a ‘cool bike’ but I do remember my neighbour having a bike called a ‘Commando’ ![]()

