I used to have one of these bikes. The Raleigh Strika. I loved this bike! Not as big as a Raleigh Grifter and there were no gears. It had simulated suspension on the front. I do remember adding some card to the back wheel to get that rat-a-tat noise. Towards the end the chain kept slipping off usually while I was bombing down a hill in the local park. Great memories
Raleigh strika retro retrofinds 80's 70's
A fantastic machine! I had a black one, removed the mudguards, added a snazzy handlebar number plate to look like a scrambler, then went and jumped 4 people (lying down) on it at the local park. I also had one of those snazzy sound effect jobbies attached to it - laser, police siren machine gun etc. Ah, great days, great days!
ReplyDeleteI think you mean the Raleigh Grifter, rather than 'Drifter'. I had a red Grifter after my Striker, another cracking bike, but you can't beat that old Striker. I remember seeing a kid on a Grifter at the local BMX style mud/jump track. He went off a drop-in and the frame snapped clean in half. Nasty.
Anyway, great post, and you sparked some cracking old memories for me. Cheers!
Dazz
Thanks for the comments. Whoops it was the Grifter. Think I had chocolate on the mind. Thanks also for the reminder of the sound effects. I has one of those too. I remember there was a plague of flying ants one year and I rode around the block blaring the siren and warning people that "the ants are coming!". I was young!
ReplyDeleteA great use of the siren. I'm sure your neighbors slept easy in their beds after getting the early warning - those flying ants can be pesky little buggers and no mistake.
ReplyDeleteWell done that man!
If you'd like to find out more info on the Strika or have any info, please check out www.raleighstrika.com
ReplyDeleteThanks.
ps. I have one of the sirens. Yellow one with the emergency services. I now use it to annoy the girlfriend :)
ReplyDeleteOh. I wish I still had that. could anoy the wife :)
ReplyDeleteMy sister and I used to have those yellow sirens. We both had metallic blue bikes. There was a bus stop at the end of the road with benches, and I would jump across the two benches on my bike :)
DeleteAwesome machine, I had one in metallic lime green. My mate had a yellow Raleigh Boxer, great bikes. We had the sound affects on the hnadle bars & do you remember CHiPs was on the telly & you could get US style police shirts, whooaa!! top fun!
ReplyDeleteI had 1 of those CHiPs uniforms with my name on it along with a yellow boxer wow! loved that bike! my brother had a red grifter those grifter were built from scaffolding poles judging by the weight of them! There were about 5 of us in the Raleigh gang! Haha the memories
Deletelol" guys im now 37 and boy have you took me down memory lane" those days were the best wernt they, i had a black striker and i loved it so much, do you remember how comfy the saddle was aswell ? and yes chips being on the telly, which im sure you did the same prompted you to ride side dy side with ya mate mouthing the music" lol" why did life have to get serious and responsible lol
ReplyDeleteReading all of these comments put a smile on my face, I am now 37 yrs old and miss my chips days with my mates, black striker what a top bike, far better than the bmx burner boys haha, I need to find that old yellow police siren, that will piss the missis off, trip to me ma's shed i think lol
DeleteI'm french, when I was jung I had this bike.. In green.. Now, I'm 43..
ReplyDeleteGRANDS et BONS SOUVENIRS !!
Hello all loving reading all these comments a real trip down memory lane, i had a black one remember the red reflector behind the seat ace. looking at the pictures now i remember them being a lot bigger and more chunky but i surpose i was alot smaller lol. Im now 30 and this was my second bike at the time handed down to me by my uncle then my antie then mine and was still in great condition these bikes were built to last
ReplyDeleteLOL
ReplyDeletethis thread is hilarious, I also had this bike, with a number plate on front and a siren generator. LOL
If the Hiace jeep is top gears indestructible machine - this has to be the Abrahams tank of the kids bike league. Shame my cars don;t hold up as well in collisions as that thing did.
Thanks for the memories
got my silver strika for my 8th birthday. dad put an no.8 number plate on the front. was well made up. so much fun could be had with a plank of wood, a few bricks and some trusting (or stupid) friends/little sister. good memories... crashing, getting back on, peddle off, realize something wasn't right, off, round the front, front gripped wheel between knees, twist the handlebars back to straight. all while shouting at my laughing mates to "wait for me!!!!!".
ReplyDeleteI had one of these in silver, awesome bike. I had one with the peddle back brakes which were great for bombing down hills and pulling skids like Bodie and Doyle. Also had one of those siren, I believe they were compulsory during the late 70's.
ReplyDeletedoes anyone remember the scrambler looked like the chopper had the gears in the middle
ReplyDeleteI do remember the scrambler. Great name for a bike.
ReplyDeleteSomeone mentioned the seat being comfy. Not sure if it was me being on it too long but my thighs used to be red from rubbing on the seat (I wasnt fat, quite the opposite, I was lanky so this may be the reason for it)
ReplyDeletegreat comments and i feel obliged to add to them. i had a silver stika, with the 3 sound siren AND my dad fitted indicators to the back. i absolutely played CHiPs with my friend who also had a silver strika. got mine for christmas one year. it was the year 'father christmas' was a bit noisy in delivering the presents, and as a result i found out he didn't exist. didn't matter though cos it was the best christmas ever!!!
ReplyDeleteWoah! I had the green Striker and my mates had Grifters which easily weighed at least double, no chance of even a wheelie. I took off the mud and chain guards and mine had the peddle back break, great for skids! My Striker was easily the envy of the whole street especially when ET came out and featured the awesome BMX's.The seat was fat and hurt your legs the handle bars did keep moving no matter how tight and remember the nut crushing steering column, ouch. We had mud jumps and scaffold blanks balanced on bricks too, so cool, I'd never let my kids do that. My Dad made me a ramp from an old chipboard kitchen cupboard and it snapped under a grifter - FACE PLANT! I wish I still had my Striker :(
ReplyDeleteI ve just bought a 42 year old strika for my boys to ride,it is solid just as i remember,good times ahead me thinks!
ReplyDeleteI had one too! I loved this bike. Mine had a back-pedal brake.
ReplyDeleteMe too, I had a Striker, In silver and my brother had a yellow (ithink) Boxer. Im 40!!:D
ReplyDeleteWas I the only one who put some card in the spokes to make that ratatat noise?
ReplyDeleteI had one of these in metallic green.. Mine had a "peddle back brake" too..Known as a coaster break I think hehe.. I'm 41 now.
ReplyDeleteI had a grey one too. I remember bombing around NW London with my mates on this. Great memories. Thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteLove it! Had a green one with the original peddle back brake which was awesome for skids. This is the bike I taught myself to ride one with the obligatory yellow siren and playing cards stuck in the spokes with clothes pegs. Ah... those were the days then I upgraded to a Raleigh Commando (chopper style but smaller), a grifter (the heaviest bike on the planet and near impossible to bunnyhop) then finished it off with a Raleigh Bomber which my friend kindly wrote off the 1st time I let anyone else ride it by getting hit by a car outside his house. Needless to say I was only concerned about the condition of my bike and not my friends health. Now most Raleigh bikes are cheap chinese junk with none of the 'handbulit in nottingham' quality that we all grew up with.
ReplyDeleteBlack FTW :-)
ReplyDeleteBlimey, I even had one of those yellow sirens too!
Did everyone's have that knocking noise when you pedalled? (everyone I knew did)
If anyone is interested I have a original 1978 Raleigh striker in silver exactly like the one in PIC and am looking to sell ,from UK please reply if interested.
ReplyDeleteHad a striker in green - best thing was the brake on the pedals so you could pull huge slides :D
ReplyDeleteJust picked up an old red striker. Want to restore but have no idea where to start?
ReplyDeleteI had a yellow Boxer and an Evil Kenevil outfit complete with massive helmet!!! Couldn't see where I was going most of the time...Also had the yellow siren too it didn't like the rain...Happy days though!!!
ReplyDeleteI had a silver one when I was a kid in the mid 80's so it must have been 2nd hand. I don't remember what happened to it though
ReplyDeleteI'm an ex Strika owner! and it's uncanny as to the amount of us who all seem to have shared the same childhood! Which is 1 Strika 2 Yellow sirens in two versions! I have to mention this as I grew up as a council estate kid!and so when it comes to how cruel kids are, then if you had the version that was just a siren then you were purely because of this, (poor!) as some of us had a police style mic on ours with a button to press to activate the loudspeaker for talking! Which was so faint that you could just hear your voice coming out the siren over your voice! Mad! But essential to avoid the brand of being poor! (The fact that although you had the nuts version, you never seemed to use it! Which was that in truth your batteries had been dead for a few weeks/months as your parents were to POOR to replace them! And I have to mention the 70s TV which was to me was, The A team,the Fall guy,Chips which has had several mentions, then what was the definition of perfection to my child's mind and that was ,the Professional's, I still remember the endless role play and the constant fighting over who was Bodie and who was Doyle? As for me and my friends Bodie was the all round proper Geezer! I remember that it was aired around my bedtime so when it came on with that unforgettable music that would bring the promise of total excitement to me as a child! Mixed with an anxiety inducing knowing that said tune would simultaneously sound the alert to my parents to say things like "is it that late already!" So I learnt to sink back into my armchair and not even flinch,cough or make a sound of any kind,in a desperate attempt to disappear from the parent radar! Because if I were to alert them from whatever they were doing/saying, to my presence then I had failed once more as would next come "hey you it's well past bedtime so go on brush your teeth and then bed love you night night X" But as they were loving parents just occasionally if I could make it to around the halfway point of the show in total silence without movement of any kind! Then and only then would my parents make the world changing mutual decision which was the only thing that mattered to me and if lucky I would watch them as them smiled at one another before turning to me to say "we know that you like this show and as you have been good and also that you've watched the first half, as a treat we have decided to let you stay up late and watch it all" yes yes yes life is now perfect was the only thing on my mind! I can't help smiling now at 44 as I'm thinking ain't no one gonna be sending my old butt to bed! As I sit down to watch reruns of Bodie & Doyle skidding about in the cars we all knew and loved and as the theme tune begins! I Swear to this day with it comes the same exact sensation I felt all that time past being the, awesomeness that is about to unfold before my eyes!mixed with the sense that any moment now I will be off to bed feeling gutted that the best thing ever on telly I would miss once again, I will try again next week!
ReplyDeleteHad one of these,still have the scar on my finger to prove it lol. Loved that little bike all the same.
ReplyDelete