Raleighing Cry

Those of a certain age, likely to be in their 50's, will certainly remember the revolutionary two wheeled bicycle that was The Raleigh Chopper.

It was a stylistic representation of an easy rider motorbike with just enough street credibility to get by even if it required frantic pedalling to travel any distance.

There was nothing better for an early years teenager to pose on down the recreational ground, those new fangled shopping precincts or outside the gates of the Girl's High School. Raleigh Choppers, I recall, came in a Tango Orange or bright red paint job with oversized decals. I did not have one myself and felt pretty jealous of my contemporaries who had put fashion before function in possessing oner of the dream machines.

It was just about practical in the flat topography of an urban setting but you would certainly hesitate on venturing out to the countryside or where there were, heaven forbid, anything that resembled an upward slope.

It amazed me therefore to see an interview in Cycling Weekly magazine about a brave soul who took on the route of the 2015 Tour de France on his bright red Raleigh Chopper.

Here is an extract from the interview.

"When Dave Sims rode the 2015 Tour de France route on a Raleigh Chopper, it didn't please everyone to be passed by a bloke on a vintage kid's bike.

“Yeah, people weren’t always happy. They’d shake their head and mutter a few swear words.”

Dave Sims is the protagonist for the verbal outbursts that littered the switchbacks on the Alpine road when he rode up the Alpe two days ahead of the Tour de France’s arrival on July 23.

The 36-year-old, from Southport, rode 18 stages of the Tour on a modified-but-still-predominantly-original Raleigh Chopper raising money for Help for Heroes.

Assumptions that he would struggle in the high mountain passes were quickly dispelled, however, when he began breezing past riders on road bikes – including his friends who had especially flew out to France to assist him.

“My favourite was a bewildered Londoner with a strong cockney accent shouting, ‘f***ing hell, there’s some guy on a Chopper’. That made me laugh and cheered me up,” he chuckled to Cycling Weekly.

“Three of my mates came out to help on Huez but on the first hairpin bend I dropped them. I went up that climb in gear two like a man possessed.

“Huez was superb as it was the last mountain and my body had adapted to the demands I was placing on it. I reached a level of fitness that I’ve never had before and might possibly never have again.”

Sims has raised almost £8,500, almost double his target, after having his profile raised following physio treatment from Team Sky on an injured Achilles tendon that led to a meeting with Dave Brailsford and receiving a good luck voicemail off Tour champion Chris Froome.

“I was four miles into stage 14 and Jonathan, my driver in the motorhome that week, said ‘you’re riding 10 mph on a flat road. You can’t use your right leg. Just stop.’ Being told to stop was awful, I never wanted to hear that,” he recounted.

“I’d been speaking to Fran Millar who said to get in touch if we wanted anything so ringing Sky was my only option otherwise we would have had to go home.

“I rang her up and she said the physio had a slot at 7.30am so we drove 200km to meet them and they sorted me out with taping. It was brilliant.”The qualified nutritionist says he is leaner than ever before and has no plans to hang the Chopper’s wheels up, rather he is fine-tuning plans for his ‘Everest’ attempt up Alpe d’Huez on September 27.

Achilles injury-permitting, he is to ride up the hairpin bends nine times, the vertical ascent equivalent of summiting the world’s highest mountain. “It’s going to be pretty cool to do it on the Alpe,” he added.

“Nine times is psychologically easier to deal with than 165 times up a local hill.

“If my injury is still not fully recovered then I’ll get two lads from the army cycling team to ride it and I’ll be the co-ordinator. This is just the start of the Chopper project.”

Whatever next....., around the world on a shopper bike?

(Source. Cycling Weekly. Photo Dave Sims)