It was 30 years ago today...

rflynnr

...that this horror was first unveiled in Ireland.

07Lapierre

I was working in a bike shop at the time... I remember when we got the first one into the shop. Batteries! Lots of batteries were needed and the sound synthesiser was crap!

jon1981

And £300 for 7-12 age group!! That's serious wedge for the time.

The internet tells me 770 euro in todays money

I'm sorry but that was the coolest bike ever.

ratracer

I wanted one!!! Only one of my mates ever got one, the filthy rich cont!!!

letape

I like the following sentence from the original rte news article - attributed to the MD of Raleigh at the time:

"The bike was subjected to ‘sever vibration impact and fatigue tests’ by children from the east end of London"

£300 in 1985 would have bought a very nice 531c racing bike, I would think.

Lumen

I think my Raleigh Burner cost about £300 (Sterling) in the mid-eighties.

I vaguely remember that a Fiat Panda cost about £4.5k.

And people moan about the cost of Islabikes....

RobFowl

There is a Raleight Vektar on display in the Ulster Folk and transport museum in Cultra just outside Belfast.
Some other cool bikes as well and some great cars and trains...

Seaswimmer

letape wrote: »

I like the following sentence from the original rte news article - attributed to the MD of Raleigh at the time:

"The bike was subjected to ‘sever vibration impact and fatigue tests’ by children from the east end of London"

£300 in 1985 would have bought a very nice 531c racing bike, I would think.

Correct. I bought a Raleigh Record Ace from Tony Kealy in Walkinstown in 1985 for £295. 531 tubing. That's not my one below but I still use it everyday. Its now a Carlton frame however as Raleigh replaced it after a year when the derailleur hanger snapped..

happytramp

Pffft, you were ripped off..... it doesn't even have a single computer on it.

Matt Bianco

:(Missed out on one in immaculate condition on Adverts around three weeks back for €50

30 years too late would have been better than never

lennymc

A mate had one of them back in the day. I thought he was like streethawk! I had to make do with my regular super burner.

The tax man

lennymc wrote: »

A mate had one of them back in the day. I thought he was like streethawk! I had to make do with my regular super burner.

I had a Raleigh Night Burner. I was shíte on it. Entered my one and only BMX race with it out on the track beside the Semperit tyre factory in Ballyfermot.

RobbieTheRobber

I had one of these back in the 80's the weight of this bike was unbelievable.
Ours got left out in the rain and well that ruined the "computer" I think at some point we tried to strip it down but the frame was just too heavy to use as a bmx. My brother may have then sold the wheels as the only valueable part left

lennymc

I came third in a bmx race on my burner. think it was out at the Balbriggan track. Never got to Ballyfermot but did race in Finglas a few times. Always remember having to make my own number plates out of the backs of cornflake packets......

Mate of mine was Irish under 12 champion (and possibly more) and raced a diamond back that was as light as anything.

edit - i got a mag burner a couple of years ago, and it was soooooo heavy. I wondered how on earth I used to get up any kind of hills back in the day, never mind cycling to the top of howth head (although the freewheel down was brilliant)

iwillhtfu

Saw one those at the Tour de Burren. It's no Raleigh burner

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Cee-Jay-Cee

A lad at my school had one, he was a wanker.

Borderfox

I asked my ma for a bike when I was 11, she got me a job in a pub as a lounge boy

Captain Havoc

A lad at my school had one also. Wasn't there a more economical black and blue or black and red versions also?

Captain Havoc

rflynnr wrote: »

...that this horror was first unveiled in Ireland.

It's the Sinclair C5 of the bicycle world.

onmebike

I remember wanting one so bad. Nobody in school had one, but there were a few BMXs with the legend about being able to fix the mag wheel in your freezer if you broke one of the spokes.

ThisRegard

I have to laugh at the Raleigh guy's description of all the testing done on the Vektar.

I've yet to this day, even during the 80s, come across one where any of the electronics worked.

Re the legend of fixing your mag wheels, around our way it was the opposite, hot water was said to be the solution.

crosstownk

An article that started out about bikes and ended up with taxi drivers* - for a minute I though I was in AH. :pac:

I still have fond memories of my Raleigh Road Ace Select - great bike.





*Fair play to the taxi drivers for their annual charity outing - afaik they still do it.

letape

Seaswimmer wrote: »

Correct. I bought a Raleigh Record Ace from Tony Kealy in Walkinstown in 1985 for £295. 531 tubing. That's not my one below but I still use it everyday. Its now a Carlton frame however as Raleigh replaced it after a year when the derailleur hanger snapped..

I got a raleigh record sprint (501 tubing frame and forks) in 1989/1990 in Tony Kealy's for £235.

Stupidly of me I threw it in a skip about 5 years ago - frame and most of the parts were still grand - even had cinelli bars and stem, a rolls saddle and dia-compe aero levers :-(

kenmc

A mate of mine had one too, we all wanted to be his best friend forever so he'd let us have a go of it. It was like a raleigh burner dressed up for full battle gear like a knights' horse. Jaysus the weight of the thing.

I love the way it's described in the video as having a radio with 3 channels. Suppose back then that was 3 times as many possibilities as there were actual channels being broadcast

Red Kev

kenmc wrote: »

I love the way it's described in the video as having a radio with 3 channels. Suppose back then that was 3 times as many possibilities as there were actual channels being broadcast

There were more pirate radio stations going around in the 1980's than you could shake a stick at.

kenmc

Red Kev wrote: »

There were more pirate radio stations going around in the 1980's than you could shake a stick at.

were they on FM? I know of Atlantic 252 on LW. actually was this thing even FM or was it am?

Wishbone Ash

A spoilt brat near me had one and he used to cycle around me playing his stupid synthesizers when I'd be cycling home from work in my very dull Raleigh 5 speed thinking I was Bernard Hinault!

biketard

Someone up my street had one and I was insanely jealous. I could've been like Street Hawk on that bike.

Wishbone Ash

Red Kev wrote: »

There were more pirate radio stations going around in the 1980's than you could shake a stick at.

kenmc wrote: »

were they on FM? I know of Atlantic 252 on LW. actually was this thing even FM or was it am?

As far as I recall the bigger ones like Sunshine and Nova were definitely on FM. "I listen to the red hot sounds of Sunshine 101".

Atlantic 252 didn't begin until the late 1980's. (I hated the way most of their presenters had stupid contrived accents.)

Ryath

Captain Havoc wrote: »

A lad at my school had one also. Wasn't there a more economical black and blue or black and red versions also?

Raleigh Wildcat
My brother got one for Christmas I wasn't a bit jealous as I had my mums ancient 3 speed steel framed raleigh that probably weighed 20kg and had to wait till I had my confirmation money to buy a Raleigh aztec mtb. He later got a mtb for Christmas :mad: Mine was better though 21 speed vs 18 (Don't worry I'm over it now)

jon1981

Now I'm feeling nostalgic...this was as good as a got for me in the 80s

Carawaystick

Ice lol sticks in the spokes?


Neighbours grandson had one, had a few goes now and again, one night( I guess in 1987 for some reason) All the kids on our road had races around the block, I got to use the vektar and beat the bigger lads, as I 'd no fear taking a blind turn at the bottom of the hill coming to the end of the lap

07Lapierre

The Motorised version....


http://www.scifiupdates.com/main/images/stories/tv_series/battlestar_galactica/1980/photos/Galactica_Turbo_Cycles.jpg

Matt Bianco

Alas this was a close as it got to electronics on my President BMX around the mean streets of north Dublin in the '80s

ThisRegard

Deadly, there was one of them in our house too. And like everything electronic in the 80s it wasn't long before the wire became dodgy and stopped working.

Mec-a-nic

I'm slightly proud that, even back then, I thought the Vektar looked a bit crap (and the price didn't help either). That said, I was probably still pining after a Grifter...

Lumen

The Grifter was unusual in being both an almost unstoppable force and an almost immovable object

gerarda

A lad I was in school with had a vektar(before he got expelled for hitting a teacher.) I met him about 6 months later after getting one of these for his birthday!!



He is in prison now.

mickdw

I had one at the time.
Everything worked apart from the radio reception but that was because there was an aerial sold seperately that was needed. Mine only had a wire that only picked up crackling.
There was a digital speedometer and and panel with sound effects as well as the radio panel.
The little panels could be moved up and down depending on where you preferred them.
I remember seeing 29 mph on my speedometer.

el tel

Lumen wrote: »

The Grifter was unusual in being both an almost unstoppable force and an almost immovable object

I must dig out the photo of me getting about 3 feet of air on my grifter. F**K Newton and his laws, I could defy gravity on that thing.

Where a BMXer could get of the mark quickly, the grifter had the legs to outrun it over a distance.

As for the Vektor, my friend has one lying in his parents house, in a room crammed full of Baird and PYE crt TVs :cool:

Mec-a-nic

el tel wrote: »

...the grifter had the legs to outrun it over a distance.

...the grifter had the momentum to outrun it...

That thing weighed a ton for such a small bike, did Raleigh get a good deal on scaffolding poles back in the '70s?

Captain Havoc

I had a grifter, it had three gears and I can't tell you the weight because AstraMonti will have a heart attack.

gambeta_fc

Matt Bianco wrote: »

Alas this was a close as it got to electronics on my President BMX around the mean streets of north Dublin in the '80s

One of those even made it to mean streets of Donegal! I'd say we got about a week out of it before the wiring between the button and siren packed in. What a week that was though :P

We always had a fallback for annoying bike noises:


Times change, after trying to make as much of a racket as possible tearing abut as a young fella creaks and clicks on the bike are now my sworn enemy ... silence is underrated.

biketard

Matt Bianco wrote: »

Alas this was a close as it got to electronics on my President BMX around the mean streets of north Dublin in the '80s

Ha HA! I had one of those on my Grifter. LOVED it!

biketard

I just remembered one more thing about my Grifter. It had a tendency to slip into neutral when you changed gears and you would find yourself thrown onto the down tube all of a sudden. Very, very painful on the old family jewels. I'm surprised I've been able to father kids after that actually.