This is how i bought it



And how it looks today

Bikes are not my thing – can't even ride – but that looks like a really great restoration job.

Thank You took me months to finish but well happy with it,debating now wether to keep it or sell it on the bay there is one on now similar to mine and is up at £300 so far dont think it will sell though as people want to restore them themselfs but you never know

I had been through the Chopper phase, though I'd changed the handlebars to cow horns (remember them ?), and had a Raleigh Commando when the Grifter came out. We'd never see nowt like it, twist grip gears ! Proper fancy ! Think every lad I knew got a Grifter for Christmas that year.

just watch out for those thieving gets trying to nick your toggle chain , had me a red one in 79, also had the a red Tomahawk and a blue commando, ended up getting a chrome burner after the grifter then a few other burners, a falcon pro zeta before getting a raliegh maverick mountain bike in 87/88

Done a great job there Classy Cas!

I got a Grifter for Christmas in the late 70's. They were a remarkably tough bike, only problem with it was the gears...rode around with it stuck in 3rd gear for years, good for building leg strength though I guess!

Yes i remember the cow horns put some on my racer bike back in the 80s to do better wheelies

Quote: duke street 10 "Done a great job there Classy Cas! I got a Grifter for Christmas in the late 70's. They were a remarkably tough bike, only problem with it was the gears...rode around with it stuck in 3rd gear for years, good for building leg strength though I guess!'" Cheers not bad for a 35 year old bike, having problems with the gears at the moment they change fine on the twist grip but the toggle chain aint moving,so bought a new gear cable as the old one looks like its seen its days. I joined a raleigh grifter forum to get help in rebuilding the bike back together some useful stuff on there and some good restorations too. www.raleighgrifter.proboards.com/index.cgi

Quote: duke street 10 "Done a great job there Classy Cas! I got a Grifter for Christmas in the late 70's. They were a remarkably tough bike, only problem with it was the gears...rode around with it stuck in 3rd gear for years, good for building leg strength though I guess!'" Cheers not bad for a 35 year old bike, having problems with the gears at the moment they change fine on the twist grip but the toggle chain aint moving,so bought a new gear cable as the old one looks like its seen its days. I joined a raleigh grifter forum to get help in rebuilding the bike back together some useful stuff on there and some good restorations too. www.raleighgrifter.proboards.com/index.cgi

I had a Raleigh Commando similar to this one. Ace bike apart from, as already mentioned, sturmey-archer gears that never worked properly..

I had a Raleigh Commando similar to this one. Ace bike apart from, as already mentioned, sturmey-archer gears that never worked properly..

Superb pics! Brought back some happy memories. I had a silver Grifter with the larger mudguard. I loved it. The blue, yellow and red gears, the comfy saddle. Miles better than a BMX. Had a Budgie before I was big enough for the Grifter.

Great job that CC!

Doing them up like that you should start a little business knocking 'em out.There'll be plenty of old un's like us who would have one

I love the Grifter and what a great looking restoration job.
I had an old Chopper that a paper round customer gave me one Christmas. Somehow I managed to bend the frame, but undeterred I made what we used to call a scrambler. You took an old "racer", swapped the back wheel for one from a Chopper/Grifter/BMX (no back brake obviously) and turned the drop handlebars around to point upwards. It must have looked feckin stupid, but there were plenty of them around at the time.



I remember seeing a few Choppers with cowhorns, they looked so wrong!

i remember putting the forks and front wheel from my first mountain onto the frame of an old Ultra Burner with CW bars, it was mental to ride, i named it The Phantom Bellringer, those was thhe days