Before BMX arrived in the UK, I was fully into riding my 26" wheeled Raleigh Bomber. I have always loved bikes, as far back as I can remember (although I don't remember my defining '2 wheels only' moment...?) & I treated this one, as I have done every bike since: with mucho care & attention... sort of.
I remember the build up to ownership well, I had been pleading with mum & dad for a Bomber on a daily basis since about July! I would strategically leave the Freemans catalogue open on the 'Bomber' page & just go on & on about how good it was & that 'the price was really good for that bike!' I would pull mum or dad into Trinders on a Saturday morning visit to town & stand & stare at it on the display stand, well I must have worn them down sufficiently as on Christmas morning I woke up to find it behind the downstairs living room curtains! I remember shedding a tear I was
that happy :-)
I had the original black, 3-speed Sturmey Archer hubbed version, there was also a single speed version. It had sponge grips with the push-in plastic end caps, big beach cruiser bars (It was after all, a copy of the popular US beach cruisers that preceded it) all the usual Raleigh steel accessories like brake levers, solid cotter pin cranks, pedals & brake calipers. It came sans mudguards of course & had grippy dirt tyres which looked quite like Primo dirt monsters do today & also ran a big foam padded seat made for comfortable 'cruising' around the streets.
It was finished off with the nice 'bomber' graphics which were a concoction of planes, tracer fire & search lights, oh, & who could forget the Raleigh crest on the head tube? - all good.
When Tony 'Burlo' Ball came to live in Banbury & started at Drayton school, we made friends on pretty much the first day & we arranged to meet up after school, when we both came riding along to meet each other & he had a Bomber too, we just couldn't believe it! He had the single speed one (ever the purist) & we rode around Drayton, jumping off steps & having a great time.
Well with all this jumping about, the forks on the Bomber became it's Achilles heel, they were designed with a kink in the fork blade at about the level of the brake blocks & quickly became 'choppered' with all the air time. Burlo got his replaced first, he waited until the tyre was rubbing the fork bridge! & mine followed soon after, apparently there were a lot of kids having the same problem... I also remember he came around one day after school & his mum had just bought him a new 'anti skid' tyre from Trinders & of course we took that 'Lying Trinders Bastards' Challenge & after about 10 minutes of 50ft, full tilt, brake melting skids, the inevitable
'BANG' of the tyre submitting to defeat was echoing around the houses. We both laughed so hard, fuck knows how he explained that one to his Mum!?
With the advent of BMX in the UK, my attentions soon turned to the '20" dark side' & I honestly don't remember what happened to my Bomber!? I think I must have had it for a couple of years before it was replaced by the Falcon Pro & the rest as they say, is
history...
The legend that is the Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub
I also found
the History of Sturmey Archer too, which has some great information about the company.
Heres a C&P from the 'International Cycle History Conference held at Osaka in 2000':
3.3.4 A precursor of the mountain bike
The models discussed thus far already existed when Yvonne Rix became product manager. Following her appointment, she noticed older teenagers in England riding conventional cycles fitted with dirt track racing handlebars and sorbo protective padding. This observation led her to instigate the Bomber. To get the desired image and line while minimising the need for retooling, the front end came from a bicycle already in the range, a Nigerian roadster providing the sloping cantilevered back end. Equipped with chunky tyres and specially-made handlebars, the Bomber somewhat resembled an early mountain bike but was well ahead of the MTB craze and was developed independently of it. Launched in 1981, it was promoted in an advertising campaign featuring pop star Toyah Wilcox.
I have been thinking for a while that a Bomber project is something I might be interested in doing at some point, I saw an old guy trundling along on one last year & was so suprised I nearly crashed my car! If you have any Bomber nfo then please forward it on to me...
