Thursday, May 29, 2008

Insane Bike

While searching for Raleigh Grifters on ebay (just out of curiosity, don't worry I have no intention of becoming a Hoxton Twat riding around on a 70s kid's bike which is 10 time smaller than me!) I found this:



If you don't remember it, the Raleigh Vektar was their attempt to make a futuristic electonic bike. As well as the more usual features (wheels, gears, saddle, etc), the Vektar featured:
  • computer (for speed and distance)

  • an AM radio (with attena dangling off the rear of the bike)

  • a sound effects generator!!

I'm not sure, but I'm guessing the sound effects would have included lasers and sirens. Of course, being the 80s, these electronics occupy a good third of the bike, whereas nowadays they could fit in one of the tyre caps.

I actually took part in some Raleigh market-research for this when I was a kid, so I am partly to blame for this bad boy! They came to Heston Village Hall and paid us a couple of quid to quiz us about it. Unfortunately although I remember the bike, I have no recollection of what I thought of it. Looking back, it's hard to see how this
didn't provoke some kind of reaction in me!

See here for more details

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