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Today in pulp... I look back at Raleigh bikes: the most exciting bikes on the planet! #ThursdayMotivation #cycling

 Raleigh was the all steel bike that defined a generation of cyclists: for many it was their first introduction to the joys - and perils - of cycling!
The brand was named after Sir Walter Raleigh - inventor of the cigarette. And it was built in Nottingham - home of the cigarette. So obviously everyone who rode one smoked...
Now of course British cycling has a long and noble history...
...but you didn't come here for that! You want a big fat hit of nostalgia, so let's get right to it.
Let's start with the good stuff: the 10 speed Mark l Raleigh Chopper! Possibly the most dangerous - and therefore best - bike any child could own. I mean, look at it!!
Bizarre wheels, an unbalanced banana seat and a frankly lethal gear lever placement made the Mark l Chopper a bike that required strong nerves to ride!
Junior Chopper options were available: the Budgie and the Tomahawk let you slowly build up your confidence, along with your bruises, blisters and minor fractures.
By 1976 Raleigh had released the Mark ll chopper: less unbalanced but still next to impossible to ride safely in flares. Couldn't they give us a chain guard or something?
The Chopper was the bike of the '70s that's for sure. But times they were a changing, and as the Summer of Punk came around so did a new, tougher kind of bike for the nation's youth...
The Raleigh Grifter was made of pig iron and could withstand a direct nuclear blast. Never was a bike so heavy to ride or so unforgiving on the cobbles...
...but it looked boss! With a three speed twist-grip gear shifter and a mean padded crossbar this is the bike Bodie and Doyle would ride to school. It was mean. And very heavy.
Grifter Gangs soon sprung up across the country: ITV-watching toughs who smoked Bensons and knew the lyrics to Sham 69 songs! They probably read Battle Action too!
But nothing - genuinely nothing - could compare to Raleigh's next triumph: the Burner!
BMX fever gripped Britain in 1980, and only one bike would do for the country's bunny-hopping youth. The Burner had it all...
The Mark ll version in sky blue and banana yellow, with tuff wheels and dipped crossbar remains a thing of beauty to this day. Why it's not in the Tate Modern is beyond me. Raleigh had reached its peak...
...and it was all downhill from there. The Bomber? The Maverick? Please! Raleigh failed to really get the mountain bike craze of the mid-80s and as BMX sales slumped so did the company's fortunes...
It's last radical idea was the Vectar: a computerised bike designed by a man with a ruler. It was cycling's answer to Street Hawk, and lasted about as long.
Raleigh bikes were crazy, energetic and innovative in their own British way. For example the 1970s Raleigh Strika anticipated the front fork shock absorber concept decades before other manufacturers...
And there is still a frisson of excitement to be had every time you grab a vintage Raleigh and go bombing around the local park. That feeling will never leave us. Nor will the minor concussion from falling off it and hitting a tree. Happy days!

More stories another time...

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It's now over half a century since 1970, and I'm starting to wonder if we should bring back its concept of gracious modern living...


You see we've grown so used to Swedish-style modernism that we've sort of forgotten that maximalism, rather than minimalism, was once the sign of a cultured abode.


The 1970s in many ways reached back to the rich ideas of Victorian decor: heavy, autumnal and cluttered. Home was meant to be a baroque and sensual experience, rather than a 'machine for living in.'


Gaudy was certainly in by 1970: colour choices for interior design were rich and varied, with every room becoming a boutique of signature design.


Experimentation and adventurism were also coming to the fore: now we had landed on the Moon surely we should start to live like astronauts on Earth.
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@PulpLibrarian
Today in pulp I look at the scandalous history of lady jeans!

Well there's a turn-up...


The denim jean and its predecessor the dungaree have a long history, and were traditionally seen as work wear for men.

But WWII changed all that...


As women headed for the factories and shipyards they found that a sturdy denim bib-n-brace, paired with a stout headscarf, was the way to go!


Coarse heavy 'jeens' were fine for riveting work, but 1940s women didn't take a shine to them as leisure wear. For one thing they were voluminous and shapeless.


Jeans were also seen as clothing for children. No adult wanted to be seen wearing kid's dungarees in public.

Or did they?
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Pulp Librarian
Pulp Librarian
@PulpLibrarian
Would you like to live in a UFO? Well in 1968 you could, thanks to Finnish architect Matti Suuronen. He created the Futuro House and for a while it was a worldwide sensation!

Let's take a look around...


The Futuro was a round prefabricated house initially designed as a ski chalet. Quick to build and easy to heat it reflected the optimism of the times.


Inside the spacious Futuro were all the 1960s mod cons: a central cooker/heater, reclining chairs, funky furniture and cool, crisp lines. Did it have shagpile carpets? Of course it did!


The Futuro was made of fibreglass- reinforced polyester and was light enough to be towed to any location. You literally moved house.


But its futuristic design caused an immediate backlash: Futuro houses were banned from many municipalities by zoning regulations because they didn't 'blend in' with the environment. Production was halted in the mid 1970s.
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Pulp Librarian
Pulp Librarian
@PulpLibrarian
Happy #WorldEggDay everyone! Let's share a few egg facts to celebrate.

Did you know... a chicken's earlobes can predict what colour egg they will lay?


Fake chicken eggs are a problem in China. Manufactured false eggs made from resin, coagulent and starch in a counterfeit shell are being sold as real by fraudsters. #WorldEggDay


In 1806 con artist Mary Bateman scratched the words "Christ is coming" on numerous eggs before inserting then back up a chicken. She then charged people to see the 'miracle eggs' being laid. #WorldEggDay


The world record for eating hard boiled eggs is 65 swallowed in 6 mins 40 secs by Sonya Thomas. She could have eaten more but they ran out of eggs. #WorldEggDay


And finally... Canadian scientists concluded in 2008 that the egg did indeed come before the chicken: dinosaurs were laying them long before they evolved into birds.

Every day's a school day... #WorldEggDay
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Pulp Librarian
Pulp Librarian
@PulpLibrarian
As it's #AppreciateADragonDay let's do some classic covers from Dragon magazine!


Tony DiTerlizzi's cover art for Dragon magazine #242, December 1997.


Dragon magazine issue 106, February 1986. Cover by Keith Parkinson.


Dragon Magazine #71, March 1983. Cover by Clyde Caldwell.


Dragon magazine issue 65, September 1982. Cover by Clyde Caldwell.
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