I got a red Grifter at a local auction around 15 years ago.

It had rusty Burner wheels and bent forks.

I had a shopper bike so I took the 28 spoke 3 speed alloys from that. Along with the front brake and levers.

I got a seat tube from an old bike welded into the frame.
I got a brake bridge welded to the chainstays. And drilled the seat tube for the cable. I fitted a Weinmman centrepull brake.

I fitted forks from a Raleigh Wildcat. There BMX style. But have a clamp in the headset stack to hold the stem. So has a long steerer tube. Unfortunately they also have long fork blades. So the bike was very long. 42" wheel base. Compared to my Wildcat that now had normal BMX forks, 36" wheelbase.

I called the bike. Super tanker, or Super T. As tankers are very long.


Thats in a town 12 miles away.


Thats at the sea side. 10 miles away. I had just seen 38mph on the Cateye speedo that I had beside the left grip. Hit some soft sand and nearly crashed there.

Heres the bike as it was before I stripped it down again.


I was welding the cable holes up. Then doing some work on the 20" raleigh Max forks I have for it. Its in bare metal just now. But sanding it to a good finish is boring. Will get it done sometime

Thats defo a custom Alec liking the new mount for the rear caliper not sure about the seat tube addition why were the standard forks changed? should look good painted

that is one extreme looking custom are you revamping this one then? particularly impressed with your 38mph top speed, the best i've managed so far is 36.5! keep the pics coming!

As I said when I got it from Auction the forks were bent.

I got another Grifter from Auction. An XL. £1.
Fixed the mudguard and rode it round for a month.
Then sold it for £20.
Was about 15 years ago. That auctions closed down.

Im thinking of painting it red with the stars and stripes decals. I got the cheap ones from Ebay. There not supposed to be very good though.

I got a job lot of suspension forks from Ebay. There mostly 26". I fitted a pair to my gold bike. A customised Raleigh Phaser.

and another pair to my Boss MTB. My brother got it from a boot sale for £5. It had normal forks. I fitted the suspension forks then sold it. That covered the price of the forks.


I have a 20" set of forks in the lot. They have a quite long steerer. So will try to fit them. Save me painting the forks.

as you can see from the pic of the silver and green bike. I have gear mechs on the bike. I have a 3 speed hub on there. But racer cranks with 2 chain rings. It will be 6 speed.

I did that to my Lil Blue bike.


It was built to experiment with the 6 speed drive train. I have a Shimano 18 tooth cog from a 3 speed hub. The older ones are the same 3 prong fitting. That cog is pressed steel and so can fit with a narrow chain. Standard 1/8" chain dont like being derailed. Its a bit low geared with 52/18 on a 20" wheel. I do have a Campag 56 tooth chainring. Got campag cranks on my Raleigh Flyer. So could fit them. Ive seen you can get cogs for a 3/32" chain. SJS cycles list them. I have also heard of modding cassete sprockets to fit. Ive got a few of them. And various freewheels. Will see what fits. Not keen on using a Hyperglide cog though. Want full height teeth