an amateur cyclist is planning to ride the entire tour de france   considered the most gruelling race in professional cycling   on a raleigh chopper dave sim has put in months of training aboard his bright yellow mark three chopper in preparation to ride all 2077 miles of the 2015 tour de france route this summer the 36 year old personal trainer from southport, merseyside, is hoping his stunt will inspire people to get out and ride themselves scroll down for video  dave sim, 36, rides his raleigh chopper on the l'etape du tour last year he now hopes to cycle the entire tour de france  the tour involves many hill climbs which are grueling even for professionals using high performance road bikes  mr sim and two others, who are using proper road bikes, attempt a hill climb in france last year  mr sim said his chopper is as close to standard as possible, but required a better seat and tweaked brakes  mr sim said his chopper   the 2004 revival of the iconic 1970's children's bike   is as close to standard as possible he said: 'i've tried to make as few changes as possible so it's got the original tyres 'the main thing i've changed is the seat post and the pedal arms as it was originally designed for kids 'and the wheels   on the first part of the race through northern france, there are a lot of sections of really terrible cobbles, so a guy made me some really strong wheels as i kept breaking spokes 'i've also had to put slightly better brakes on as well 'up the biggest climbs it gets a bit grim, it was just two degrees at the top of one, the col de tourmalet   it took me forever to get down, i was almost hypothermic at the bottom' while it's by far the longest ride he's attempted, mr sim has completed long rides on the chopper before mr sim attempted the l'etape du tour on the raleigh chopper last year and finished in the top 20 per cent  mr sim hopes his audacious attempt to ride the tour de france will inspire others to take up cycling  pictured left, mr sim stands with others riding the l'etape du tour right, he is pictured with his chopper in the lake district  he said: 'i did the l'etape du tour last year it's a mass start event where thousands do a stage of the tour de france on closed roads 'lots of people didn't think i could do it, but i thought, why not have a go? 'i did really well, got a really good time, i was in the top 20 per cent, so the next morning, i thought about doing the full tour 'i thought, if i could do one day, is it possible to do the whole tour? 'after the etape i shouldn't have wanted to even see a chopper again, but it was a bit of a eureka moment, that's where it came from 'i come from a cycling family, my mum and dad would take me to see the tour, riding up mountains is in my blood 'it's always been a bit of a dream to ride the tour de france, i won't do it again, my dad said he never would have thought i'd do it on a chopper!' he said: 'part of the motivation was to show people you don't need a £10,000 bike to do amazing things on   my bike cost me £100, and i'm doing the tour on it with a bike, it's mostly to do with the engine 'in the last five years the cost of road cycling has sky rocketed but you don't need all that, you just need to get out and ride 'the other side of the challenge is to raise as much money for help for heroes as possible' mr sim also hopes his stunt will raise as much money as possible for charity help for heroes 
dave sim months chopper 36 year old raleigh chopper 2004 tour de france
dave sim has spent months training to ride tour route on a chopper . the 36 year old personal trainer hopes to inspire people to begin riding . his raleigh chopper is the 2004 revival of the classic 1970s kids' bike . he said it had 'always been a dream' to ride the famous tour de france 