Raleigh Chopper

Children's bicycle 1969 Raleigh Chopper The Raleigh Chopper is a bicycle for children and young adults, manufactured and marketed by the Raleigh Bicycle Company of Nottingham, England. It became a cultural icon, and its design was influenced by "chopped" motorcycles which had themselves evolved from and caricatured American Dirt track racing motorcycles. Early chopper style motorcycles were featured in the 1953 film The Wild One and in the film Easy Rider which was released in 1969 at the height of the chopper motorbike craze. MK1 models were produced from 1968 to 1972, MK2 models were produced from 1972 to 1983 and MK3 models were produced from 2004 to 2012 and sold through to 2018. Design The Raleigh Chopper design has been subject of debate but only since 1996, with claims by Alan Oakley (1927–2012) chief designer for Raleigh and then more than 30 yrs later, from Tom Karen of OGLE Design. Alan Oakley's archive was sold in 2018[citation needed] (Mellor & Kirk Auctioneers, Nottingham, August 2018) and contains material relating to the debate over the Raleigh Chopper's design that had not previously been available to the public. During his research visit to America, Oakley had se