Raleigh Chopper Raleigh Chopper The Raleigh Chopper is a children's bicycle, a wheelie bike, manufactured and marketed in the 1970s by the Raleigh Bicycle Company of Nottingham, England. Its unique design became a cultural icon and is fondly remembered by many who grew up in that period. The design was influenced by dragsters, "chopped" motorcycles, beach buggys, and even chariots, as can be seen on the centre page of the 1969 Raleigh US catalog. The Raleigh Chopper's design has been a constant debate, with claims by both Tom Karen of Ogle Design and Alan Oakley of Raleigh. The Chopper was designed in
Ross (bicycle company) biking industry. Its basic look constitutes "a total shift in image" for the industry." By 1989, Nyle Nims, at the time a vice president at Ross Bicycles (and later founder of Cycle Force Group), said 40 percent of bicycle sales were mountain bikes, adding "we see a lot of people who previously owned the dropped bar, 10-speed bike buying the wide-tire bikes, they are people who don't want to ride fast; they want to ride for recreation." Ross (bicycle company) Ross Bicycles Inc. manufactured over 15 million bicycles under the Ross brand, between 1946 and 1988. The company began in