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
Schwinn Bicycle Company to sell during the inevitable downturns in business cycles. After traveling to Europe to get ideas, F. W. Schwinn returned to Chicago and in 1933 introduced the Schwinn B-10E Motorbike, actually a youth's bicycle designed to imitate a motorcycle. The company revised the model the next year and renamed it the "Aerocycle". For the "Aerocycle", F. W. Schwinn persuaded American Rubber Co. to make balloon tires, while adding streamlined fenders, an imitation "gas tank", a streamlined, chrome-plated headlight, and a push-button bicycle bell. The bicycle would eventually come to be known as a "paperboy bike" or "cruiser". Schwinn was soon