Raleigh Chopper designer dies aged 85

Alan Oakley drew initial design for revolutionary bicycle on back of envelope while flying from US to UK
The designer who created the revolutionary Raleigh Chopper bicycle, which became a symbol of the 1970s, has died of cancer aged 85.

Alan Oakley, who drew the initial design for the Chopper on the back of an envelope while flying back from the United States in 1967, died in Nottingham on Friday.

His wife Karen confirmed that her husband had died at their home in the Wollaton area of the city, nine months after being diagnosed with oesophageal cancer.

Oakley created the Chopper, which is famed for its unusual appearance and car-like gear shifter, after a trip to America to get to grips with the nation's youth culture.

With an angular seat, a large back wheel and small front wheel, the Chopper was a huge success for Nottingham-based Raleigh in Britain and America, becoming a must-have bike for a generation of children.

Relating how her husband fine-tuned his design, Karen Oakley said: "Alan had been over to America looking to pick up a design for a bike.

"While he was flying back, he had an airmail envelope and just drew this bike on the back of it and that was that, the creation of the Chopper."

Paying tribute to her husband's achievements in four decades with Raleigh, Oakley said: "He was there for 40 years and loved every minute of it.

"He made people very happy and I am very proud of him.

"As a friend and former colleague of Alan's said: 'Raleigh was Alan and Alan was Raleigh'. That says it all really."

I was far too young to own a Chopper bike though they were obviously the coolest one to ride. Later I had the junior version, the Tomahawk. Still cool but just on a reduced scale.

You were either a Chopper rider or a Grifter rider in those days. Looking at the now, the Grifter is actually a much more progressive design - looks a lot like current mountain bikes. The Chopper was less practical - seriously, small wheel steering wasn't clever - but that probably made it cooler.

And yet nowadays, if you ask a girl 'would you like a ride on my Chopper' you more often than not get a slap. Ah, more innocent times...

I had a BMX