Alan Oakley

Oakley, then head of design at the Nottingham-based firm, drew the initial design for the Chopper on the back of an envelope in 1967 during a 14-hour return flight from the West Coast of America, where he had been sent by the firm’s management to “get to grips” with youth culture.

The previous year Raleigh had attempted to break into the American youth market with the Rodeo, a bike that resembled the Stingray of the US manufacturers Schwinn, but it was not a success.

Oakley noticed that fashion-conscious youngsters in California were customising pedal-bikes to mimic the “chopped” dragster design of motorcycles favoured by hippie bikers and Hell’s Angels. His design had many of the visual features of an American motorbike, with high-rise “ape-hanger” handlebars; Sturmey Archer hub gears selected using a “sports car” gear shift on the crossbar; long padded high-back seat; and chunky tyres on different-sized front and rear wheels. The rear hoop above the seat resembled a motorcycle “sissy bar”. Even the kickstand was designed to give the stationary bicycle a look reminiscent of a parked motorbike.

The Chopper was launched in 1968 in America, where it got off to a slow start. The next year the release of Dennis Hopper’s film Easy Rider coincided with the bike’s launch in Britain. The film, which became a cult hit, was the best possible advertisement, and the Chopper went on to sell more than 1.5 million until the early 1980s, when the BMX craze took over.

Priced from approximately £32 for a standard Chopper to £55 for the deluxe version, the bike, known to fans as the “Hot One”, was more fashion accessory than means of transport. It came in racy colours such as “Infra Red”, “Brilliant Orange”, “Flamboyant Green” and “Fizzy Lemon”, and the high-rise handlebars offered the perfect framework for D-I-Y customisation using coloured tape and tassels. As one admirer recently recalled: “The boys who rode Choppers wore Wrangler jeans and beetle-crushers, danced to records by Mud, Slade and Sweet, and snogged all the girls at youth-club discos.”

The popularity of the Chopper also led to a range of smaller bikes following a similar design theme. These included the Chipper, Tomahawk, Budgie and Chippy models aimed at younger riders.

But, as Matthew Valentine recalled in Design Week, the appeal of a Chopper was largely based on its impracticality and danger: “A Chopper offered the chance of wobbling precariously along the streets with a friend riding pillion on the luggage rack. In the event of an accident, his or her progress could be glamorously retarded by a metal bar in the teeth, and your own by a gear lever in the testicles.” It was also famous for its potential to tip over backwards while executing Harley-Davidson-style wheelies.

After several reported accidents, the Chopper was attacked in the press as a dangerous toy and, prompted by the number of injuries sustained by cycles tipping up, Raleigh took to printing warnings on the seat.

The Mk2 Chopper, introduced in 1972, addressed some of these problems: the gear lever changed from a knob to a T-bar-style shifter; the seat was moved forward to help prevent the bike tipping up; and the handlebars were welded to the stem to stop children inclining them backwards and rendering the bike unsteerable.

Raleigh did not give Oakley any special reward for dreaming up the Chopper, despite the fact that the design almost single-handedly kept the ailing firm out of the hands of the receivers. It remains the most successful cycle Raleigh has ever made.

Alan Oakley was born on April 27 1927 at Netherfield, near Nottingham, the son of a printer. He was educated at Chandos Street Boys’ School and left school aged 15 to work as a trainee draughtsman at Raleigh. Later he obtained a qualification in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Nottingham.

Oakley’s early duties at Raleigh had little to do with cycles: Raleigh was engaged in war work, turning out cartridge cases and fuses. In 1941 he joined the RAF.

His first important design for Raleigh (with Sidney Buxton) was a new model of the pre-war Raleigh Record Ace – a lightweight machine that proved ideal for racing. He also played a key role in the development of the RSW (Raleigh Small Wheels) cycle. After the Chopper, Oakley designed the Grifter (1976), a bike in which the gear shift was incorporated into the handle grips; he also led a team designing bicycles for use in the Tour de France and other cycling events.

When the film ET introduced the BMX to a new generation of children in 1982, it was clear that the Chopper’s days were numbered, and it soon went the way of nylon shirts, flares and the Bay City Rollers.

The last of the original bikes came off the assembly line in Nottingham in 1982, and the same year Oakley, who had risen to the main board, left Raleigh to work for the Department of Trade and Industry and as a consultant to the Design Council, before retiring.

The Chopper became a collector’s item with numerous fan websites, and in 2004 Raleigh sought to capitalise by launching the Chopper Mk3. Oakley attended the relaunch, but privately expressed reservations about the bicycle which, to his great disappointment, was manufactured in the Far East, not in Britain.

The launch took place amid some controversy when Tom Karen, a pioneer of crash-test dummies, stepped forward to claim that the inspiration for the Chopper had been his and that his company Ogle, which undertook design work for Raleigh, had created the bike’s prototype. Although Karen is listed as the bike’s inventor by the Design Council, Raleigh has continued to insist that it was Oakley’s invention.

Alan Oakley married first, in 1954, Brenda Wilson, and secondly, in 1992, Karen Francis, who survives him with a son of his first marriage. A daughter of his first marriage predeceased him.

Alan Oakley, born April 27 1927, died May 18 2012