Raleigh Bomber

The Raleigh Bomber was a bicycle aimed at the boys and youth market that first appeared in 1981, with wide balloon tyres, a low slung frame, a sprung saddle and wide cowhorn handlebars in the style of a cruiser. Its look was based on the American clunkers, home-built bicycles ridden down the Repack course in California in the late 1970s, and on the homemade Trackers or Cruisers of Britain. Raleigh built the frame from two of its old designs, the rear half coming from an old Nigerian roadster, and fitted 26 by 2 1/4 inch tyres on 559 millimetre rims, a size that soon became standard for mountain bikes. Unlike the American models it had no coaster brake, using either a single speed or a Sturmey Archer three-speed hub, and it borrowed its chainset from the Grifter. A Super Bomber and later a five speed derailleur model followed, and Raleigh dropped the range in 1985 in favour of the Maverick mountain bike.