Raleigh Fireball

The Raleigh Fireball was a children's high-rise bicycle that Raleigh of Nottingham brought out in the late 1960s to compete with the Schwinn Sting-Ray. Retrowow's history of the Chopper says the Sting-Ray, on sale from 1963, had high-rise handlebars and a banana seat and became a best seller after a slow start, and that Raleigh introduced two models, the Rodeo and the Fireball, which looked like Sting-Ray clones and flopped, before the Chopper followed. Raleigh's 1968 United States catalogue groups the Fireball and Rodeo as high risers for five to teen riders and lists three Fireballs: the DL 96 Fireball 3+2 with a five-speed Twinshift hub at 67.50 dollars, the DL 93 Fireball DTR with a three-speed Sportshift at 64.95 dollars and the DL 90 Fireball Coaster at 49.95 dollars. The catalogue names the Sturmey-Archer five-speed hub as standard on the Fireball 3+2, with shock-stop rubber grips on both the Rodeo and the Fireball.