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There's plenty written about Raleigh Choppers, Grifters, Burners, and other old school BMX bikes from the 1970s and 80s (and people who had their childhood in these decades pay silly money for them) but are there any iconic kids bikes from the 1990s? Will the children of the 1990s ever have nostalgia for bikes from their childhood in the same way as the children of the 1970s and 80s?
At my primary school a few of my classmates when I was in KS1 owned an old school BMX from the 1980s with 16 inch wheels or a girly bike, and when I was in KS2 a few of my classmates owned a mid school BMX with 20 inch wheels that were mostly chrome plated, but the vast majority of the kids owned a mountain bike. I make a rough estimate that one third of the kids owned a Raleigh, one third an Apollo (Halfords own brand), and one third every other brand. Mountain bikes with suspension were very rare before 2000ish and curved rigid forks were the norm in the 1990s. I can vaguely remember the Raleigh Activator with suspension and how kids wouldn't be seen dead by their mates riding one because it was supposed to be a really bad bike. A friend had a Raleigh Dirt Cross that looked like a BMX with gears. I don't think they were very common. BMX bikes underwent a revival at the end of the 1990s but only became really popular after I had started secondary school in 2001 when nearly half of the boys in Y7 (but not so much the girls) either had one or wanted one.
At my primary school a few of my classmates when I was in KS1 owned an old school BMX from the 1980s with 16 inch wheels or a girly bike, and when I was in KS2 a few of my classmates owned a mid school BMX with 20 inch wheels that were mostly chrome plated, but the vast majority of the kids owned a mountain bike. I make a rough estimate that one third of the kids owned a Raleigh, one third an Apollo (Halfords own brand), and one third every other brand. Mountain bikes with suspension were very rare before 2000ish and curved rigid forks were the norm in the 1990s. I can vaguely remember the Raleigh Activator with suspension and how kids wouldn't be seen dead by their mates riding one because it was supposed to be a really bad bike. A friend had a Raleigh Dirt Cross that looked like a BMX with gears. I don't think they were very common. BMX bikes underwent a revival at the end of the 1990s but only became really popular after I had started secondary school in 2001 when nearly half of the boys in Y7 (but not so much the girls) either had one or wanted one.
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