The Raleigh Dirt Cross was a children's
bicycle
A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered transport, human-powered or motorized bicycle, motor-assisted, bicycle pedal, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two bicycle wheel, wheels attached to a ...
manufactured from 1996-1999 by the
Raleigh Bicycle Company
The Raleigh Bicycle Company is a British bicycle manufacturer based in Nottingham, England and founded by Woodhead and Angois in 1885. Using Raleigh as their brand name, it is one of the oldest bicycle companies in the world. After being acquir ...
of
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...
,
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
.
Design and styling
The Dirt Cross was very unusual design and is best described as a hybrid of a
Grifter and a
mountain bike
A mountain bike (MTB) or mountain bicycle is a bicycle designed for off-road cycling (''mountain biking''). Mountain bikes share some similarities with other bicycles, but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and performance in r ...
. It was fitted with 20 and 24 inch wheels, and the styling of the handlebars and frame were similar to those of a BMX, with dimensions designed to accommodate 6 to 10 year olds. The Dirt Cross was fitted with
5 or 10 speed Shimano gears and a twist-grip gear controller as standard. It is possible that the design was influenced by the
Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football.
Founde ...
defender Stuart pearce">Stuart Pearce
Stuart Pearce (born 24 April 1962) is an English professional football manager and former player, who was most recently a first-team coach for Premier League club West Ham United. He was nicknamed "Psycho" for his unforgiving style of play.
...
.
The Dirt Cross was the first children's bike to be advertised by Raleigh using a multimedia application complete with Mpeg, MPEG video clips running on interactive public information kiosks.
Despite the rather high profile marketing campaign, sales of the Dirt Cross appear to be quite low. Production ceased in 1999 with no similar replacement model.
The Dirt Cross title was later used on a children's Go Kart from Raleigh which is still on sale in 2009.