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.
It is possible that the design was influenced by the [[Raleigh Grifter,Strika and Boxer as the bikes were fitted with imitation front suspension forks[citation needed].
Although children's bikes with functional suspension forks were available from Raleigh during the late 1990s, those fitted to Dirt Cross were purely cosmetic.
Television and poster advertisements[1] for the Dirt Cross featured the Nottingham Forest defender Stuart Pearce .
[2] The Dirt Cross was the first children's bike to be advertised by Raleigh using a multimedia application complete with MPEG video clips running on interactive public information kiosks.