End of the Galaxy

[postman]

My Super Galaxy came from Spa Cycles,Harrogate.25" frame mixe finish. Green,dark blue and gold speckles.It was beautiful in sunshine.But I thought I needed a fast road bike.So I sold it,it went to Larndan,the chap told me it was brilliant.Should have kept it.You can never have too month bikes.

 

[cisamcgu]

Please buy that, it's beautiful.

Sadly, it is 61cm (24") - my feet wouldn't reach the pedals, probably 2" too tall

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

People might complain about the price of the Galaxy, but if you want something built in Britain by craftsmen who earn a decent wage for their skills you have to pay for it. Otherwise stick to stuff made in far eastern sweat shops.

The problem is the last Galaxy didn't use a hand-built British frame, and it didn't look like a classic tourer either. I don't have a problem paying for a hand built product made here (I own a Land Rover and they were as hand-built as they come), but the last of the Dawes Galaxy bikes were essentially masquerading as something they weren't.
My Raleigh Royal would have cost around £1025 in today's money, and if they were still being made and they weren't easily obtained secondhand, I would stump up the cash because the standard of workmanship and the quality of the frame justified the price.
However I would not pay that much for a heavy generic welded steel framed bike from the far east.
BTW, to respond to another comment, I regard Surly tourers to be basically hefty 90's rigid MTB frames with a couple of extra braze-ons added. I could knock up something just as good using something like the old Raleigh Ascender that @DCLane rescued from the scrap man a few months back then sold on. Surly's are very overpriced for what they are and are merely providing an off the peg version of what countless people have done a home-brew version of themselves. Not the same market either. Your core Galaxy/Royal/Randonneur buyer wanted a lightweight frame as the basis for their touring. Despite having no pretensions to being sporty, I can attest my Royal is capable of moving pretty swiftly if I'm feeling energetic enough to ride it that way. A 531 touring bike stripped of the weight and drag of all it's touring extras is no slouch.

 

[Drago]

The Galaxy has been made in the far east since 1990.

 

[craigwend]

As far as I remember the Galaxy (full 531ST) frame was made in the UK up to 97/98, after that Eastern Europe for a couple of years (though not full 531ST) also assembled in this country up to around that time, after that like much of the large scale bike industry mainly built abroad and the 'assembled' here

 

[Paulus]

As far as I remember the Galaxy (full 531ST) frame was made in the UK up to 97/98, after that Eastern Europe for a couple of years (though not full 531ST) also assembled in this country up to around that time, after that like much of the large scale bike industry mainly built abroad and the 'assembled' here

My later galaxy from '97 was possibly the last of the run made in Britain. It does have a sticker on it saying --hand made in England.

 

[Drago]

Itd be interesting to see who made those frames then. When the Dawes UK factory closed in 1990 following the company's purchase by ATAG, a Netherlands based consortium, the Tysley factory closed. Production then moved to the Far East and the headquarters operation moved to Castle Bromwich.

Over the following 15 years or so the company changed hands another 6 or 7 times, and since about 2005 some assembly of foreign manufactured frames and components has taken place in Lincolnshire, but thats been it.

 

[itboffin]

I had for a while a 1980s Mercian now that is a beautiful British bike

 

[chriswoody]

Whilst it's undeniable that Dawes moved production overseas, the question is exactly when. My original paintwork had a sticker proclaiming that it was built in Britain and in 1994 they were proclaiming in their sales brochure that their fillet brazed frames where hand built. Intriguingly they don't mention where? It was certainly my belief that in the early nineties the frames where still made by hand in the UK, but whilst Dawes maintain that they were indeed handmade, it's not clear where.

Full 1994 brochure here:

http://www.koedjoinery.com/Dawes_1994_1.pdf

 

[craigwend]

My later galaxy from '97 was possibly the last of the run made in Britain. It does have a sticker on it saying --hand made in England.

Something like these of my 97 Galaxy...

My later galaxy from '97 was possibly the last of the run made in Britain. It does have a sticker on it saying --hand made in England.

Like these of my 97 Galaxy

Aware hand built does not mean hand made.
When the Galaxy was reviewed in Cycling Pluse around 99 / 2000, they stayed the frames were made in UK up 97 / 98 & Eastern Europe for a couple of years after

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

My Dawes frames have the hand made in England sticker on them, all lugged & brazed Reynolds steel.
I'm wondering if they gradually phased out the in-house frame building by initially outsourcing the TIG-welded MTB frames that seemed to appear in the '94 catalogue?
Just like Raleigh, Dawes were ultra-traditional and lugged frames were the default fabrication method. However, unlike Raleigh who invested a lot of money into in-house TIG welding facilities when the MTB era got going, I'm thinking maybe Dawes wouldn't have had the financial resources to be able to do this, so outsourcing was the only viable way of them reducing their frame fabrication costs.

 

[RichardB]

My Galaxy (I think 1992-93) very definitely had frame stickers saying 'Hand Built in England' and the same engraved in fancy script on the bars.

It was a nice metallic green, but the frame graphics had changed from cursive script to some horrible space-age blocky lettering, which in retrospect signified the beginning of the end.

 

[fossyant]

At first I was thinking about outer space. Then I started thinking about phones. And finally the bike.

Or this lot