Falcon Club Special vintage 1960/61 restoration .

[SkipdiverJohn]

People 'wet themselves' over the SBDU Raleighs built in Ilkeston by the cream of the Carlton builders.

Ultra collectible

The SBDU was not part of Raleigh's mass production facility though. To all intents and purposes it was a custom shop and brand showcase with the financial back up of the biggest player in town, so they had the workshop facilities small time ciustom builders could only dream of. The bikes the SBDU built are lovely, and are rightly revered by steel fans, but you can't consider them the same thing as a bog standard Raleigh production bike with a lightweight butted frame.

 

[raleighnut]

The SBDU was not part of Raleigh's mass production facility though. To all intents and purposes it was a custom shop and brand showcase with the financial back up of the biggest player in town, so they had the workshop facilities small time ciustom builders could only dream of. The bikes the SBDU built are lovely, and are rightly revered by steel fans, but you can't consider them the same thing as a bog standard Raleigh production bike with a lightweight butted frame.

Thing is Raleigh built a whole range of bikes from'cheap and cheerful' to ultra high end but a lot of the development lessons learnt from the Carlton 'Worksop' division and later the SBDU at Ilkeston were applied across the range, One of my favourite bikes is a 1984 'Super Equipe' built of 18-23 (or possibly 18-30) High Carbon Steel tubing, whilst a bit hefty it has a lovely 'mile eating' ride quality

 

[Illaveago]

I wonder what happened to it ?
I have just been re reading this thread thinking that the bike would have cleaned up well with the grimy bits washed off with white spirit. It worked well on a Viking Conquest which I bought last year in a similar condition if not dirtier. I paid £120 for it which I thought was reasonable for a bike in original condition . It cleaned up really well and I'm glad I saved from being stripped down and sold as spare parts .