Raleigh in trouble.

[kingrollo]

but why they were a pretty appalling bike ? they just looked the part in the 70s, they can only being bought recently by obsessive collectors or people who have more money than sense.

we are talking about a bike thats nearly 60 years old in design terms, which in terms of dating it, is almost like when it first came out people obsessing about Penny Farthings still.

if there was any value left in the brand, and Ive already stated I think thats questionable in the bike trade now, they should just produce a bunch of very generic, solid quality, but cheap bikes equiv to what Decathlon do with BTWIN, stick the old logo on them, see if they sell.

the chopper is not the way forward, trying to invent a chopper for the 2020s is not the way forward, putting together decent well made bikes for a budget is probably their best bet, but since a succession of owners for the past 30+ years or so havent bothered trying to do that I dont rate their chances of following that path.

Pretty appalling bike -
But it looked cool and had that king of the road feeling.
It wouldn't really matter who was buying them so long as the sales were rolling in.

I wanted one as soon as some coppers came to do a talk in our school and advised us to buy straight up bikes.

I ran straight home and told my dad I wanted a chopper bike for Christmas. Never got one of course. I had to wait for the re issue - by that time I was mid 40s....

There were always bikes for the rascals tearaways - which I wanted to be so badly.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Don’t forget, as well as the Chopper, there was the Chipper and Tomahawk.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I never had new bikes at the age I would have fitted the Chopper. We went to a house where a man had a room full of second hand bikes. Had some great bikes from that collection. Nothing to write home about, but they were ridden a lot, abd got me all over the local area. We built up tracker bikes in our teens to do jumps down the local woods. Where we built jumps in the 1970s is now a mountain bike jump park!

 

[brommieinkorea]

If you re-do the Chopper, you can't change anything. The real problem is it was a dangerous POS and nowadays someone might sue. I think a Schwinn Stingray (exactly like the original) would be cool replete with the top tube mounted stick shift. Somehow, as kids, we survived this kind of product, but now that I have the money to buy something I don't need like this.....I probably wouldn't just because it isn't practical....Or maybe that lack of practicality would have them flying out of the showrooms ?

 

[Drago]

Don’t forget, as well as the Chopper, there was the Chipper and Tomahawk.

And the Budgie.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

My experience of Raleigh

WHen I was in my early teens I wanted a bike

Mum and Dad took me to a local bike shop and got me a Raleigh Elite
it made sense - I was sort of in between bike sizes and this had a weird curved crossbar at the rear end
so the bike was size x but someone who was really size x-1 could get the saddle a bit lower and grow into it

it was carp

I thought it was me not being fit/good enough to get up the hill by Arrow Park - so always had to get off and walk
until I moaned about its looks (it was VERY old fashioned) a lot
and my Dad said I could have a new one for Chrostmas AND Birthday if I sold the old one and some otehr stuff
and I got a Peugeot to replace it
That was cool - purple frame, 10 speed and drops
no great road bike
but first time I tried to get up Arrow Park hill I was half way up it before I though to even change gear
I though it must be a wonderful bike - but actually teh Raleigh ws rubbish

Many many years later the Peusgoe was nicked from my garage in the mid to late 1980s
I though a mountain bike type would be good - I could take it when walking the dog

went to a LBS and saw a FOLDING mountain bike
it would never survive serious mountain stuff but I was thinking of tracks and canal paths so that was OK
it was a Rudge Bi-Frame - which I was told was really a Raleigh but as some parts were non-UK they refused to put a Raleigh badge on it
no idea if that was in any way true

Great bike - lasted ages
it is probably still in my ex's garage exactly where I left it when I walked out
should have taken it with me but "it was difficult"


anyway


wind on to about 7 years ago and my Powacycle ebike was getting rather worn out and I went to the local Widnes LBS looking for a replacement
saw an Raleigh Array - seems just what I needed - and far better than the old Powacycle which was a very early sort of ebike

The bike was great - much lighter and more manoeuvrable that the Powacycle and with far more power
minor problem with the battery connection

BUT Raleigh were great about it and sent several replacement chargers - manager of the shop said theymade sure he never had to pay for them - even when he replaced them himself from another bike in stock

eventually they even replaced the whole bike with a new one and sent a message to me saying that they were fixing the fault properly but as I had had the problem for a while they were just sending me a whole replacement bike FROM THE RAGE ABOVE to I had a reliable bike
which was more than they needed to to
the replacement was a Raleigh Motus - basically the Raleigh ebike using the bottom line Bosch motor system
which has been a great bottom range ebike
so far anyway - 7 years and 13,000 mile on


SO they have been mostly good - with a couple of blips
but given the number of bike involved - 2 blips is quite a high percentage!!!




Mostly I am worried about the LBS
The founder (John Geddes) died a short while ago
and the majority of bikes they have in the showroom are of the brands above


added to the well know fact that LBS's are closing down all over - I wonder if they will survive or just think enough is enough
which would be a shame as they have been great once they got to know me

 

[rogerzilla]

They make poor classic or retromod bikes because, apart from the higher-end and later bikes, they clung to their own 26tpi, wide-shell BB shells and headset standard (basically a 26tpi JIS). The heavy steel BBs and headsets that fitted these bikes are all but extinct NOS and they were never sealed anyway. The BBs can be sorted with some effort and expense but they need new forks.

 

[oxoman]

I had a raleigh Chicco as a kid and went miles on it and never broke it. Fast forward a few years and my younger brother had a grifter which looked way cool at the time, he managed to break the frame somehow doing what he called dirt riding.

 

[Paul_Smith SRCC]

Alas, the same could be said of the car and motorcycle industries. We led the way, stood still and were overtaken, then collapsed.

I always find it baffling that the UK is one worlds leading financial hubs and we can still manufacture quality products right here in the UK, yet they often don't seem to compliment one another. Using your example of the Car industry, 'Rolls Royce' and 'Bentley', both very high quality brands, both are still made in the UK, but sadly both are no longer UK owned; being part of the BMW and VW group respectively

 

[katiewlx]

I always find it baffling that the UK is one worlds leading financial hubs and we can still manufacture quality products right here in the UK, yet they often don't seem to compliment one another. Using your example of the Car industry, 'Rolls Royce' and 'Bentley', both very high quality brands, both are still made in the UK, but sadly both are no longer UK owned; being part of the BMW and VW group respectively

but those brands got bought out, because like Raleigh, and the succession of British motorcycle manufacturers too, they all stopped innovating believing their customers would simply keep buying their wares because of the brand, and ignore the cheaper,better, higher quality & more innovative models their competitors made.

I mean its classic UK stuff, Bentley went bankrupt in the 20s, got bought by Rolls Royce, Rolls Royce went bankrupt in the 70s, got nationalised & split into cars and jet engines, then privatised & the car bits (both Bentley and RR) bought by Vickers in the 80s, who then put the whole car bits (Bentley & RR) up for sale in the 90s which VW/BMW bought, because Vickers wanted to focus on the defence industry more, who then got bought by would you believe it, Rolls Royce plc, the still existing jet engines bit, and then Vickers completely disappeared as a brand too.

thats how that stuff ends up no longer UK owned.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

but those brands got bought out, because like Raleigh, and the succession of British motorcycle manufacturers too, they all stopped innovating believing their customers would simply keep buying their wares because of the brand, and ignore the cheaper,better, higher quality & more innovative models their competitors made.

I mean its classic UK stuff, Bentley went bankrupt in the 20s, got bought by Rolls Royce, Rolls Royce went bankrupt in the 70s, got nationalised & split into cars and jet engines, then privatised & the car bits (both Bentley and RR) bought by Vickers in the 80s, who then put the whole car bits (Bentley & RR) up for sale in the 90s which VW/BMW bought, because Vickers wanted to focus on the defence industry more, who then got bought by would you believe it, Rolls Royce plc, the still existing jet engines bit, and then Vickers completely disappeared as a brand too.

thats how that stuff ends up no longer UK owned.

I saw a TV programme - one of the "fixing a car" type - that was fixing a Roller or a Bentley

The mechanic was saying that rolls had developed this really complicated system of joints and things to make sure the bumper was solid
but gave way a bit if knocked
and didn;t squeak of anything
It was perfection itself - very complicated but worked perfectly

The Japanese stuck a bit of rubber in there and that worked just as well and cost a fraction of the price and took a fraction of the time to install