Raleigh 753 - all by SBDU?

Apologies if this is a stupid question.

Can anyone confirm whether all Raleighs built with 753 tubing would be built by SBDU (or prehaps later bikes at the somewhat different Special Projects), please? I presume this to be the case, given the required skills to use 753, but would be grateful for confirmation (or otherwise)

Also, how many 753 frames were built by Raleigh?

Thanks,

David

This sounds about right to me; Ilkeston was one of the very first - if not THE very first - Reynolds-certified 753 builders. The site closed around 1989 with production moving to Special Products at Nottingham, though I'm not 100% certain when 753-framed Raleighs stopped appearing (but recall Barrie Clarke and David Baker riding such frames for both road and CX early 1990s). I don't think the Carlton site (closed 1981 and - I think - re-incarnated as the Lightweight Division at Nottingham, retaining W-prefix frame numbers) was 753-approved.

David

Jan Legrand built 753 ones for the team in the Haarlemmerstraat in Amsterdam. They do not carry the SB number of course, but initials of the rider with a number.

There's a Raleigh Team Pro group on Yahoo, hopefully someone from there will pop up and answer these questions.

Ilkeston shut later than 81 IIRC, more like 86 or 87. Sure they still built in 753 after the closure as part of raleigh special product.

As for Jan Legrand building the TI frames in the Netherlands seem to recall some discussion about this on the Raleigh Yahoo group. It is mentioned here > http://spinwell.co.uk/2010/03/19/recoll ... -ilkeston/ by Mike Mullet that the frames were indeed at least partially built by Legrand but were finished in Ilkston. Any examples of TI frames without the SBDU serial?

Interesting read.

I would think there should have been from A to Z A'dam built examples too. Presto's Loek Valk told me of finished examples lined up in the shop. Built overthere. I do not know the whole bigger picture however and how this fits in.

It also goes that the TI's were initially restickered 100% Prestos. That lasted only 1 season however.

Not long ago there was a TI up on Marktplaats. Serial JR002 or something like that. JR for Jan Raas.

think bikemeister2000 is the resident ex raleigh employee who correct me if I'm wrong worked at Ilkeston or SBDU.
If he comes along, i'm sure he will have a better informed answer than most.
No offence intended to anyone who has already answered of course.

See the article on www.classiclightweights.co.uk

Roadking.

Looking at various web-sites (including Classic lightweights, thanks roadking) and the catalogue (specifically for 1982- see link, below), it looks that the 753 frames were (custom) built at Ilkeston, rather than being made at Worksop, or later, Nottingham. Still an interesting question about the team frames being made by Jan Legrand - some at least at Ilkeston, but were they all? I'll keep my eyes open on that.
http://radpropaganda.org/raleigh-team-p ... ment-11219

Thanks for the replies.

Now, how many 753s were made? There have been three on E-bay, internationally over the past week or so, so presumably they were a reasonable proportion of the Ilkeston output. Hmm...

David

Excellent and very illuminating article. Hand crafted - but not in the way generally considered - and probably much more consistent quality.

The article is an interesting read for sure. The proces described sounds a bit like the small series production at Gazelle. At Gazelle 'specials' like the Champion Mondial track, stayer, aerodynamische fiets, time trial, ATB and everything custom were built by one builder. The article on SBDU isn't making mention of such by SBDU, but you would think a custom frame was built entirely by one builder.

On Presto I can say you could get a 753 one in the 70s. By Legrand probably. Rare, as very expensive back in the day.