1993 Raleigh Activator 2

johntomjoe":2ys83sm1 said:
Not restoring just using and if the majority thinks its horrible without owning or riding one,then so be it,just dont have to keep reminding me....i started this thread for a laugh and to prove a point that without the mistakes made by these bikes ,they wouldnt have improved their designs,

and it is RETRO :!:

It is retro, but it's also a bike conceived of cynicism. Raliegh were producing perfectly good and in some cases, excellent bikes at the same time they were producing this 'mountain bike'

Some should survive for posterity...

But it's something that happens today with disk brakes as an example: Cable operated with bizarre non standard pads and disk mounts, bikes that aren't conceived with maintainability or performance in mind, just profit

According to this http://www.hadland.me.uk/raleigh.htm the Activator cost £260 in 1992! To me that is shocking, people could surely have done better with £260??? What a rip!

And tellingly, the Activator II was available for £200 in May '94. Definitely smells of a cash in at £260

Anybody here up on what else what around at these price points back then???
 
also if anyone feels man enough to take it downhill to prove its not a 'mountain bike' feel free toc ome to swindon to try it :D
 
hydorah":pkpxe5tr said:
And tellingly, the Activator II was available for £200 in May '94. Definitely smells of a cash in at £260

Anybody here up on what else what around at these price points back then???
Interesting facts. For example butted cro-mo steel Liyang on A-10 groupset is about same money BITD and basic Scott Timber on A-20 is just slightly more expensive if I'm converting right from dollars. They're twice less heavy rigid bikes.
Also bear on mind, I've choosen Taiwanese bikes, which were way cheaper to make.

Activator's price reflect UK staff salary so all money went there instead of quality. That's why Activator cost so much in comparison. European made bikes had struggled to compete with decent and cheap bikes from Far East.

Was a very similar situation at early 90's with large polish bikes producer Romet. Romet was a large national company at that time; they even tried making a pressure on government to ban import of Taiwanese bikes to survive on market. That never happen so factory had slowly died couldn’t compete with own gas pipe mountain bikes.

Before that happened, Romet tried been smart like Raleigh and came up with fancy monoque look alike frame named "Vulcanus" made from pig steel and weight a tonne. Kids still keep buying them because they were cool looking, at least at that time and utterly rubbish. Same thing with Activator, wow a full suser in rigid bike price, fantastic!
Peugeot, Raleigh, Romet etc. Same story with every large national company. Remember Tim Gould signed Peugeot replica on hi-ten steel and TY-20 group? Very low marketing play but why? To survive.

So, no there's no cynic in price at all, is the fact production costs were too high to be competitive on mass market bikes.
 
Oh man, that brings back memories of my first proper crash (and worst) while riding through my local woods. My Peugeot Anaconda had just been nicked and being only 14 or 15 at the the time I was traumertised that some theiving turd could do something like that so, my gran bought me an activator 2. It handled worse than my Peugeot and was twice the weight. It handled so bad and made me nervous as well as knackered. On my 2nd ride I stacked it so hard into a tree banging one of the bones in my forearm so hard it made me physically sick. I never rode that piece of sh*t again and I was relieved when it was pinched because it was insured so my nan bought me a Diamondback Sorrento and the Police retrieved my Anaconda a few months later.
I agree with the 'haters' it's a terrible monstrocity and the dude who threw it into some thorn bushes didn't throw it in far enough!!
 
Only just read through all this.

I'd like to welcome the original poster to the forum, fantastic sense of humour, even if your choice in bikes is a little off what most of us consider to be the centre of the target!

Happy new year to you and your activator!
 
Thank you kindly,I am slightly mad :LOL:

Perhaps I'm the lucky one,the craptivator seems to be the only mtb I've had that takes the amount of abuse I give it,I'm 100kg,then my boys in a trailer and about 20 kg
of picnic stuff and food
And the only thing to break this year was the chain on a imuddy off road track :LOL:
 
Out of curiosity (I'm actually considering buying one), how much does it actually weigh? I'm reading a lot of complaints and jokes about the weight, but have never encountered the actual numbers.
 
Can't help with answer but surely not light if require a forklift :shock: :D
Sorry, couldn't resist. Hope no offence been taken. Jokes aside, I'd say just under 20 kilos is about right.
 

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