Cool Wall - Raleigh

In a modern market-as uncool as Pluto

In a forum about old classic and retro bikes i'd have thought it would received more positive votes :?
They lost their reputation through management incompetency where they didnt have a clear direction to follow and tried to stick to their proven methods,even when the market was screaming out for them to do something else.

At least we got the special products division out of all this
Trying to pioneer new materials and bonding techniques,using the best or most suitable materials available,somehow attracting the top riders to their teams[or did they pay the most ]


I,like many here ,have worked on very early Raleigh bikes where little more than new bearings and some grease was all that was needed to bring them back to working condition.After the bike had spent 40yrs in someone's shed.
But these are the really old bikes where everybody made them the same.built like tanks
IMHO I think they should go not just on the uncool wall,but be totally consigned to history.
They had it all ,and then threw it away

[and according to their Glasgow rep,dumped the majority of their archives in a skip :evil: :evil: :evil: ]

Im very happy with mine though,could do with an inch here and there and inot having disc tabs has been troublesome to sort out.but overall im happy,and i do like its quirky backward threaded Friday afternoon bottom bracket.
I couldnt afford any other handbuilt,handwelded custom titanium frame.

This is a tuff question, to Cool or to Un-cool ........ in fact its supertuff for me. I have sat down and thought this extreme question through and I mustang say that I have gone Bananas in fact some may say as mad as a boxer frogs ! I have thought and thought so much I need a drink, I have run out of umbongo and will have to settle with moonshine and a slice of thunderoad of which I had to slice into massiff pieces with a such large knife I nearly Chopper my fingers off.

Anyway this is about Raleighs the Pioneers of local bike shoppers isnt it ???.......... I think I had better start run now before someone thinks I am trying to Milk-race it too much, Im off for a walk in the Amozon trying not to stand on any lizards

So the tough descision for me is whether I go Commando or not

Uncool, yes they brought MTB's to the masses but also put many off riding bikes forever. The Dynatechs and RSP bikes were special and I am sure many kids thought their POS BSO's must be the same bike. Raleigh were always a bit more expensive too.

ededwards":35tiiv4p said:

Mostly for the early to late 70s road stuff but definitely very cool, throw in Caroline Alexander on a fluro DynaTech and surely it is completely beyond doubt?
But votes to date suggest it's a brand for the discerning, free thinker not those who go for the me too Klein, Yeti, Fat etc. :evil:

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Once again I find myself with nothing to add beyond the wise words of Ed.
In all this - the made-under-licence-in-germany roadsters have been totally forgotten. Loved by grannies, still ridden today ridden by hot babes and besuited city commuters alike. These bikes were iconic.
Most of europe never got to see the tat that was sold throughout toyshops in the UK and Raleigh is perceived as a quality brand.
Having lived in Denmark for the last 15 years I feel entitled to discard my recollections of Raleighs howling quality-misdemeanours, blame the state of the market rather than the company. And vote for cool.

A couple of things...

Where has the 'ok' button gone?

And....

WHY HAS NO ONE MENTIONED THE ACTIVATOR 2?!?!??!!??!!!?? After the unbridled success of the Activator, Raleigh went on to create the first mass market full susser, surely this must mean they are cool?!??!

What do you mean, no?????

I'm still giving them a cool as my dad's Mustang was certainly a very big part of my mtb history...and I've got a Chopper waiting to be rebuilt... I do agree that they are guilty of making some god awful crap, but so are pretty much all bike companies at some point in time or price tag, Raleigh more than most perhaps, but certainly not the only guilty party.

I couldn't give a monkey's about Tomac on a Raleigh (that wasn't) much like seeing him on a Giant (that wasn't), he seemed to advertise Tioga a lot more than Raleigh anyway, what I did like seeing was David Baker, Paul Hinton, Barry Clarke, Caroline Alexander and the rest of the Raleigh team win everything.

daj":1vdsvj76 said:

I was going to vote cool overlooking the crap they turned out thinking more of "Brew mans " bike ......

But...... I quote

Btw, GT are definitely less cool than Raleigh.

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Shocking ..... NOW VOTED VERY UNCOOL !!!!

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Thats you off me christmas 'brew' list Dave!

perry":dt60b2za said:

Geometry is a very kind word for what they had going on

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You can bet they just took a Haro or Kuwahara and copied it. Long cranks and little wheels mean a lot of bottom bracket drop, and even that slack seat tube didn't stop a lot of gangly teenagers fitting seatposts with even more layback. Poke around any BMX museum website, and you'll find plenty that's just as outlandish.

Although my head doesn't entirely agree, my heart says "cool" - not so much for their mountain bikes, but for many other things: Lentons, Superbes, Grifters, Randonneurs, even the humble Twenty, and the little hand-me-down Gresham Flyer that was my own first bike.

Any company that would include details such as stove finishes, metal head badges and huge chrome nuts with little inset badges must have a certain amount of 'coolness'

I grew up with them in the family - Budgie, Speedway, Chopper (I think they named it after the body part it had a habit of inflicting pain on), night burner, Pulsar & Record Sprint

Did this company not play a huge part in bringing cycling to 'our' generation ?

WD

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Cool

I'm not a snob about brands :shock: