Cool Wall - Raleigh

mikee":2usaz93m said:

uncool from me
they were like the british motorcycle industry
they ignored the threat from abroard ,they just sat on their arses and
by the time they realsied it was too late
the truly inspiring stuff like the choppers and ..well choppers
were ralieghs top cool stuff but the crap they built as mountian bikes
were dreadful BSO right enough

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+1

therealkw15":3v1hzgn3 said:

Compared with the Halfords and catalogue bikes that people took home, their build quality was superb.

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The way I remember it Halfords sold mainly Carreras, which though quite anonymous, were decently made (Taiwan?) fairly well equipped, rideable bikes. Raleighs were always a bit weird, I don't know if they were trying to assert their brand identity or were just arrogant enough to believe they could coast on their past successes. I did briefly have one that rode well, I wish I could remember the model name, but it was kind of a mauve colour, 500LX or DX equipped and had a classic black SE Turbo seat, if anyone here remembers that from my feeble description I'd love to know the model name and a picture would be awesome.

jonnyboy666":12ru59pw said:

unfortunately i don't think the few good things they did, which i think were very good, outweigh the piles of crappy metal they produced over the years.

sorry, uncool.

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Have to agree 100% i'm afraid. I do like some of their top end stuff but it isn't very cool in my opinion.

Anyone unsure how to vote should just do a Raleigh eBay search - I just did one and filtered down to just complete mountain bikes - I didn't go through everything that came up but there wasn't anything of note other than a Ti2000 in the first couple of pages - certainly nothing to elicit the pangs of nostalgia and desire that would prompt a 'cool' vote.

A search for 'GT' on the other hand.......................

...does exactly the same...

Let go of the hate Jez............embrace the way of the Triple triangle.

I have mixed feeings based on personal experience.

After someone stole my Bear Valley in the early 90s (uninsured) I spent a year commuting on my wife's pink Mustang (girl's frame) while I saved for a replacement. It wasn't a good experience!

Couldn't have put me off Raleigh too much though, because I spent my hard earned on an M Trax Ti 100. By then they'd got the sizing and geometery philosophies about right and the bike was a nice riding responsive machine.

You also got a card with it which had a mug-shot of the guy who built your steed, complete with signature which was a nice touch!

It never really gave me the pride in ownership which my Bear valley did.

Got to say theres less photo evidence here than the last discussion

There are no top end Raleighs on ebay for a reason. Once you've got one you don't let them go.

Did someone mention pictures

cool for me, as they are so cool no one thinks they are cool. they are the weezer of the bike world.

also i was the first person in my year at juniour school to have a mountain bike, a raliegh mustang with fricking 18 gears! this made me cool, so ipso facto they must be cool.

and so he disappeared in a puff of his own logic

oh and i have two.... just.....and one is a old road bike, that isn't a fixie....because then it would be cool, so there fore uncool..