Raleigh - The demise of a British Icon?

[2alexcoo]

Thanks for the link Jim, a very informative read.

I am sure many of us here look back with nostalgia at the Raleigh bikes we had in our youth. I doubt Apollos, Shockwaves etc will be revered in 20 years time :roll:

They were relatively expensive, though, which is probably why the Halfords junk mentioned above has taken over in the mass market. I remember my dad buying me one of the last Grifters in 1982, it cost £98 which is about £300 in today's money!

 

[Elev12k]

Couple of factors maybe?

I do not no of the specific UK situation, but in for example US I think Peugeot and Raleigh were wiped away by better quality Japanese affordable offerings. The Japanese applied modern Western science of how to lay out a production facillty and how to improve (not control, improve!) quality in their production. This started late 70s and moved on to 1990. My than Yen skyrocketed and production moved to Taiwan. At the same time the mountainbike boom took off and fresh brands from the US appeared. Could very well imagine Raleigh had made huge investments to regain marketshare (Dyna-Tech?), but they didn't really succeed in that. Still they had to deal with the costs. So they went bust in the end.

 

[Anthony]

I'm very grateful to One-eyed Jim for that link. I'll send it to my brother, who lives in Nottingham and as a lecturer in photography spent a lot of time in the Raleigh factory making a collection of photographs of the workers and the manufacturing processes. He was also allowed access to the factory after it had closed, I think both before and after the equipment was sold off, to make a further collection. He has exhibited it several times. Ironically, the factory was sold to the University of Nottingham, but my brother doesn't work for them, he works for New College.

I agree with Jacques that the tragic tale could be that of any of hundreds of British manufacturing companies that lost the plot during the 70s and paid the price of bad management during the 80s and 90s. Nevertheless from our viewpoint now, the wrong-headedness of the management does seem fairly obvious.

I would only question whether it is right to describe Raleigh as 'iconic'. As it was determinedly a big-volume company intent only on dominating the cheap end of the market, even if this conflicted with its chances to sell quality bikes, is that what we mean when we say iconic?

 

[Stick Legs]

I remember going to the factory in the early '90s when the Dyna-Tech's were being built. I had 2 and still love them.

The factory was a disappointment, a real air of despair about the place and it looked like old pictures of British Leyland.

I think that is a good analogy really, a huge company that could not be nimble enough to move with the times.

Pity really. :cry:

 

[barry2017]

I would only question whether it is right to describe Raleigh as 'iconic'. As it was determinedly a big-volume company intent only on dominating the cheap end of the market, even if this conflicted with its chances to sell quality bikes, is that what we mean when we say iconic?

True, Raleighs were mass produced, but that doesn't mean the same thing as low cost or poor quality. If you look at the attention to detail on either of my 1948 Raleighs you certainly wouldn't describe them as cheap, and the prices when they were new (£30 and £13 respectively) reflected that.
The quality of Raleigh's offerings had to drop off as people's expectations changed. They demanded lower cost because of competition from machines first built in eastern Europe, then in Asia. And by the late 70s Japanese production was beating them in quality.
But it's unfair to a once great marque to write them off as cheap bikes.

 

[tintin40]

Personally, Raliegh always stood for 'cheap' - this reputation overshadowed any quality stuff for years and always tainted it for me.

I go with that shame.

 

[dyna-ti]

My first bike was a Raleigh chipper and as velomaniac says Raleigh = bike

They were always a good company ,but it seems they like all our industries ,has had its day

I wouldn't agree they were a cheap make ,i think the were the best manufacturer of domestic bikes to the main market with the largest range and the best resources.
I have no doubts to their strength,as one time a mixed up the ramp with a set of stairs [they were side by side]so i effectively jumped[at top little kid speed ]off the top of a 10 stair concrete staircase about 5 or 6 feet,
The bike landed then lost it -bounce-crunch-crash-slide
The bike was fine and i don't remember it getting damaged at all,i however did

Yeah ,a good brand,but they've had their day and are fading slowly away

 

[john]

That is a good article indeed Jim. Also be interested to see some of the photography projects Anthony speaks of.

Raleigh were always mass market but I never thought of them as 'cheap' (until now maybe). As the article points out Raleigh attempted (and ultimately failed) to cover all market segments with a focus on the lower end.

I would only question whether it is right to describe Raleigh as 'iconic'. As it was determinedly a big-volume company intent only on dominating the cheap end of the market, even if this conflicted with its chances to sell quality bikes, is that what we mean when we say iconic?

I'd call Raleigh iconic, given their status as still the largest cycle company in the UK and given their (admittedly patchy) success at the highest level. Sometimes pictures are more effective than words

 

[silverclaws]

My first Raleigh, was a Tomohawk, a smaller single gear Chopper, I moved onto one of those later, after the stabilisers came off. A Lilac purple Chopper, I hated that bike. Why it is that the Chopper is now such a desireable icon, I will never know. They were my first and last Raleighs, then came a Halfords Olympic, a racing look road bike, big wheels and dropped handlebars, oh and five gears to change. Pre MTB days, my road bike was rarely on road, many frames and forks I broke and from then on, my bikes were bitsas, the remains of the things I broke. Many years passed and I was into cars until a friend turned up one day on this oversize Grifter, a BMX for adults as I used to say. Well, after much hassle from my friend, an Mtb I had to get, just to shut him up. I was fortunate, I had cash and a cycle shop was closing down, I bought a Saracen Traverse Elite at less than half price new, cash was the deal, I paid for it less than what the shop owner got it for, so he did not make that much of a loss. I had that bike from '93 till 2004 when I lost it, the bike and my interest. Two years later, unemployment and my car sold, I was lent a Raleigh Attitude, an eighteen gear ratio bike. I have had that bike for two years now, and tried my best to make it anything near as pleasant as what my Saracen was. A feat given the spec of the cycle was nigh on impossible, I hate the ride of that thing and the weight. Now back into biking I again seek a Saracen, if I can get it, something of a similar vintage to the one I had.

Raleigh to me always was a British mentality bike, built well, but nothing exciting, a machine that just did the job.

 

[Anthony]

By the time I came into mtb, Raleigh were already using the M-Trax brand name. This was clearly a way of trying to sell bikes that were perfectly good bikes but wouldn't have a hope of selling if they were branded as Raleighs, because everybody knew that serious bikers would laugh at you if you had a Raleigh. Raleigh made mountain bikes, and indeed sold more than any other firm, but they weren't really mtbs, in the sense that you never actually saw a Raleigh in the countryside. They were all in sheds or used for going to ASDA.

This demonstrates two errors of management that other bike companies didn't make. One is that Trek, Giant, GT etc all made budget bikes as well, but they never did it in such a way as to shoot themselves in the foot over selling their good bikes, as Raleigh did with their stupid dealership arrangements.

Secondly, by concentrating all their attention and priority on selling budget bikes made in the UK, they took on the far east in the part of the market with the lowest profit margins and where the far east had overwhelming strength. This seems unbelievably blind, because by the late 90s everybody knew the only way you could survive by manufacturing in the UK was to concentrate on higher-level niche markets where perceived quality was key and profit margins were higher.

I guess the value of the Raleigh brand had already been destroyed before my time in mtb, but the people who destroyed it really threw away a very valuable asset.