torqueless
Senior Retro Guru
Re:
I think if they seem to be favoured in this country over other lightweights it has roots in the fact that in the second half of the '70s they were a facsimile of the only recognisably British presence in the continental peloton. The star riders were mostly Dutch, and probably some of the frames were too, but I guess a patriotic Brit could still get some sort of vicarious emotional payoff from seeing a yellow jersey with 'Raleigh' on it. Back then there were some few makes of frame a Brit could get hold of which said, to the few people who might notice: "I ride what the pros ride". The Team Raleigh said, to a (hopefully) slightly larger quantity of people: "I ride what the pros ride on the Continent".
I'd say that for any volume bike manufacturer that had a pro peloton presence, there were basically three or four levels of bike/frame:
At the top: frames custom-built by an artisan framebuilder for a specific rider, either inside an outfit like SBDU, in the case of Raleigh, or commissioned 'unofficially' by the rider from his preferred framebuilder and branded so as to be indistinguishable from a true 'team issue' frame. Top-end components.
Next down: 'Team replica' bikes/frames more or less mass-produced on a production line using stock geometry and sizes, but the same basic materials and components as above, necessarily assembled- for better or worse- with less attention to detail- 531db, Campag. ends, often Prugnat lugs or similar, fitted with the same top-end components as above.
Intermediate: basically the same frame as above but fitted with 'price-point' components.
Bottom: Mass-produced bikes using more or less heavier tubing, utilitarian lugs, plain ends, etc., fitted with 'budget' components, frames finished in 'team' colours.
You can find a so-called 'Team Raleigh' which fits into any of those categories. Any real performance distinction between the top two levels is debateable- Tours, races, stages, have no doubt been won on both- so any distinction is basically a cachet thing these days, and maybe was even back in those days?
I think if they seem to be favoured in this country over other lightweights it has roots in the fact that in the second half of the '70s they were a facsimile of the only recognisably British presence in the continental peloton. The star riders were mostly Dutch, and probably some of the frames were too, but I guess a patriotic Brit could still get some sort of vicarious emotional payoff from seeing a yellow jersey with 'Raleigh' on it. Back then there were some few makes of frame a Brit could get hold of which said, to the few people who might notice: "I ride what the pros ride". The Team Raleigh said, to a (hopefully) slightly larger quantity of people: "I ride what the pros ride on the Continent".
I'd say that for any volume bike manufacturer that had a pro peloton presence, there were basically three or four levels of bike/frame:
At the top: frames custom-built by an artisan framebuilder for a specific rider, either inside an outfit like SBDU, in the case of Raleigh, or commissioned 'unofficially' by the rider from his preferred framebuilder and branded so as to be indistinguishable from a true 'team issue' frame. Top-end components.
Next down: 'Team replica' bikes/frames more or less mass-produced on a production line using stock geometry and sizes, but the same basic materials and components as above, necessarily assembled- for better or worse- with less attention to detail- 531db, Campag. ends, often Prugnat lugs or similar, fitted with the same top-end components as above.
Intermediate: basically the same frame as above but fitted with 'price-point' components.
Bottom: Mass-produced bikes using more or less heavier tubing, utilitarian lugs, plain ends, etc., fitted with 'budget' components, frames finished in 'team' colours.
You can find a so-called 'Team Raleigh' which fits into any of those categories. Any real performance distinction between the top two levels is debateable- Tours, races, stages, have no doubt been won on both- so any distinction is basically a cachet thing these days, and maybe was even back in those days?
