Pointless having the Special Products Div then

[badnewsbrown13]

Aparantly made in Russia for Raleigh

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Raleigh-Speci ... 41916d6226

 

[Onetimeviking]

Believe the titanium was Russian as they were the largest producer of ti , even the CIA had to buy ti off the ruskies through front companies to build the SR 71 blackbird spy plane ....not sure the frames were actually made in Russia mind

 

[mattr]

And how is 30.0 mm a non standard seat tube?

 

[badnewsbrown13]

I thought these were the back end of the RSP stuff made in the UK. I remember there were a few makers at the same time, namely Soviet, doing Ti but never heard of Raleigh sub-contracting back then

 

[FluffyChicken]

Re:

So who made Reynolds titanium?
(Sorry a side question ?)

 

[minor_LEGEND]

I thought there SP div was just a fancy filing cabinet anyway.

 

[mynchiboy]

Re:

I thought these were the back end of the RSP stuff made in the UK. I remember there were a few makers at the same time, namely Soviet, doing Ti but never heard of Raleigh sub-contracting back then

Exactly, the tubing on these was produced by the UK arm of Timet, this company doesn't seem to have ever had any links to Soviet Ti at all in it's history. From a bit of research the UK arm was formerly IMI titanium, who I believe provided Raleigh with the tubing for the earlier Dyna Tech frames. Again I can't seem to have found any obvious Russian connection. There is/was a member on here who was a member of staff at RSP and provided some useful info (bikemeister2000?) but he seems to have gone AWOL

I've one of these by the way and it's my daily rider, mainly because I can justify not washing it so regularly... Mine is also a later one like this with nicer tig welding (I never was a fan of the heavier looking plasma arc stuff on the Torus frames). They're well worth a look in if you want to try out a value Ti frame

 

[jimo746]

Re:

That sounds about right ^^^.

Timet/ IMI were Swansea based??

I think any connection to the USSR is all the n the sellers head. :?

 

[secret_squirrel]

I think the seller is confusing it with the rolled and seamed dynatech tubing at least some of it was Russian AFAIK.

 

[FluffyChicken]

Re:

Is it not commercially pure titanium? And not the usual alloyed titaniums.

Maybe that where the Russian idea came from.