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It looks like Raleigh may be sold to the owners of Batavus and Lapierre.
[url= http://http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9183421/Raleigh-bikes-to-be-sold-to-Dutch-rival-Accell.html ]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9183421/Raleigh-bikes-to-be-sold-to-Dutch-rival-Accell.html[/url]
It could of course be good news. Although I can't see manufacturing returning to the UK a company that wants the brand must believe that it can market 'British' bikes.
just seen this in t' press. Sad news, another classic british company bites it.
Yay! Does this mean my next Zesty will have the gear lever on the top tube and i can fit four mates on for the downhills?
Apart from a warehouse couple miles outside Nottingham, Raleigh hasn't been British for quite a while! I thought it was owned by Diamond Back or the People who own the Diamond back name!
Jay
Even if there is no manufacturing it does mean that the name and hopefully some jobs in the warehouse at Nottingham will live on. The use of the name may be a good or a bad thing. It depends where the new (potential) owners pitch the brand. If it's higher end (and the current Raleigh road bikes are definitely in that bracket), then all well and good. If the aim is Toys R Us then it is doomed.
For no other reason than nostalgia these are the Raleigh's I owned:
1977 - Raleigh Olympus. My parents wouldn't let me ride it to school until I had passed my Cycling Proficiency test.
1990 - Raleigh Team Banana. Looked like a TDF bike but was pretty shonky really.
1995 - Dyna Tech Aspin. Came with a card from the Special Products Division that included the name and a photograph of the man who built it in Nottingham, showing off his 1970s Noddy Holder side burns. Loved it.
The (potential) buyer is Accell, who own Koga, Lapierre & Ghost among others.
Would see the move as very good, as it's a long time since Raleigh have made anything decent. Once they got rid of the Special Products Division, they seemed to die, the budget area of their market has been taken by supermarkets, and the low end has lots of competition they never had in the 70's-90's. Hopefully Accell can refocus / rejuvinate the brand.
I had a bunch of Raleigh Kingpins (all hand-me-downs from elder cousins) as a kid, which I guess these days you'd call a 20" rigid single-speed; either way, I used to drop 4 foot to flat without batting an eyelid, and could out-wheelie the only kid we knew with a BMX (his dad worked in America) - 36 of the white chevrons in the middle of the main road early most Sunday mornings (blatant willy waving..). God bless Raleigh - I for one shall remember them fondly.
Still hanker after my Raleigh Quasar road bike with ovalized tubes, ahead of its time
Remember my first Raleigh. Was the Tomahawk. Looking on with interest to see what happens with this move.
I've owned a Budgie, Tomahawk, Grifter, Night Burner and Apex (with Flexstem!!) Would love them to make a comeback, somehow i doubt it.
I'd have thought a company like that would have been looking at Raleigh for its intellectual property as much as it's name
Wow, I wish I hadn't googled this - my first BMX... It was way cooler in my memory.
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Oh but this is cool!
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I had a burner back in the 80's and around 1990 had a Mustang and my mate had one cant remember the name but he had oval chain rings on the front
One of Raleigh's finest products restored by myself last year
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It's not the end of Raleigh but a new beginning and will help get Raleigh back to where it should be in the market place.
my first proper MTB (ATB) after a rubbish halfords jobbie was a Raleigh Peak like this
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another bit of nostalgia
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I had something like this
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Picked it up at sutcliffes cycles in Preston second hand. Then it broke, got sent of for repair and I ended up with something like this
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Apparently they couldn't re weld the frame or something. I liked that bike too.