What happened to Raleigh? Anyone tried any of their new bikes?

Basically my gf’s dad is opening a bike shop in Scotland and will be stocking Raleigh, Diamondback,and Haibike. Now I know if i was on the hunt for a new bike these companies would probably be last on my list but maybe I’m not their target market or I’m too snobbish. He feels like Raleigh are about to have a resurgence in popularity and are changing as a brand which I can sort of see from looking at their top end which looks nice if a bit pricy.

Has anyone bought a Raleigh recently and how was it? Thoughts on the brand?

He feels like Raleigh are about to have a resurgence in popularity and are changing as a brand

That sounds like a Raleigh Reps sales spiel.

Raleigh USA and Raleigh Germany have produced some very, very nice bikes. Raleigh UK bought the cheapest, nastiest rubbish they could find and stuck heron stickers on it.

I hope Raleigh UK do finally start making decent bikes again, but I think the brand is past saving.

My Raleigh rep told me they were really good, coming back, a year or so.

He no longer works for them.

My LBS does the Raleigh USA bikes, some very nice machines.

I liked the RSP stuff back in the day.

Didnt they get bought out by the Claud Butler brand, that also owns Diamondback as well?

Some of the new raleigh stuff has gone up in quality from even a year ago – but they stink on the price for the more decent stuff. They’re almost placing their ok kit (and it is just ok, half decent frame but meh components) at the higher end of a normal price bracket, not realising that the brand has taken a kicking over the past few, well, decades.

Lower end, they’re decent value for money – as around town bikes in cities, especially for students, fine.

Probably better off with UK brands such as Kinesis, orange, genesis etc and one big brand such as cannondale or spesh. Why has he chosen those brands?

Cannondale?

I’ve got an Activator 3 on order.

I’m not a roadie but this looks nice

http://www.raleighusa.com/bikes-road-endurance-race-revenio-revenio-carbon-4

My mate works for Raleigh.

I’ve ridden a few of their bikes and have been pretty impressed.
The Raleigh Militis and Revenio both seem like decent road bikes and they’ve got a cx bike that I haven’t ridden but it seems to compare well with other cx bikes.

Haibike are big in Europe I think. My mate has bought himself a Heet 27.5, he was do impressed with them and it is as good as any other decent full sus I have ridden.

He had a 29er full sus Diamondback as one of his demo bikes, can’t remember the name but it had knucklebox suspension or something. I just remember it bring a bit too heavy and quite wallowy.

I think he chose Raleigh because he was most impressed by their attitude to helping to support dealers at a trade show. I really wanted him to get Cube as a compromise between budget and high-end but he said the Cube guys were dicks.Tbh I think most of his sales will be kids’ bikes and hybrid/ciry stuff below £500, but that is hardly glamorous.

Tell him to give 2×2 a ring. They do Land Rover (Decent quality £300 to £600 family bikes) and Roux (£450 to £1400 road bikes) as well as Bickerton and montague folding bikes. If he’s aiming at the Raleigh/DB side of things they’re well worth a look.

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I think he chose Raleigh because he was most impressed by their attitude to helping to support dealers at a trade show

desperation.

I think Raleigh came so close to being a decent British brand but failed at the final hurdle. Now the image I have of them is that they make mass market kids bikes and arent really that interested in the real offroad/mtb market. I suspect a lot of their RaleighUSA bikes were very good bitd but it would take a lot to turn around the image , starting with getting a decent line of bikes. I wouldnt honestly buy any of those brands of bike.

even if Raleigh started making great bikes, in Nottingham, and selling them at a killer price, it would still take years to rebuild the damage done to the brand.

i’ll just have a quick look at their website…

oddly, they’ve got a half-decent range of cyclocross bikes, but other than that i can’t see what Raleigh is offering over Decathlon.

IMHO Raleigh are a complete bunch of shysters.

I bought one of their Dynatech Titanium frame road bikes with a 15 year warranty on the frame. When the authorised Raleigh dealer broke the frame whilst fitting new shifters, Raleigh replaced the frame with a steel one (ha, ha, small print in the frame warranty says that they can replace it with what they deem to be suitable).

If I was him I’d be asking the Raleigh guys some pretty searching questions about their brand strategy. I’d want to know exactly how they plan to bring the brand back from the wilderness – what’s the marketing plan for the next 5 years, how much will they be spending to support it.. etc.

They need to spend big bucks to regain some credibility, but it can be done (think along the lines of what VAG did with the Skoda brand).

I’ve still got a 1987 Raleigh Pursuit that I’ve had from brand new complete with original receipt of sale. Really? How incredibly interesting Wilko 🙄

Personally I will never forgive them for, almost single handed, undercutting the nations frame builders.
Apart from that, I still think they need to do much better than what they currently offer.

Hi Guys,

I’m a Raleigh/Diamondback dealer (as well as Kona), so bear with me for a moment…

Sure, Raleigh, like lots of British industry, had some real problems, and I’ll admit as readily as the next person that they turned out some absolute garbage in the 90s and 00s.

A few things have changed, however, and they really are resurgent at the moment, as the chap who’s ridden their bikes alludes to. They were bought over by Accell (a massive Dutch company who own Lapierre, Van Nicholas, Haibike and Ghost, to name just a few) a couple of years back with a view to becoming, once again, the pre-eminent British brand. Accell don’t mess around and have put their money where their mouth is and the 2015 bikes are looking brilliant and are very competitive on price (I’ve just received the brochure and they were launched at the Tour in Leeds so there are pictures on the streets already). And besides all the performance bikes the Lifestyle range is very strong.

It’s also worth remembering Raleigh’s history. Nevermind the fact that they were the biggest bike company in the world, but TI-Raleigh were the dominant force in 70s/80s pro cycling, winning the Tour, 5 Monuments, 3 Worlds etc etc during their time. The new team are racking up wins in the UK all the time, on stock bikes, and Raleigh are supporting grassroots cycling a lot too. And they’re still based in (near) Nottingham, employing a couple of hundred people.

The OP’s GF’s dad, is taking a pretty sensible deal, I would suggest – remember, many brands won’t offer dealerships to shops within even quite some distance of shops selling their brands.

Anyway, pop in sometime if you fancy having a look at the current bikes: http://www.harts-cyclery.co.uk

Cheers, Graeme

Ho hum, Raleigh Militis pro, same spec as PX carbon pro but twice the price (not so competitive on price then…………………)

That’s an apple and oranges comparison. The Militis frames is the Team frame, developed by Raleigh USA and UK, not a open mould Shanghai special. Compare it to other major brands and the price is good.
And to think someone on here blames Raleigh for ruining UK frame building… Ho-hum…

Anyway, I’m happy to let the bikes do the talking.

Saracen have managed to turn their image round a bit.

Of course, there are new / young customers who dont remember the 80’s / 90’s. Only us old git remember them when they used to be good.

What happened to Muddy Fox ?

This: http://www.muddyfox.com

😥

He feels like Raleigh are about to have a resurgence in popularity and are changing as a brand

Might be right, there are a LOT of mamil’s on them arround here (berkshire). Presumably Halfords or someone must be selling them.

The depressing thing is that while the Raleigh brand remains heavily tainted – some of the other marques they own could hold real potential for strong growth, if they concentrated on mid range performance bikes rather than BSO garbage

Diamond Back/DBR springs to mind, Carlton, RSP…

ninfan, seriously, look at the bikes for sale at the moment. Raleigh aren’t selling BSOs at all. I wouldn’t be a dealer if they were. They are very much concentrating on mid-range performance, as the new bikes show.

Also, have you seen the latest Mission from DB? This will be hitting the UK in the next few months:
http://www.pinkbike.com/news/first-ride-diamondback-mission-275-2014.html

Also, thisisnotaspoon, Raleigh are very much concentrating on IBDs. Their proper bikes (ie, not the ones you can buy from the parts catalogue) are only available from IBDs and Cyclelife (Raleigh’s own bike shop chain) franchises.

And to think someone on here blames Raleigh for ruining UK frame building… Ho-hum…

Anyway, I’m happy to let the bikes do the talking.

Or Tube Investments, whatever you want to call them.

Still not interested, thanks.

look at the bikes for sale at the moment.

I agree, they’ve got some lovely bikes

I just think they’re stupid to keep selling them under the raleigh marque along with some of the dross that still resides there, and given what they did to it in years gone by.

you could pull it off if you put anything over, say, £1200 in a reformed ‘Raleigh special products division’ – carbon frames, decent gruppo and finishing kit, not scrimping to hit a pricepoint by putting on crap seatpost and bars like they used to – better it costs £1230 and has a nice saddle and stem, than £1199 with crap ones.

DB is a good example of what they can do – if they can just concentrate on building that and giving it a secure future and resist the temptation to go and fill the brand with dross again.

Anyway, I’m happy to let the bikes do the talking.

If they are doing talking bikes, then I’m in.

Hopefully, it’s an improvement on…

As an aside, would the CX bikes, like the RX Comp Rutland Cycles sell below, be from Raleigh US? As they are nice, if a little pricey for what you get.

Haibikes are great. I’ve got a Greed RC. Raleigh CX bikes are ok, although a little pricey for the spec. I’ve got an RX comp. The US ones seem a little better

Our team has been Raleigh sponsored this season. Nice bunch of people actually…

Wow, how cool is that RALEIGH VEKTAR 🙂

Yeah, there’s a bit of cross-over(!) on the cross bikes. Prices and spec have been adjusted a bit for 2015:

http://www.raleigh.co.uk/ProductType/ProductRange/Product/Default.aspx?pc=1&pt=275&pg=12141

neilwheel – each to their own. Not Raleigh’s fault that everyone ended up getting their frames built in Ilkeston. UK frame-building is now in rude health and I build frames with my dad, maybe that’s more to your taste?

http://www.harts-cyclery.co.uk/sales_hart.html

Again, different opinion here but never mind.

Nice to see you are producing frames, best of luck.

I really like the look of the Militis and its been getting good race results and also magazine reiews for a few years now.

Has anyone got any 2015 range pictures? There’s mention of a Criterium range too just below the Militis.

A (‘merkin) mate has one of the US CX bikes from a few years ago, very nice it is too. He can’t understand the lack of enthusiasm for them here.

As others have eluded to, I just think that the brand in this country has taken too much of a kicking to ever get back to the good ‘ol days.