Cool Wall - Raleigh

[Neil G]

What we lust after are our own perceptions of what is cool

This is getting complicated.

If you mean that we lust after the things that we perceive to be cool, that's clearly false. I perceive the Fonz to be cool. I've never lusted after the Fonz. The coolness-lust equation is broken. This thread is about cool, not about lust. Lust is heat. Lust is fire. Cool is Snowy Mountain streamwater. Cool is Long Island iced tea.

If you really mean that we lust after our own perceptions - not that we lust after objects we percieve to exist - I don't even know where to begin. That's a metaphysical argument.

Okay then, lets just say a lot of us want a bike that we think is cool

I certainly never read magazines back in the old days and paid any attention to Raleigh ads or reviews...BITD my school folder was covered with pictures of Yetis, Kleins and Fat Chances

 

[mikesnowdon]

North America saw some nice Raleighs, the Technium range were actually pretty cool - this Chill is a very nice example:

But I can't forgive them the Activator, not just horribly heavy but awfully ugly too - the leak that started the BSO flood.

A good example of why I voted yes! Also the fact I had a Burner when I was 9! In chrome!

 

[24pouces]

Except the Tomac's bike, (but is it really a raleigh), it's not so cool for me

 

[Rossi]

David Baker was a great rider and a top bloke......but wasn't cool.
John Tomac was a great rider and a top bloke.......and was way cool.

Raleigh bikes are not cool, maybe because they are mainstream, you can find them in high st. stores, catalogues.....and they make shopper bikes!!

Due to there massive range they are to 'of the masses' to be cool

The Tomac 'Raleigh' is a tough one, is it the rider, and the disk drive, cos that is cool, that makes that Raleigh cool?

Choppers, Grifters, Bombers, Burners are iconic, maybe cool, but the massive, activator, lizard....well need we say more.

 

[citrixccea]

Cool Cool Cool

This is in defence of Raleigh UK, and I'd wager a couple of arguments that make Raleigh cool.

First up - Their Bikes of the '70s were inheranly cool, the Chopper, the Tomahawk, and the like gave many of us our first taste of the joys of cycling. And whilst Raleigh sold these bikes in huge quantities, they did at least plough back money into a number of well sponsored racing teams.

Second Point - the Raleigh Banana. The coolest most appropriate sponsrship deal ever, ride your bike and stick a Banana in your back pocket, add to this a black and yellow livery that was a gift to copy, and a wide range of bikes from the high end to simple scaffold pipe specials (Am i biased because mine is a lugged 753, with corsa record and delta's )

 

[one-eyed_jim]

they make shopper bikes!!

Are you saying shoppers aren't cool?

:shock:

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/files/ ... k3_196.jpg

Due to there massive range they are too 'of the masses' to be cool

That's a big part of why I voted "cool". Exclusivity is all very well - in its place - but inclusivity is cooler.

 

[carlton dyna-tech]

Re: Cool Cool Cool

Second Point - the Raleigh Banana. The coolest most appropriate sponsrship deal ever, ride your bike and stick a Banana in your back pocket, add to this a black and yellow livery that was a gift to copy, and a wide range of bikes from the high end to simple scaffold pipe specials (Am i biased because mine is a lugged 753, with corsa record and delta's )

True....my mate, back in the late 1980s had a 531ATB-tubed Raleigh mountain bike, and asked for it to be sprayed in the pseudo Raleigh Banana colours. A one-off as far as I am aware...and soooo COOL!

 

[Neil G]

I wouldn't even class old Raleigh Burners, Grifters etc cool

 

[kaiser]

I wouldn't even class old Raleigh Burners, Grifters etc cool

Cool for kids, when you started realising what was out there.....

 

[Rossi]

I agree Jim that inclusivity is a good thing and Raliegh kept me in bikes for some time as a kid and I loved the bikes I had, but I don't think this makes them cool.

As for th Moulton, my family own 15 or more of them but I don't think they're cool, interesting design maybe, but not cool.