Is this Saracen the First UK MTB?

[GrahamJohnWallace]

Dr S wrote: I think the Maverick pre dates the Rockhopper by a few years. Would be interesting to compare pics though. did the Maverick have a BMX sized BB shell too or was that just the Mustang?

The Maverick had a standard 70mm bottom bracket and first appeared as "made in Japan versions" from about October 1985. The Rockhoper was available at this time and their was a bike review in the November 1985 edition of Bicycle Action magazine that featured both bikes. The pictures they use show some clear differences in the frames, the Maverick is lugged and the Rockhopper luggless.

I have seen no evidence whatsoever that the Maverick was based on a Rockhoper frame. I don't see why Raleigh would turn to Specialized for help. It is more likely they would rebadge their own bikes that were made for the US market.

 

[MikeD]

Having implied that I thought 100,000 MTBs in 1988 sounded high, it looks like that number could be as much as a factor of 10 out - according to Bicycle Association figures, total bike sales figures in 1984 (the peak of the 80s BMX boom) were 2.0m, dropping to 1.5m in 1985 when said BMX boom unboomed. 1986 was about the same, but by 1988, as Graham says, the MTB boom kicked in and total sales were up to 2.2m. So you could reasonably assume that 700,000 of those were MTBs, taking the post-BMX 1.5m figure as the "all other kinds of bikes" baseline.

That's a lot.

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

This is a UK sales graph from a report on "Raleigh in the last quarter of the 20th century"by Tony Hadland.

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~hadland/raleigh.htm

You need to be careful with statistics (damn lies and the like).

Hi MikeD, are you sure your data is for UK sales and not ownership? Or could they be for US or European sales etc?

Does anyone have pictures of an early Bob Jackson' Col Climber ATB?

The rear cantilever bridge braze-on shown in Northernlight's pictures is different from those fitted to the First Saracen ATBs and FW Evans', and it would be interesting to see how the Col Climber's cantilever bridge was designed.

 

[legrandefromage]

The first time my dad saw an ATB it was brought to him by a parts company to show him the next “new thing”. We stripped it down sprayed it and rebuilt it with our decals on. We then sold it from the photo only to some of our customers. When the parts and tubing came in they went into production in Warwick. All hand built to order by a small but very talented workforce including my engineer dad, Brian Staples, my Mum who was a finisher and myself who sprayed them. When we were approached by Bluemels to invest, the business was sold to them with the family remaining as Directors. It then moved to their premises at Wolston. Coventry where it traded until Bluemels went into administration taking Saracen with it. The bikes Mike had would have been as a result of the administrators selling off stock. Saracen was profit making right up until the end. I loved our bikes and it was the end of an era. X

 

[gaurifor]

Would be interesting to compare pics though.
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