NEW TI RALEIGH 753 40TH TDF ANNIVERSARY MODEL v.2

[Peachy!]

Re: Re:

At the end of the day, Raleigh hasn’t put anyone’s arm up their back.

no, but I feel there was a certain amount of misleading, or perhaps a failing to mention something significant. Knowingly or unknowingly is another debate

Are they useless or deceitful?

I’d say artful.... they know who they are selling to, the 40-50 somethings just getting back into bikes who are scared of all the fancy expensive new stuff, so they go to a brand they think they know and think they can trust and see a bike they remember being one of the best.... and Raleigh are counting on those consumers not having the faintest idea what a cheap stamped drop-out is or what good welding should look like...

 

[IJohnson]

Re: Re:

I’d say artful.... they know who they are selling to, the 40-50 somethings just getting back into bikes who are scared of all the fancy expensive new stuff, so they go to a brand they think they know and think they can trust and see a bike they remember being one of the best.... and Raleigh are counting on those consumers not having the faintest idea what a cheap stamped drop-out is or what good welding should look like...

So taking advantage then?

Still not a good look! :facepalm:

 

[The History Man]

As a Raleigh fan boy since my first bike, a budgie, I feel saddened and disappointed that a once great company has soiled itself pedalling this attempted nostalgia cash in.

I nearly bought one unseen after signing up for all the advance sales privileges nonsense. I’m so glad I didn’t. I’d rather spend a few hundred having the gran sport refinished knowing it was far closer in spirit than anything else I’ve seen in my size.

 

[Woz]

Re: Re:

I’d say artful.... they know who they are selling to, the 40-50 somethings just getting back into bikes who are scared of all the fancy expensive new stuff, so they go to a brand they think they know and think they can trust and see a bike they remember being one of the best.... and Raleigh are counting on those consumers not having the faintest idea what a cheap stamped drop-out is or what good welding should look like...

I'll refrain from answering the key question posed until I'm fully loaded, but till then Peachy hit on something. In the equation a fair amount of disposal cash and impulse buy would be needed for it to succeed. Like I said earlier. the timing for this release - at no fault from Raleigh - is just off the mark. We are in a depression and frivolity and posing is very suddenly and without prior warning out of fashion and irrelevant. This I think was a double hit why Raleigh got it wrong. If you look at the target buyers for new retro looking bikes in the USA they are squarely aimed at a new crowd wanting something different, unique, simple, utilitarian, retro looking, pleasant to the eye, functional and ....... without the hassle of greasy spanners and with all the immediacy to feel good.

Throwing this "Replica" to a crowd like us (Retrobike) was always going to be under the microscope and nit picked to death because let's face it we are a discerning bunch. Especially on this smooth side of the moon where if you don't have matching period correct spokes all hell will break loose.

I'm no Raleigh fan boy, but at least they tried to commemorate a glorious short lived past they had, so all the respect for them on that front. I'm very split on this myself as you can gather; on one side it needs critical analysis, but condemned at birth because the devil is in the detail I feel is unfair.

 

[d8mok]

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As someone who isn’t into road bikes or was even alive back then I thought I’d throw a opinion in .....

The target market I believe isn’t us (you lot). As people on here have no issue buying the original version or a similar bike of that age and know what that entails. It was never going to be the same or even that similar as things have changed so much. I quite like it , but I know nothing of older road bikes.

This is aimed at the ones who aren’t really into bikes so much , but remember it from back then and have the disposable income to buy it to use infrequently. Maybe they already have a retro inspired Mini , or jacket or motorbike or whatever else is the retro flavoured item that month.

 

[doctor-bond]

Re: Re:

... The target market I believe isn’t us (you lot) ...
This is aimed at the ones who aren’t really into bikes so much , but remember it from back then and have the disposable income to buy it to use infrequently. Maybe they already have a retro inspired Mini , or jacket or motorbike or whatever else is the retro flavoured item that month.

I think that’s about right: what’s odd about this whole episode is that it looks like a few discerning Raleigh buffs have been caught out.

It also occurs to me that BITD you’d go to your dealer and throw a leg over the Budgie, Tomahawk or Grifter of your dreams, and glaring errors like welded dropouts would be easy to spot.

Nostalgia and internet purchases .... oil and water.

 

[Woz]

Re: Re:

As someone who isn’t into road bikes or was even alive back then I thought I’d throw a opinion in .....

The target market I believe isn’t us (you lot). As people on here have no issue buying the original version or a similar bike of that age and know what that entails. It was never going to be the same or even that similar as things have changed so much. I quite like it , but I know nothing of older road bikes.

This is aimed at the ones who aren’t really into bikes so much , but remember it from back then and have the disposable income to buy it to use infrequently. Maybe they already have a retro inspired Mini , or jacket or motorbike or whatever else is the retro flavoured item that month.

Excellent thread contribution. I feel the same. I have difficulty to imagine this venture was set uo to please the Raleigh connoisseur....and in that respect, short cuts on refined finish made logical rational sense.

 

[allenh]

On the frames resultant quality I expect the frames were produced where they were because that's where a good number of their frames are now produced and that's where the procurement department have all their links and contacts.

Would they have been much better having the frames produced here in the UK by someone who has a bit of history when it comes to this sort of thing probably yes

If they didn't get them produced in their spiritual home then would they have been better getting someone in say the US to produce the frames? Again probably yes as the economies of sheer scale that are the US mean that manufacturing of the required quality exists in higher numbers than it does here which is evidenced but quite a few well conceived retro inspired products made in the US, it would also I feel have opened up a much larger potential market.

So I can't help thinking this really is a missed opportunity For Raleigh because they didn't put enough effort in. When Zoop was doing his thing they were selling bikes world wide in huge numbers with manufacturing happening in a lot of the larger markets around the world and images of bikes in those team colours used on a lot of the marketing literature world wide even if there weren't models sold in those colours. So the potential nostalgia market should have been sufficiently large but my instinct is Raleigh's actual market for this retro inspired bike was actually quite small, in reality mostly home grown and no I don't think it ever was really aimed at us.

 

[torqueless]

Re:

So the potential nostalgia market should have been sufficiently large

Well.. I credit Raleigh with having done their research and found that the potential nostalgia market was... what was it?... two hundred and fifty?

Just for a bit of context, in case anyone reading this wasn't around:
In the late '70s in the UK cycle racing was a minority interest. There were three terrestrial TV channels. The Saturday afternoon TV sports programme of one of them would give you the last five minutes of that day's Tour stage, and maybe a half-hour of Paris-Roubaix, and that was about it. In contrast, anyone with the inclination could sit through interminable TV hours of snooker, darts, golf, tennis, cricket, football, rugby, wrestling, athletics, horse racing and motor racing.

TI-Raleigh were the only apparently British brand consistently visible amongst the continental trade teams. I think they had one British rider, Bill Nickson. There were a few more British riders scattered through the continental trade teams. You could count them on the fingers of one hand.

Any one of the pitiably small minority who knew or cared about 'trade teams' was either a cycle racer themselves or aspired to be one. Of necessity that went hand in hand with assembling bicycles out of discrete components from specialist shops.

Given all that, I find it difficult to believe in the existence of a demographic contingent who satisfy these three criteria:

a) Are nostalgic for 1980.

b) Followed (or have since familiarised themselves with) professional cycling back then, and could be expected to have some rationalisation for choosing a specific trade team livery and identifying with it, over any alternatives.

c) Have insufficient bicycle-related mechanical skills, time or inclination to assemble their own 'tribute' from second hand parts.

Also.. I'm sure that on some psychological level none of us even want a convincing replica. This is the paradox at the heart of 'nostalgia': What is the point of 'the good old days' if they can be reproduced in every detail?

 

[doctor-bond]

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I’d say the explosion in cycling, and TV fuelled interest in competitive cycling, has spawned a load of people who are nostalgic for that they never knew: 30 and 40 somethings that dig on Velominati and talk about “Merckx” as if he was their old mate.