Raleigh 10 speeds

[velomaniac]

Hello,

Can any one tell me how many different brand names did Raleigh use for its lugged steel 10 speeds of the 70's.

I've owned a Raleigh, Triumph and BSA which all seem framewise identical. I'm just curious as there seems to be a lot.

I like these old unglamorous bikes, a wee bit heavey but with relaxed geometry, good for day trips and a little light touring.

Currently building up the BSA with a mix of non shimano jap parts possibly better than its original spec.

Cheers

 

[barry2017]

Raleigh
Humber
Rudge
Sun
BSA
Triumph

I'm sure there's more.

Vastly underrated, all of them.

 

[terryhfs]

Philips
Carlton (after the buy out)
Hercules

 

[velomaniac]

9 versions of the same bike from the same maker ultimately. Further proof that Raleigh really were out to lunch in its last decades :roll:

 

[terryhfs]

Its last decades? Raleigh never actually went bust.

All the brands are former British bike makers that Raleigh bought up when those bike makers went bust. In some cases they used different brand names for commercial purposes - for instance the Philips Premiere was a Raleigh Equipe with different paint. Halfords didn't want the equipe sold through home shopping catalogues so they created a different model.

 

[alecw35]

Ive got a Elswick Hopper whirlwind thats a Raleigh clone

 

[FemtoMetre]

I think there was a similar thread to this and I mentioned Robin Hood as well.

Phillips had an empire too. I can accept most of these others being merged into Raleigh TI, but too bad Phillips didn't keep on evolving. Ah, I must have said this same thing in that thread with that Phillips Red Road Bike.

 

[NickD]

Its last decades? Raleigh never actually went bust.

All the brands are former British bike makers that Raleigh bought up when those bike makers went bust. In some cases they used different brand names for commercial purposes - for instance the Philips Premiere was a Raleigh Equipe with different paint. Halfords didn't want the equipe sold through home shopping catalogues so they created a different model.

Not all of them - Carlton was doing OK when it was bought, as was Moulton.

 

[GarethPJ]

This badge engineering was financial suicide. Making the same bike with several names and different colour schemes, often with different detail parts would make a mockery of your economies of scale. Not only are you having to spray bikes up in smaller batches and due to detailing differences assemble them in smaller batches you are also having to store and ship them in smaller batches.

It's a problem that also affected BMC/BLMC/BL/Austin Rover (etc.) to the extent that often attempts to streamline production costs would result in errors being made, like Austin parts on Morris cars.

Part of the idea behind both companies badge marketing was that they would sell more if they sold to the fans of the individual brands. Another part was that they had to supply different dealers with products badged accordingly. The idea of the latter being that a Raleigh dealer and a BSA dealer could not survive on the same high street if they both became Raleigh dealers, and one or the other of them may defect to another brand. There is little evidence to suggest that anybody was really fooled by badge engineering either with cars or bikes. Since very few bicycle retailers have ever been specific to a single brand I doubt that the latter reason carried much weight either.

All I can remember is that way back in the late seventies Raleigh's various brands tended to be pretty heavy and old fashioned at their price point.