Raleigh Special Products Division Titanium - INFO PLEASE

Haylock1974":3023uxyt said:
regan_ev":3023uxyt said:
Oops! My bad on misspelling Barrie Clarke's surname! I just got all excited for you thing this was a special special-products frame!

Nice to learn about the history of Russian titanium manufacturing and fabrication. :)

So, I managed to find a contact email for Barrie Clarke and sent him a message. This is his reply:

Hello Chris,

Raleigh special products did stamp the names of the riders on the BB shell in the 90s. Some times they did spell my name wrong too. I don’t remember having a frame with a fat down tube though. I did have some IMI titanium frames both shinny and bead blasted but never with the fat down tube. I don’t even remember bikes of the time with oversized down tubes in titanium.

You might get some more info from Glenn Coltman, the Raleigh mechanic for a lot of this era. He now has a shop near Leicester but I do not know the name – sorry.

Good luck,
Barrie

Interesting...

More to report...

As suggested by Barrie Clarke I contacted Glenn Coltman, who now runs Pedel Power Bikes in Loughborough, and this is what he had to add to the discussion:

Hi Chris

No I don't mind you contacting me. I do remember these framesets. If I remember correctly special products division made a special press that took a large round titanium tube and ovalized it. Don't think they were ever made for the UK Raleigh brand but were for an American company called Sampson. I think the last order from Sampson was cancelled and these frames were sold into the UK bike shops. Sheffield Cycles of Burton upon Trent had quite a few.

Team Raleigh team frames always had the riders name stamped on to the bottom bracket shell not scratched on so not sure about that.

That's really all I can tell you. Hope it helps.

Glenn.
 
There is pictures of the Sampson frame in the archive on here.

EDIT: Sorry, I thought this was the MTB section. Worth looking though I expect.
 
Rampage":30m3gevi said:
There is pictures of the Sampson frame in the archive on here.

EDIT: Sorry, I thought this was the MTB section. Worth looking though I expect.

Found a couple of images of the Sampson Z7 Titanium.
I will let you draw your own conclusions...
 

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Haylock1974":p104i6tq said:
Haylock1974":p104i6tq said:
regan_ev":p104i6tq said:
Oops! My bad on misspelling Barrie Clarke's surname! I just got all excited for you thing this was a special special-products frame!

Nice to learn about the history of Russian titanium manufacturing and fabrication. :)

So, I managed to find a contact email for Barrie Clarke and sent him a message. This is his reply:

Hello Chris,

Raleigh special products did stamp the names of the riders on the BB shell in the 90s. Some times they did spell my name wrong too. I don’t remember having a frame with a fat down tube though. I did have some IMI titanium frames both shinny and bead blasted but never with the fat down tube. I don’t even remember bikes of the time with oversized down tubes in titanium.

You might get some more info from Glenn Coltman, the Raleigh mechanic for a lot of this era. He now has a shop near Leicester but I do not know the name – sorry.

Good luck,
Barrie

Interesting...

More to report...

As suggested by Barrie Clarke I contacted Glenn Coltman, who now runs Pedel Power Bikes in Loughborough, and this is what he had to add to the discussion:

Hi Chris

No I don't mind you contacting me. I do remember these framesets. If I remember correctly special products division made a special press that took a large round titanium tube and ovalized it. Don't think they were ever made for the UK Raleigh brand but were for an American company called Sampson. I think the last order from Sampson was cancelled and these frames were sold into the UK bike shops. Sheffield Cycles of Burton upon Trent had quite a few.

Team Raleigh team frames always had the riders name stamped on to the bottom bracket shell not scratched on so not sure about that.

That's really all I can tell you. Hope it helps.

Glenn.

Your frame is exactly that which Glenn described. The frames were supplied to Eric Sampson. We also manufactured them for Raleigh USA.
 
Finished Bike...

So, here is the finished bike...

The build isn't strictly 'retro' as the groupset and all other parts/components are post 1997...
 

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Joined this forum just to post about this bike. I have purchased a Sampson Z7. I am not sure of the exact year, but it must be 1998-2000. My correspondence with Eric Sampson indicates that they were built for Sampson by Timet in Nottingham (I think that is Raleigh SPD). I am gathering any information that I can find and this forum site seems to have more than US forums.

the following link has some photos.
https://bikeindex.org/bikes/92363
I have also setup a Pinterest where I am gathering info on these bikes.
https://www.pinterest.com/mikerudinsky/ ... -z7-bikes/
 

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