Haylock1974
Retro Guru
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.