incorrigible
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This just came up for auction on eBay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/175146700953?hash=item28c78e9099:g:4ysAAOSwcgtiAEqp
The seller also posted a video on YouTube a few weeks back:,
I messaged seller for more info, and he sent me the following details in five separate messages:
First, he sent this pic of the serial number.
Seller added "...according to the Raleigh specialist I've talked to it's the 5th number in these later model W workshop tell you the year. As Richard Cunningham worked at the original Raleigh workshop, these would have been the early models of his design. I've only seen 2 in 30 yrs..."
also,
"The serial number came back with the date of Aug 10th 1987 witch predates the deal Richard made with nishiki and the birth of the mantis series."
and
"I have no documentation at all, the person I got it from was a person who restored and gave the bikes away to poor countries, he was named the bike king at one point, as the bike was donated to him he knew nothing about it. I got my info from talking to various bike nuts on several of bike forums.. mostly led me to a guy on Yahoo that knew quite a bit about Richard Cunningham.
Richard worked for Raleigh at the original Raleigh workshop in Raleigh NC.
Most bikes marked with a W would have been from Richard s workshop, he struck a deal with nishiki in 88 and started the nishiki line starting in 89, just before his contract was up with nishiki he started the mantis lable and line of bikes till his last days, sadly he died riding from what the Yahoo guy said.
He provided the date and info as the Raleigh site didn t give much info past a certain year, I guess these aren t old enough yet... As rare as they are."
So, although many of this seller's facts are seriously skewed, he seems pretty sure of himself, and I'm convinced that he was scammed by the guy that sold it to him (as opposed to being a scammer himself). He's an older gentleman, so I suspect he believes hearsay as fact at face-value, and he's just passing along the info that he received from the previous seller, so I'm certain that the "bike king" and the "yahoo guy" are the real culprits here.
I'm certain that's a Nishiki serial number underneath the bottom bracket, so I just checked a couple of my 1990 steel Aliens, and those serial numbers are W89090206 & W89090570. Does anyone here know what those serial numbers translate to? As for the official-looking Raleigh decals,..........well, y'know........
IMHO, this is nothing more than a 1990 steel Alien, originally white with black splatter, but with a coat of candy blue applied on top, and with decals and a Raleigh head badge applied. Admittedly, the 1990 steel Alien is an ABSOLUTELY AWESOME bike - one of the BEST - but the candy blue paint, the false story, and the fake pedigree is a deplorable way to inflate a sales price. At that rate, perhaps we should all put Yeti Titanium decals on our Schwinns to sell them. That said, I need to find a way to inform the seller of the facts without hurting his pride. I know I joke around a lot, but I'd never want to humiliate an older guy who was led down the primrose path of deception by some greedy ne'er do well, scamming, MF-ing scumbag.
Your thoughts? I wonder how RC would feel about this. If anyone here knows RC personally, perhaps you could pass this along to him to let him know that the reports of his death are greatly exaggerated.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/175146700953?hash=item28c78e9099:g:4ysAAOSwcgtiAEqp
The seller also posted a video on YouTube a few weeks back:,
I messaged seller for more info, and he sent me the following details in five separate messages:
First, he sent this pic of the serial number.
Seller added "...according to the Raleigh specialist I've talked to it's the 5th number in these later model W workshop tell you the year. As Richard Cunningham worked at the original Raleigh workshop, these would have been the early models of his design. I've only seen 2 in 30 yrs..."
also,
"The serial number came back with the date of Aug 10th 1987 witch predates the deal Richard made with nishiki and the birth of the mantis series."
and
"I have no documentation at all, the person I got it from was a person who restored and gave the bikes away to poor countries, he was named the bike king at one point, as the bike was donated to him he knew nothing about it. I got my info from talking to various bike nuts on several of bike forums.. mostly led me to a guy on Yahoo that knew quite a bit about Richard Cunningham.
Richard worked for Raleigh at the original Raleigh workshop in Raleigh NC.
Most bikes marked with a W would have been from Richard s workshop, he struck a deal with nishiki in 88 and started the nishiki line starting in 89, just before his contract was up with nishiki he started the mantis lable and line of bikes till his last days, sadly he died riding from what the Yahoo guy said.
He provided the date and info as the Raleigh site didn t give much info past a certain year, I guess these aren t old enough yet... As rare as they are."
So, although many of this seller's facts are seriously skewed, he seems pretty sure of himself, and I'm convinced that he was scammed by the guy that sold it to him (as opposed to being a scammer himself). He's an older gentleman, so I suspect he believes hearsay as fact at face-value, and he's just passing along the info that he received from the previous seller, so I'm certain that the "bike king" and the "yahoo guy" are the real culprits here.
I'm certain that's a Nishiki serial number underneath the bottom bracket, so I just checked a couple of my 1990 steel Aliens, and those serial numbers are W89090206 & W89090570. Does anyone here know what those serial numbers translate to? As for the official-looking Raleigh decals,..........well, y'know........
IMHO, this is nothing more than a 1990 steel Alien, originally white with black splatter, but with a coat of candy blue applied on top, and with decals and a Raleigh head badge applied. Admittedly, the 1990 steel Alien is an ABSOLUTELY AWESOME bike - one of the BEST - but the candy blue paint, the false story, and the fake pedigree is a deplorable way to inflate a sales price. At that rate, perhaps we should all put Yeti Titanium decals on our Schwinns to sell them. That said, I need to find a way to inform the seller of the facts without hurting his pride. I know I joke around a lot, but I'd never want to humiliate an older guy who was led down the primrose path of deception by some greedy ne'er do well, scamming, MF-ing scumbag.
Your thoughts? I wonder how RC would feel about this. If anyone here knows RC personally, perhaps you could pass this along to him to let him know that the reports of his death are greatly exaggerated.
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