In October 1960, a licensing agreement was drawn up allowing Raleigh to make the new, small-wheeled, unisex, dual-suspension Moulton bicycle. Raleigh urgently needed to increase volume sales to the man and woman in the street. In spring 1960 Raleigh, having stopped making quality lightweight cycles at Nottingham, bought Carlton Cycles, a respected hand-built racing cycle specialist company based nearby at Worksop. Unfortunately, it was a market that was rapidly shrinking.
Suddenly, TI-Raleigh had 75% of the UK market. In 1960, TI bought all Raleigh shares, then handed over the British Cycle Corporation to Raleigh management. The effect of these mergers was that Raleigh’s sales figures showed a slight upward trend during most of the 1950s.The TI take-over followed a collaborative venture with Raleigh in South Africa. Raleigh itself was then taken over by Tube Investments (TI), whose British Cycle Corporation owned Phillips, Hercules, Norman and Sun. More significantly, during this period Raleigh acquired two major rival groups: Triumph and Three Spires in 1954, and BSA (including New Hudson and Sunbeam) in 1957. This led Raleigh in 1958 to resume moped production and later to launch a motor scooter. *********************** In 1951, Raleigh produced more than a million cycles.īut between 19, as increasingly prosperous consumers abandoned the cycle in favour of the car, cycle sales in the UK halved. By 1949, it had reached about 750,000, the majority of which was exported. After the war, despite shortages of fuel and steel, Raleigh’s cycle production rose rapidly. The name of its budget range, launched in 1938 as Gazelle, was changed to Robin Hood, and Raleigh acquired Rudge-Whitworth. During the Second World War (1939-45), Raleigh concentrated on munitions work. By 1938, its production of bicycles had grown to nearly 500,000 units per annum and the company had stopped making motorcycles and cars. In 1934 Raleigh reverted to public company status, as Raleigh Cycle Holdings Ltd, with a share issue of more than £2m (= about £65m today). It acquired Humber cycles in 1932 and the following year started producing a three-wheeler car. Raleigh survived the Great Depression well. By the early 1920s, Raleigh was a world leader, capable of producing annually 100,000 cycles, 250,000 hub gears 15,000 motorcycles and 50,000 motorcycle gearboxes. Six years later, Bowden bought back Raleigh, which was to remain in family hands for the next quarter century. In 1902, Sturmey-Archer gears were added to the product range.
It grew rapidly and within a few years was a large public company capitalised at £100,000 (equivalent to about £5m today). Frank Bowden, a successful lawyer and convert to cycling, bought the firm in 1887 and in December 1888 founded The Raleigh Cycle Company as a limited liability private company. The list below is one I’ve used over the years, when buying vintage bicycles, to remember when those companies were still ‘original’ before being taken over by Raleigh: Humber 1932 Rudge-Whitworth 1943 Triumph 1954 Three Spires 1954 BSA, New Hudson, Sunbeam 1957 Phillips 1960 Hercules 1960 Norman 19 Carlton 1960 ********************* Raleigh Street, Nottingham, was the site of a small workshop which in 1886 started producing diamond-frame safety bicycles at the rate of three a week. Comprehensive records of Raleigh frame numbers is another very useful factor: you can check the age of your Raleigh at the bottom of this page. A Raleigh Superbe is surely the most practical vintage bicycle to own and use on a regular basis. And for those of us who collect ‘old black bikes’ Raleigh provided a wonderful supply and variety. The Raleigh Cycle Co, Nottingham 1900: FRANK BOWDEN of Raleigh on the left The history of The Raleigh Cycle Co offers an excellent insight into the history of cycle manufacturing in Great Britain. HOW OLD IS MY BICYCLE? The company had been taking steps to make it harder for makers of cheap bicycles to copy Raleigh parts.
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Posts about Raleigh Serial Numbers written by Neil McGowran.
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