Re: [Classicrendezvous] Re: Re: Raleigh Postman Bike, worth buying?

(Example: Framebuilders:Pino Morroni)

In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.3.96.1001019144918.9723A-100000@lesche.missouri.org>
References: <l03130300b614e450d4b5@[128.111.201.65]>
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 21:06:10 -0700
To: Bob Hufford <bhufford@mail.orion.org>, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
From: "Monkeyman" <monkey37@bluemarble.net>
Subject: Re: [Classicrendezvous] Re: Re: Raleigh Postman Bike, worth buying?


>I just sold a '78 Raleigh DL-1 that had this same "R" decal as well as
>the Nottingham badge. Another decal (not seen well in the eBay pics) is
>on the top of the top tube and states "Made in England".
>
>I assumed it meant the frame too ...

The facts as I have them for an older man that worked at the Raleigh plant in Kent, Washington. I can't remember the gentleman's name but I think he also worked for Raleigh in England. The facts as I was told are; if it has the stylized "R" on the seattube at least the frame was built in Asia (Taiwan in specific, I think), some of the other parts were built there too. The frames were sent to England to be painted, stickered, and built up. This is a cost saving measure used by many bike companies before and after this period. The "R" was placed on them to designate between the two kinds of Raleighs coming out of the factory. I've never seen a Roadster from this period that was other than a Rampar built frame, but I have seen Sports from this period with either the "R" of Raleigh Heron. Usually the bikes with the Sports with the "R" had mattress saddles and standard cranks, pedals, stems, ETC. The Sports with Raleigh Herons had Brooks saddles, Raleigh cranks, pedals, stems, ETC. Speaking on the headbadges, how many things do you see with a "made in USA" sticker that wasn't made in USA?

As I stated in the earlier post these "Roadsters" where created for the nostalgia market, which would explain the parts upgrade. My guess is the tooling for the 28" wheeled Roadster frames and rod brakes had been destroyed or sent "overseas" many years earlier and it was much cheaper to have the tooling redone in Taiwan. These Rampar/Raleigh Roadsters were only made for a few years so going with existing "outsider" tooling or manufacture saved the company many thousands of dollars. With that said there are maybe 1/100th the number of Rampar made bikes than the older bikes Raleigh made from the 30's to the 50's, so maybe in the future they'll be more collectible than the fully-english ones.

I'm not a Raleigh expert but I've worked in the industry for 15 years and know all the corners companies take to save a buck. If you want more info on the bike s see Sheldon Brown's web pages at: <http://www.sheldonbrown.com/oldbikes/index.html>. Or if you're in Seattle go see Val at The Bikesmith he's a Raleigh nut and was with me when this discussion about Rampart built bikes happened, he may also know what the guys name was.

enjoy, Brandon"now working in a pro road shop owned by Lance's personal wrench, but still loves old 3-speeds"Ives

PS: I would recomend that anyone that like "classic" bikes get themselves a Raleigh 3-speed of some kind, you'll be suprised.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nobody can do everything, but if everybody did something everything would get done.
      -Gil Scott Heron- !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!