Well argued Peter!
Don't lets forget that the post war Raleighs were never intended to be a competitor to the continental styled mass start frames/cycles.
The RRA post war was targeted specifically at the top-end of Club riders and for the average customer, time-trials. Ray Booty's infamous frames were custom built for him by Raleigh and differed from the of-the-page version.
Reg Harris who famously rode professionally for Raleigh and was *the*definitive World Champion pursuit rider for decades always rode Raleighs, that he NEVER had any involvment in, regarding frame geometery etc. He said that this was a particlar trait of British Clubmen only and that none of the top crack continentals even knew what a frame angle was...size of frame was all that they were concerned with. And the same went for Reg! he left it entirely to the Raleigh frame builders.
Nothing's changed in 60 years!!
Regards
Derek Athey
Honiton, Devon UK
On Wed, May 5, 2010 at 1:38 AM, P.C. Kohler <kohl57@yahoo.com> wrote:
> =A0 Are those howls of protest I hear?
> =A0
> Hugh Thornton
> Cheshire, England
>
> Nope. Maybe a wee sigh. Slagging off anything Raleigh is as British as
> Bovril. And I guess among some not being "European" in anything is the worst
> thing imaginable.
>
> Then again, weren't all these European machines built for something that
> really didn't exist in England when this particular Raleigh RRA was built
> (1934): Mass Start Racing? The British never excelled in this area of
> cycling anyway with a few exceptions like Charles Holland and Tommy Simpson
> until the 1960s. Wasn't the RRA intended instead for classic British time
> trialling and club cycling? I am pretty sure there were lots of these
> retrograde RRAs that, with their riders, did pretty well in what was then
> the principle British road competitive cycle sport: time trialling. I rather
> think there were some world records set on them that lasted longer than the
> professional careers of most if not all Continental pros.
>
> http://www.classiclightweights.co.uk/
>
> As for taking a 1948 pattern RRA frame and making it something it was never
> intended to be, a Continental Mass Start racing bike, go for it. It will
> certainly save you the princely sums that the exquisite custom components
> that really make a RRA are fetching. I'll trade you a 1948 Fiamme or Cinelli
> stem for an RRA one anytime or a Simplex Tour de France derailleur for a
> Sturmey-Archer alloy shell FC hub gear.
>
> Finally, it's worth remembering that the one and only British made machine
> to win that most coveted of Continental road races wasn't a Claud Butler, a
> Holdsworth, Hetchens or Carlton. It was a Raleigh.
>
> How's that for a "howl"?!
>
> Peter Kohler
> Washington DC USA