The company was founded on 'Raleigh' Street in Nottingham, Englanda.
http://en.wikipedia.org/
A year before Raleigh was founded, the founder, a lawyer, Frank Bowden was told by his doctor that he would die within six months if he didn't do something about his health. The key to his recovery was cycling, and he became so convinced of its ability to help other people that he immediately went out and bought a bike company, and in a short time (about a decade) built it into the biggest bike company in the world.
I think for the first 50 years or so they actually had Sir Walter Raleigh logos on the bicycle, etc., even up until the 1960's, I have seen Sir Walter Raleigh laying down his cape on a decalset for a 1960 gransport (decalset by the esteemed Michael Swantak, now that library is maintained by http://www.velocals.com), but maybe someone eventually noticed this story of the life of Sir Walter Raleigh and the connection to the Heron and so the bird was adopted as a symbol?
Sir Walter Raleigh By John Buchan, 1911 Google books
SIR WALTER RALEIGH BY HENRY DAVID THOREAU , 1905 LATELY DISCOVERED AMONG HIS UNPUBLISHED JOURNALS AND MANUSCRIPTS INTRODUCTION BY FRANKLIN BENJAMIN SANBORN EDITED BY HENRY AIKEN METCALF
http://www.archive.org/
"Then the screen of boughs was lifted and I saw the Cacique bending over me, and with him another. That other was an old man with a thin white beard and a high nose ; and I thought him a white heron come to fight the terrible orange-tawny fowl."
"I know not what he did to me, but six hours later I awoke from deep slumber with the pain gone and my health restored, save for a singing in my head like the fall of a weir. There was Amias smoking a pipe, and the Cacique and the old soothsayer playing a game on a thing like a chessboard."
Anyway, the Heron might represent the restorative power of the bike, either in the Sir Walter Raleigh story, or for Frank Bowden himself.
For more information about the history of Raleigh, I highly recommend this article :
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/
- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA