Folding Bikes - Most sold folder...

I was just wondering, and I dont wanna start a big folder war here :) ... But would you guys think the Raleigh 20 is the most widely sold folder in history? I guess this would also be including all of its cousins (BSA,Phillips,Triumph etc...).


R-20's : Can you believe it, your moms bike is cool now...

come check the progress...
http://web.mac.com/phatatude/Green_Space/Raleigh_Twenty_Blog/Raleigh_Twenty_Blog.html

Yes...

From Tony Hadland:

Sales of the Raleigh 20 in 1975 were 140,000 units which exceeded the total number of Moultens produced from 1963 - 1974 and were Raleigh's top seller up until 1977.

Production ran from 1968 to the mid 80's.

http://www.hadland.me.uk/twenty.htm

Interesting to see if a genre of Dahon bike could be compared. They change their models or even just the names so often. Their gross sales per annum might make them a contender in some areas though given the growth in folding bikes combined with them being the market leader in this segment.

I tried to find some total production numbers for Raleigh 20's and their variants as there are many but was not successful...I think it will be some time before any other company comes close to producing this many folders or this many bikes.

Also...The 20 was Raleigh's biggest seller in the mid seventies.

All of the Raleigh 20 production numbers I've seen have included the non-folding model so its hard to say exactly how many 20 folders were sold. Given that Dahon sold 348,000 bikes last year and over 3 million bikes since the company's inception, I would think they would have had a particular model that would have outsold the 20.

Dahon has done extremely well and their quality improvements over their earlier models is nice to see... 3 million bikes is an impressive number and for total sales of all models they may have a model that has now outsold the Twenty.

The Twenty is like the VW Beetle of folders... and like the Beetle remains a popular model to this day and their fans (of which I am one) are rather passionate about them.

From Tony Hadland:

Sales of the Raleigh 20 in 1975 were 140,000 units which exceeded the total number of Moultens produced from 1963 - 1974 and were Raleigh's top seller up until 1977.

Production ran from 1968 to the mid 80's.

http://www.hadland.me.uk/twenty.htm

I was gonna link to that exact same WebFactoid™ :)
So yes - perhaps as a 'branded' bike. There are an awful lot of the less sturdy 'u' frame type bikes in the UK and Europe in the late 70s and 80s too but this is more of a design convention made by many manufacturers rather than one specific patented design like the Raleigh.

Phatatute - you should come to the UK - they're still *everywhere*, and even more so - a look in most suburban garages and sheds (like Alec's) would yield still more mothballed bikes - you'd love it!

http://www.littlepixel.info/twenty/U-Folder.jpg

yes theres a lot of them about.
I remember that I got my recently found R 20 from the bike shop.
It was in a bad way.
But free.

Is that a Compact? Looks nice in mat black

It was never sold in the USA, though, was it?

Dahon has done extremely well and their quality improvements over their earlier models is nice to see... 3 million bikes is an impressive number and for total sales of all models they may have a model that has now outsold the Twenty.

The Twenty is like the VW Beetle of folders... and like the Beetle remains a popular model to this day and their fans (of which I am one) are rather passionate about them.Check sales of the Boardwalk single speed which is named the S1 now.The boardwalk 6 is now a 7 and called the speed d7. But it is the same thing as far as I can tell.