What ticks me off is that folks turn a blind eye to the fact that the similarities between Raleigh USA and Huffy end at the management level. The U.S. factory that produced Techniums did not produce Huffys - and while Techniums aren't C&V, they aren't bad at any rate either.

Ditto for the steel machines - they didn't even come out of Huffy-owned factories. Nearly all of them - save for the Team Pro 753 and 555 - were spit out of Japanese or Taiwanese factories which produced frames on par with any Panasonic, Giant, or Japanese Schwinn.

What really gets on my nerves is that the same folks that idolize the mid-range Japanese Schwinns often diss the steel Raleigh USA lineup for no other reason than their connection with Huffy. Heck, some of the mid-range Schwinn stuff had stamped dropouts and kickstand plates in place of a proper chainstay bridge, for crying out loud. How can you call a LeTour superior to a frame with a tubular bridge and forged dropouts - with adjusters? It isn't.

I'm not saying that the Schwinns are bad in any respect - no sir - but they aren't better than all the Raleigh USA machines - for the most part, Schwinn and Raleigh are on par throughout the entire mid and upper range of the late 1980s.








Not the hallmarks of a cheap bike, are they? No. Neither are they signs of a Huffy. Ditto for the Techniums.

-Kurt