Originally Posted by
unworthy1
Just to throw a little (trivia) mud in the waters: I had a tig-welded Mercier "Euro-something" frame, circa maybe '90s, that had been told was made (in Taiwan)with a tubing that was "licensed by Reynolds" for Taiwan manufacture.
Cannot recall the number, nor any more details, and cannot vouch for any of it being true, but could have been called Reynolds 525 (or pick your numbers: 5XX).
Besides this Mercier i don't think I've seen "Taiwan Reynolds tubing" anywhere else.
Can't quite read the details, but the decal on the Raleigh USA pictured below (from among a great many detailed pictures on
this page) seems to be a conventional Reynolds (three tubes) 531 label, without (as far as I can see) a mention of Taiwan licensing. If someone reading this thread happens to own such a Grand Prix, posting an up-close picture of the decal would be a good addition here.
[Edit: the ". . . ed by" line at the bottom of the label bothered me---"Licensed by"?---so I downloaded another 531 label photo from the same page that was taken from the drive side. Zooming in on the helpfully high-resolution photo revealed the words are "Manufactured by TI REYNOLDS LIMITED, England."]
