Originally Posted by
nomadmax
Steve,
As I remember it, Levi's went Pinarello in 1986. TI licensed the USA Raleigh brand to Huffy in 1982, based near me and who I rode for. We got Raleigh 531 and 753 frames (red and black) that I think were made in Japan and our jerseys and shorts were branded Huffy/Raleigh. In 1987 the license for USA Raleigh brand to Huffy expired and our team kits and licenses no longer said "Raleigh". Also in 1987, TI sold USA Raleigh to
Derby International Corporation and I'm not really sure when that ended or who bought Derby down the line. This is me in 1987 in a crit race on a black Cannondale. The Raleigh name on the shorts leg was gone and we were free to ride any frame we wanted as we were DCC/Huffy then.
first, cool photo!
second... it's easy to forget how tumultuous those years were for the Raleigh brand, at least here in the USA. I guess the end of the bike boom years were hard to adapt to? Or did they just miss the mountain bike trend? And who would have guessed that the Huffy name would end up on some of the best bikes? It was a strange, unsettling period!
Originally Posted by
nomadmax
When we first started the bike patrol at work, we used Raleigh Technium MTBs that were quite fragile, I broke three of them, one catastrophically, and I wasn't the only one to do so. The Technium frames would usually come unglued at the downtube/headtube lug and made a squeaking sound before failing. Without warning, one of them sheared the top tube and down tube on me; that's the fastest I've ever hit the deck on a bike in my life. I got hurt pretty bad and was off for probably less time than I should have. Derby was fast about replacing the broken frames and wanted them ASAP. Probably for fear of lawasuits, which never happened for me or anyone else on the patrol. The third photo is of the bike that really hurt me. The chief had me replace the all Raleighs with steel Specialized Stumpjumpers immediately.
There was one other big pro team that had a clothing sponsor, Carrera Jeans, who Stephan Roche and Claudio Chiappucci rode for. For at least one year, their shorts looked like blue jeans. Sorry for the thread drift.
Boy, was that just another step on Raleigh's path to the bottom? It does seem that some new technology is developed and debugged, and then adopted by manufacturers who figure that they don't really have to be that careful with it. I could make comparisons to stuff like lithium batteries, but that's a bit off topic
Ah yes... the Carrera jeans! Those were the faux denim shorts that I was thinking of. One of the local guys was wearing them for many years afterwards, and I just couldn't stand looking at them. Fashion takes some strange turns but seems to return to black shorts, and I am grateful.
Steve in Peoria