love2pedal.com

Obscure question:

Raleigh had a factory in Enid, OK (I think it was Enid and I think it was in the 70s).

Did it ever produce any bikes or was it closed before production started? I don't recall ever seeing any bikes produced there

Hothousepaint

HI Love2pedal. I just saw this post, 10 years later...lol. Raleigh did indeed have a large plant in Enid Oklahoma in the late 1970's, and the early 80's. Not sure of it's exact years of operation, but I live in Enid, and remember it well. Bikes produced in Enid during that time period had an upper case "E" at the first of their serial numbers. The plant was converted into a large food processing plant called Advance foods that shipped frozen foods around the world. Just about 2-3 years ago they were bought out by Tyson Foods.

thumpism 

Welcome! Great and helpful first post.

NY Times reports the closure and has some interesting years in the article (19727, etc.).
https://www.nytimes.com/1977/01/13/a...-us-plant.html

dweenk

Jeez. A lot of bad news in that Times article.

flangehead

Thanks for this. I remembered a plan to build a factory but for some reason had Stroud or Bristow in my head.

Anyone want to sink big$ into this bike boom?

Schreck83 

"In announcing his plant's closing, Mr. Langefeld noted that only some seven billion bicycles were sold in the United States in 1970. But by 1972‐73 sales had risen to twice that number, he said. Now, the figure is back to the 19770 level, Mr. Langefeld added."
That's a lot of bikes.....

repechage

When billions are Millions.
some might be attributed to scanning software as the dates are screwy and the editors back then might have goofed on volume but not dates.

the bike boom was folding in 1975.
it would take the second fuel crisis in 1979 with odd/ even rationing to cause a mini boom.

we went from selling 1.5 per day to selling 6+
it was wild. Daily will call trips to the distributor.
the Raleigh Grand Prix was popular - loaded up with rack, folding baskets...

uncle uncle

A bit off subject, but geographically in the same back yard... I thought Takara bicycles were assembled in Oklahoma City, but they might have been just the importer of 'made to specifications' bicycles that were already built and assembled in Japan, and later Taiwan. I guess in my way of thinking about the context of where a bicycle was "built", major assembly of components to a frame has to accomplished. In other words, not just taken from a box and adjusted. Others opinions on the subject will surely vary.

juvela

-----

the Raleigh facility in Enid was not strictly speaking a "factory" in that nothing was manufactured there. one might term it an assembly plant. completed frames and all of the bits to turn them into complete cycles were shipped in and workers who operated on a piece rate built them up into cycles.

one of the facilitiy's big problems was QC which was one of the reasons for its closure. i recall actual closure date as being 1979, but could be mishtooken.

---

Takara facility -

a local friend, Bob Barrett, creator of the Barrett side-by-side did business with the Takara facility. he used their frames as a basis to which his fittings could be mounted to create a side-by-side. frames were unmodfied tenpspeed models.

-----

64Pete

Juvela,
I found this after your post about the Raleigh Grand Prix in the appraisals forum.
This sticker caught my eye:
“MADE IN ENGLAND”

“BUILT IN U.S.A.”

My question: Were any other model Raleighs assembled there besides the Grand Prix models?
Thanks
64Pete

T-Mar

Those figures should be in millions, not billions. In 1972, the USA population was only 209 million people. At 14 billion bicycles sold, that would mean evert person in the USA bought 67 new bicycles that year! Talk about your n+1!

gugie 

I'm wondering if assembly in US was to avoid tariffs for complete bikes.

Kilroy1988 

Based on a conversation I had with a man who was employed by Raleigh Carlton in the early-1970s, that was just the case - even bicycles shipped from England were often not completely assembled because they were taxed differently that way. I also think I've read discussions here from folks who worked in bike shops during the time confirming that Raleighs and other imported bicycles could arrive in bulk and needed final assembly here.

-Gregory

amandah2983

Hi I'm loving all this content as there is little to no info on this elsewhere. I myself live in Enid ok own a Raleigh 74 grand prix beautiful condition and am trying to sell it all original but it's worth??? Lots of conflicting info on Enid structure

thumpism 

It's done with trucks to this day. MB Sprinters are shipped here "knocked down" and fully assembled in the States. First-gen Ford Transit Connects came from Turkey with rear seats installed (passenger vehicle) and removed here to become vanlets. Blame the Chicken Tax.

Pompiere

I had a Subaru Brat that was listed as a "2 door sedan" on the title due to the import truck tax. The rear jump seats were bolted to the bed. They had seat belts and headrests to be DOT compliant.


1978 Subaru BRAT

USAZorro

I hung out quite a bit at my Uncle's shop. All the bikes - Raleighs and others - came in cartons. Everything required some assembly.

USAZorro

What's it worth? We have a sub-forum for that.

Germany_chris

The Dancing Chain goes a bit into this subject