How A Bicycle is Made - in 1945...
 

Though many of you have probably seen this video, it was a first time for me. I found the information fascinating and the presentation quaint. Anyway, if interested have a look...

Thanks for posting is. I was thinking about this video and others like it a few days ago.

It was nice to see this one again, as I'm currently restoring a Raleigh Tourist for my own use. I believe these were badged as Rudge, although identical to my Tourist (which I've figured out to be a '73).

Nice. Thank you for sharing!

Cool to think that raw materials went in and bicycles came out.

How many bike factories are do that these days? Not Many!!! (CF does NOT count!) Components come from how many directions these days to make a bike? One of these days, they will be "Printing" bikes....we shall see! I will KEEP by IRON bikes! (CroMo)

1945? Apparently this "video" was filmed right after the War ended and production started up again.

Civilian material production was starting to be ramped up at the end of 44, well before the war ended. Government contracts started being cancelled as they saw they had enough of some materials, and ceased production. By mid 45, many factories were retooled and starting to crank out stuff for the homefront, LOTS of pent up demand to fill.

A very cool video , it's been posted here a few times but there are always folks who haven't seen it.

Thank you for posting. I greatly enjoyed watching.

Spot on. England in '44-45 was broke. They needed to get back on a peacetime economy as quickly as possible, transportation was needed, it would take longer to get the automobile factories converted over (and repaired the ones the Luftwaffe had bombed flat), and the public had to be pushed into buying consumer goods again. Plus there was this matter of mandatory exporting to try and re-balance the payments. This film would have been part of the consumer promotion. I wouldn't be surprised if this film was shown at the evening pictures as part of the 2-3 short films in the evening's programming. (To those way too young, going to the pictures was at least a weekly thing and you spent the entire evening at the theater. Usually two main features, a newsreel, a couple of short films and at least one animated cartoon. The following week, the theater had a completely different show.)

Not sure about the amount of pent up demand, though. Most likely there was some, but England was economically in nowhere near the shape of the US in 1945. A lot of people were rebuilding their houses, first. Just the same, films like this would whet the anticipation for a new bike.

thanks for sharing! I found it very interesting. the machine that would spin the rim and tell them which spoke to tighten was pretty cool. the ladies that can put a tire and tube on in 50 seconds...they have me beat for sure!

Thanks. Excellent film.
Direct link: http://vimeo.com/39401575

Music lovers might appreciate a documentary of the birth of a Boesendorfer grand:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEcIL9nV4No

I hadn't seen this one, thanks for posting!

One of my favourite films of all time.

:)

Does anyone else think of Monty Python's "Bicycle Repairman" skit when hearing the voices in the Raleigh documentary? :)