Unknown bike ?

[raleighnut]

 

[woodbutcher]

Malaysian Raleigh from the early/mid 70s.

Heavens above were the Asians making "British" bikes even then ?

 

[raleighnut]

Heavens above were the Asians making "British" bikes even then ?

Yep Raleigh owned a factory out there, as soon as I saw the serrated headset and serial number.

 

[woodbutcher]

The frame does have a Raleigh look to it, as do the fork crowns. My guess, and it is just a guess, it's that it's a Raleigh frame jazzed up BITD with non spec parts.

Now I've said that it'll be something entirely different!

Looks like its a Malaysian made frame !

 

[woodbutcher]

Yep Raleigh owned a factory out there, as soon as I saw the serrated headset and serial number.

As far as can see from the pics there is no head tube badge or holes, so were these frames ever meant to be real Raleighs ?

 

[woodbutcher]

I wouldn't mind suggesting that could be from an oriental maker , not sure why just a gut instinct

spot on Mr. B looks like Malasia

 

[woodbutcher]

I have told him to treat the bike gently and not to be in a rush so with luck he will manage a sympathetic restoration !

 

[raleighnut]

As far as can see from the pics there is no head tube badge or holes, so were these frames ever meant to be real Raleighs ?

Is a Toyota made in the UK a British car or a Japanese car?

 

[woodbutcher]

Is a Toyota made in the UK a British car or a Japanese car?

Ahh, semantics.... a wonderful topic and worthy of further investigation in this case in particular !

 

[woodbutcher]

View attachment 436287

That piece of paper is a revelation.....many thanks raleighnut !

 

[raleighnut]

As far as can see from the pics there is no head tube badge or holes, so were these frames ever meant to be real Raleighs ?

Raleigh went to glued on headbadges in the late 70s on all but the top end bikes.

Headbadge on my 531c Road Ace

Glued on headbadge (still metal though) on 18-23 frame

 

[woodbutcher]

Ok so l will get him to photograph the head tube properly and see if there is any evidence of a badge having been there .

 

[raleighnut]

Ok so l will get him to photograph the head tube properly and see if there is any evidence of a badge having been there .

They're only glued on, I've 'de-badged' a couple and it doesn't leave a mark (I'd post photos of them but both unfortunately got nicked, I wonder if they'd have been stolen if the thief knew they were Raleighs)

 

[nonowt]

I've seen pretty much the same style frame number on Malaysian built (late 70s early 80s)"Harry Quinn" frames. So it's probably from the early days of outsourcing - could be a gas-pipe number that was bought in and badged up by a shop or mass producer.

 

[raleighnut]

I've seen pretty much the same style frame number on Malaysian built (late 70s early 80s)"Harry Quinn" frames. So it's probably from the early days of outsourcing - could be a gas-pipe number that was bought in and badged up by a shop or mass producer.

Quite common for small manufacturers to buy in frames and paint/badge em up for 'lesser' bikes whilst building their own high end frames. In Leicester we had Sid Mottram who had his own range of bikes but I have on good authority that he never built a frame, his good bikes were built by Mercian in Derby the lesser bikes were anything he could get then painted in his own livery. Customers used to see the Oxy Acetylene bottles and torches in his workshop and assumed they were brazing their own frames up but they were just for repairs , My Carlton had its seat stays brazed back together by Sid's son in law after a lorry ran it over in the late 80s.