Tag Alex Moulton

Raleigh for the Masses: Evolution of a Bicycle Giant

Color lithograph poster of two riders on black Raleigh roadsters against yellow and orange fields, with the heron-head badge and the words Raleigh The All-Steel Bicycle

Raleigh went from a twelve-person workshop on a Nottingham back street to the largest bicycle manufacturer in the world, and from there to a brand owned by a Dutch group under lender control. This is the full arc: Sturmey-Archer and the three-speed empire, the export trade, the Moulton fight, the Chopper, the four-man Ilkeston workshop whose frames won the 1980 Tour de France, and the long unwinding that ended manufacturing in Nottingham.

Raleigh for the Masses: A Timeline of a Bicycle Giant’s Evolution

Raleigh logo (featured)

Among the most recognized bicycle brands in the world, the Raleigh Cycle Company traces its roots to a twelve-person workshop in Nottingham, England producing three bicycles a week. This timeline follows its rise to the largest bicycle plant on earth and its long path through hub gearing, the export trade, wartime munitions, the Chopper, BMX and the Tour-winning Ilkeston workshop, to the end of Nottingham manufacture and the brand's present ownership.

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