Raleigh Bikes
Introducing Raleigh Bikes
Raleigh is steeped in history and deserves a quick recap of its 135 years history in its own right.
Pre-WWII
Raleigh was founded in 1887 by Sir Frank Bowden. It is a name and a brand that is a household name in the cycling industry, something quite rare these days. In the early 20th Century, Raleigh became a world leader. It manufactured 100,000 cycles annually as well as 250,000 hub gears, 15,000 motorcycles and 50,000 motorcycle gearboxes.
During the second world war, it’s attention shifted to the war effort and munitions work. However it still managed to grow it’s cycling business boosting production to over 5000 bicycles a week.
Post-WWII
In 1969, one of the most recognisable and famous bikes in the world was introduced. The Raleigh Chopper. It’s iconic design led to 1.5 million units sold! In the mid-70’s another iconic Raleigh bike was introduced, the Raleigh Grifter. As a result cemented Raleigh’s position in the marketplace.
By the 1980’s Raleigh had already made waves in the professional peloton with their Ti-Raleigh team. In 1980 they achieved the pinnacle of professional cycle racing by winning the Tour de France with Joop Zoetemelk.
The 1980’s saw BMX arrive from the USA and Raleigh introduced it’s head-turning Burner series and created a pro BMX team. Andy Ruffell was one of their most famous members and helped the team to World Championship success in 1985.
As the BMX craze of the 1980’s began to subside, the 90’s saw Raleigh become the first UK cycle maker to mass produce suspension equipped mountain bikes and electric bikes too.
The Chopper was relaunched in 2004 which was an instant hit again then in 2010 Raleigh dipped it’s toe back into the world of professional cycling with Team Raleigh.
Accell Group, one of the largest bicycle companies in Europe, purchased Raleigh in 2012. It has an extensive portfolio of eighteen bicycle brands. These include Lapierre, Haibike which ecycledirect.co.uk sell alongside Raleigh electric bikes.
In 2017, Raleigh celebrated it’s 130-year anniversary and firmly remains one of the most iconic and oldest cycling brands out there. It’s old and may not be British owned anymore but it is still a UK household name and it’s still in its hometown of Nottingham. Something the UK can definitely be proud of.
Raleigh Electric Bikes
Ebikes are now a major part of Raleigh’s cycle business not just under the Raleigh brand itself but as distributors of Haibike and Lapierre electric bikes in the UK too. We’ll be introducing Haibike and Lapierre in future articles, so let’s talk about the Raleigh Electric bike range.
Electric Hybrid Bikes
The Raleigh Motus range has a choice of step through or crossbar frame, Bosch power and a feature-rich setup. A popular choice.
The Grand Tour moves the Bosch motor up a notch to an Active Line setup and is consequently available in both derailleur and hub geared versions. Crossbar and step through frames are available too. It is a model that transcends traditional segmenting of the electric leisure/trekking and city bike market. The Raleigh Motus Grand Tour electric bike can comfortably do both.
The Raleigh Centros Electric Bike is their flagship model. It comes with the raw power of a Bosch Performance Line motor as standard and a massive 625Wh battery . Accordingly this could see a range in excess of 100 miles. A choice of frame style, hub or derailleur gears, it offers fantastic value for money. An attribute synonymous with Raleigh.
