I have pictures of the Huffy/Raleigh Pan-Am/Olympic bikes/frames @
http://www.firstflightbikes.com/
> Your comments on the brief Raleigh\Huffy marriage allow me to bring a
> unique perspective to this discussion. I own a Huffy\Raleigh frame
> (actually made by Marinoni) used in the 1984 season by Marianne Berglund
> when she won the 1984 World Championship. I purchased this frame from
> Mike Fatka, who is verified as the official Raleigh Team Manager in the
> 84-85 seasons. I also lived at that time (83-86) about 10 miles from
> Huffy's world headquarters in Dayton, Ohio and often stopped in at the
> racing section before it moved to California. In my communications with
> Mike, he implies the Huffy/Raleigh relationship seemed somewhat distant
> at the time in 1984-85.
>
> Raleigh in 1982-83 had already started its slow decline in worldwide
> sales before it was sold to a holding company. They needed extra cash
> for the parent company as its worldwide sales declined. Raleigh
> International had good distribution in specialized bike stores but had
> little if any sales through mass medchandisers like Sears, KMart,
> Walgreens, etc. This is why Raleigh accepted Huffy's offer to lease the
> Raleigh name in the USA - better revenue and distribution. At that
> time, Huffy was the #1 bike manufacturer in the USA based on volume
> sales of frames and earned revenue.
>
> >From a purely marketing standpoint, I know that Huffy tried to purchase
> credibility in producing high quality bikes by leasing the USA franchise
> marketing rights to the Raleigh name and logo. Raleigh wanted the
> mass-market distribution in the USA and Huffy wanted a prestigious line
> to carry as their top line bike and better market penetration into
> smaller bike shops.
>
> However, Huffy found in 1984-85 that marketing and merchandising the
> Raleigh name was too expensive for corporate budgets based on the
> anticipated revenue. Mass-merchandising principles do not work well in
> Mom and Pop bike shops. Huffy had great experience in mass marketing
> but little understanding of the special needs of bike stores. Huffy
> ended up giving back the USA marketing rights because they chose not to
> support the Raleigh marquee through advertising and marketing. Thus
> ended the Huffy grand experiment into buying a quality name like
> Raleigh.