Raleigh color to die for, was [CR]RE: The "purple"Raleigh Competitions

(Example: Framebuilders:Norman Taylor)

Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 20:06:06 -0500
From: "HM & SS Sachs" <sachs@erols.com>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org, jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net, kohl57@starpower.net
Subject: Raleigh color to die for, was [CR]RE: The "purple"Raleigh Competitions


Peter "more English than the English" Kohl wrote:

I have always been partial to British bikes because they just looked damned "smart" in that British way. The Club bikes of the '40s and '50s were simply gorgeous in a rainbow of cutting edge colours and transfers. All dash and flair with that essential dignity still intact.

But I must say Raleigh in the 1970s just had odd colours for racing bikes... browns, champagnes, coppers etc. All very '70s but somehow too subtle. <snip>. -------- Only twice have I fallen in love with a bike's color. The first was the very elegant silver on some early 70s Paramounts, sprayed on so thin that I once read the word "butted" stamped into the outside of a fork stay. The other was my '70 or so Raleigh International, in a marvelous coffee-brown over gold undercolor. Very deep and rich, and I immediately stuck a "Kahlua" logo on the top tube. I like some of the Italian silvers, too, like the Cinelli, but that isn't the same gut reaction.

harvey "color-insensitive" sachs
McLean VA