I've recently become interested in learning more about the Raleigh USA era in which Huffy had the rights to market bikes bearing the Raleigh name in t he USA. I don't know if that extended to Canada or not. I really know very little about these bikes, except that I think Huffy acquired these ri ghts sometime in the early 80's, and it is my impression the deal didn't la st much beyoond the end of the 80's.
But in the last couple of years I've seen several of these bikes on Craigsl ist, eBay etc. that seem very nicely built indeed, and though perhaps bey ond 1983, would seem to qualify as KOF, with lugged steel frames, 531 DB throughout, or in a few cases even 753, and classic nonindexed components.
Does anyone know of a detailed account of the Raleigh USA bikes? Did Huf fy actually build these bike themselves in the US or have them built here? Or did Raleigh continue to build them in England, with Huffy only marke ting in the US and perhaps directing the specs they wanted for the US marke t? Or were they built in Japan or Taiwan to Huffy's specifications? T his seem a bit of a "lost era" in terms of the collector community's knowle dge of Raleigh, or maybe it is only me who is ignorant on this subject. Yet I continue to see examples of Raleighs from 1983 to 1989 which have c lassic frames and classic components, and which, dare I say it?, often seem better built and better finished than a lot of the stuff coming out of Not tingham or even Worksop in the 70's.
Perhaps this is in a way a bit like the CA Masi story, in that I, and I sus pect a lot of US cyclists, when first seeing the film Breaking Away were ra ther dismissive of the CA Masi ridden by the hero as being the prostitution of a famous Italian marque to make a fast buck in America. I suppose US cycling at that time was still suffering from an inferiority complex which made us believe that neither US bikes nor US riders could ever compete wit h the Europeans. Only later did the real story of the Masi CA operation and the number of now famous framebuiders associated with it become widely known. And of course the quality of CA Masis has been made more cred ible by the scores of US builders who have since established great reputati ons. And even by Greg Lemonde and then Lance Armstrong who have helped to exorcise American cycling's inferiority complex.
Now I don't know if the story of Raleigh USA can quite rival CA Masi, and i t probably doesn't boast a tragically romantic figure to rival Mario Conf ente. But I've seen enough Raleigh USA models that look very, very goo d, at least for affordably priced production bikes, to believe that there i s a story worth hearing there. I suspect there were a number of persons connected with that operation who both knew what they were doing in desig ning and building bike and also had some real passion for the machines. And there may even have been some now famous builders involved. After a ll, great bikes, or even very good bikes aren't created by accident.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Big Spring, Texas, USA