Brand

Used vintage Raleigh road bikes

Raleigh grew from a small workshop on Raleigh Street in Nottingham that Frank Bowden bought into in 1888, and it became one of the biggest bicycle makers in the world. In 1960 it merged with Tube Investments and bought Carlton Cycles of Worksop, and Raleigh's hand-built Reynolds 531 frames moved there. That's where the Professional and International came from. In 1974 Raleigh opened its Special Bicycle Development Unit at Ilkeston under Gerald O'Donovan, which built frames for the TI-Raleigh team that Joop Zoetemelk rode to the 1980 Tour de France win. From 1966 the 531 frames carry a year letter at the start of the serial, from 1974 a W for Worksop, and Ilkeston frames start with SB. Cheaper Nottingham Raleighs used Raleigh's own 26 TPI threads, which standard parts won't fit. Huffy bought the US rights in 1982, and after that no British-built Raleighs were sold in the US.

4 models we cover.