[alancw3]

Originally Posted by mcteague

I'm surprised they didn't cover the bike boom in the early 70s in the US. That must have helped the bottom line.

Tim

they did. raleigh was a huge player in the bike market in the 60's, 70's and 80's.. actually either number 1 or number 2 with schwinn. interesting how both companies ended up in the same situation selling off to conglomerates that then cheapen the bikes by exporting production to achieve reduced costs in effect lowering the companies to the huffies and columbias of the world which had also gone through this medamorphisis several years earlier. they where two great bike companies that struggled with changing times. that being said who knows if any bike company could have survived in it's original form back then with union regulations and increasing overhead. ashamed for history as they were the two dominant bike companies that gave consumers great choices of quality built bikes. i think that was when consumers became more interested in price than quality. have we not seen that in all other areas of our lives since then. what i call the walmart or kmart effect. actually in some ways it is almost hard to find a quality product today but that is the life that we have all come to.