![]() Note the bars are taped right to the stem. Also, in the pre-MTB days, hard charging clubbies looking for a machine to handle NZ’s “shingle” roads preferred the rugged little Raleighs over the more effete 10 Speed. They still had a market though in those rich parents looking for a derailleur bike for their kids. Once the Healing 10 Speed hit the market with its svelte 27 x 1 1/4″ wheels, the cobby looking Raleighs enjoyed less success. Keith Guthrie of Cycle Trading Co remembers the sleepless nights he incurred after ordering 20 of them, a big commitment for a young shop-owner. These were the first derailleur-equipped mass market bikes in NZ, and as such were quite a hit. There was also a 10 speed version: the Olympic. Raleigh Module 5/Alpha: Gents and Ladies frankly horrible 5 speeds based on the basic sports model frame. Nice bikes, and probably the last fully equipped bicycles to be sold in any numbers. Here is the 10 Speed frame re-dressed as a (Shimano) 3 speed. Healing Commuter: Healing were aggressive in filling every hole in the known market with products based on their basic frames. Despite dire predictions by those brought up on proper lugged frames, the 10 Speeds proved to be rugged if uninspiring machines. Even the handlebars were bent up in NZ on a locally built machine, and a very peculiar bend they were too. The frame was butt or bronze welded out of local steel supplied by Southward Engineering. The cunningly named 10 speed rode the crest of the oil crisis and the 10 speed boom. Healing 10 Speed: Healing’s amazingly successful best seller. Note the plain fork crown this was the first Morrison Raleigh to depart from the “Raleigh Crown”. Significantly poorer than genuine Nottingham item. Flashy and a good seller, but the chrome was awful and the general standard of work much lower than on earlier efforts. Raleigh Bermuda: Morrison’s last version of the Sports Model. I’ll run through the catalogue explaining some of the bikes. Rampant inflation and no discounting in those far off days made this a fairly simple task. We confirmed this by looking back in old invoice books till we found prices to match. The third largish player on the market was Cyclemakers of Pleasant Point, but at this point cyclemakers would have just been getting off the ground. It was multi-brand all the models on the pages I sent you were made by Healing Industries of Christchurch or Morrison Industries of Hastings. It was produced by them for their members, i.e. The pictures below are scans of a Master Cycle Traders’ Federation catalogue from the early 80s (the MCT was NZs national cycle trade body). Choppers were certainly built here, as were 5 and 10 speed “racers”, the Olympus (26″) and Arena (27″). The 20 grew a bigger sibling, the Morrison 22 and THINK I’m right in saying Raleigh 18s were also made in NZ. Also interesting is the fact that Morrison could confidently claim in 1977 that the 20 was NZ’s biggest selling bicycle.īack to the history. Note that this letter refers the Folder and not the Detachable, it is closer in format to the original Raleigh 20 Folder from Nottingham, but still without the BB reinforcing bars. Keith Guthrie of Cycle Trading Co found the following letter in his files. The bike has been transformed, and is now very nippy, thanks to the full pound each wheel has shed! I’ve also foregone the cable-free back end and replaced the Duomatic with a standard Torpedo 3 much more pleasant to use in my humble opinion. ![]() Since the photos were taken I’ve switched back to bigger diameter aluminium rims and Primo Comet 20 x 1 3/8″ tyres. I modified mine to 20 x 1.75″ BMX rims, but found that they lowered the BB too much. Unlike the US 20s, the NZ version stayed true to the 20 x 1 3/8″ wheel. Also fitted was a wiring system for dynamo lights, which ran through the main tube and through copper contact plates at the shotgun style joint. ![]() ![]() The bike originally came fitted with the usual Raleigh equipment: Quick adjust seat and ‘bars, full ‘guards, a built in prop-stand and a sturdy tubular carrier. I own a Raleigh 20 Detachable, although I’ve modified the machine heavily. This last feature allowed the production of a fully detachable version which was, I think, unique to NZ. In another departure, the bracing tubes from the main tube to the bottom bracket were missing. It was made of local steel, and the main tube was of slightly smaller diameter than the original. Slightly cruder than the original Nottingham version, the 20 was nevertheless a sturdy machine which suffered very few problems over its long production life. Although the Sports Model was the original backbone of the range, it was the Raleigh 20 which really set the sales records. ![]() Raleigh bicycles were manufactured under licence in New Zealand by Morrison Industries of Hastings from the very late sixties through to (I think) 1987. Michael Toohey describes a unique and insular market that even spawned a separable Raleigh 20 ![]()
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