News

Between Saturday 11th February and Tuesday 21st February the boys of Team Raleigh-GAC were in Majorca for early season warm weather training – except someone forgot to order the warm weather!

Unseasonal snow and ice led to some treacherous riding conditions, but the boys, ever the pros, put in some tough sessions to prepare for their upcoming races.

Tobyn Horton, who hails from Guernsey, revelled in the chance to perfect his bike handling skills. He said: “We were pretty shocked to wake up on Day 2 to snow, not what you expect when you come on a winter sun training camp! …It was a good bike handling session for the UK city centre Crits later in the year.”

The team’s Canadian rider Jamie Sparling also made the most of the conditions, referring to the week as a “rain-riding-hardening-up festival“!

The team management’s demanding schedule has meant the boys are in perfect shape before their first 2012 race at Ster Van Zwolle on Saturday 25th February.

Of the penultimate training ride, crit-specialist Daniel Holloway said: “Today is a ride that I would probably never subject myself to do alone. Just shy of 200kms and 10,000 feet of climbing in 6.5hrs. You go through many phases of emotions and thoughts in all of that. Happy to be in the sun, pain from the climbs, joy from some of the prettiest landscape in the world, bonking, not being bonked, and the simple content of clipping out of the pedals for the last time of the day.”

Over at the Team Raleigh-GAC blog we’ve been featuring blogs from a few of the riders on the team. Daniel ends the last blog with some fighting talk: “I am excited that camp is almost over because … the racing season begins right after. If camp so far has showed me anything, it is that Raleigh GAC is ready to rumble in 2012.”

Here in Nottingham at Raleigh’s HQ we can’t wait to see that Raleigh jersey on those podium steps once again this year.

Head on over to the Team Raleigh Facebook page for all the latest training camp images.

What Mountain Bike value stamp

The Quad QHD-7 Nano disc brake, distributed exclusively by Raleigh in the UK, picked up 4 stars out of 5 in a recent What Mountain Bike disc brake test.

Out of 19 brake sets the Quad Nanos were cheapest on the test yet one of the best in terms of value for money, scoring higher than disc brakes costing five times as much.

What Mountain Bike’s reviewe Guy Kesteven raved about the brakes saying that the “new pads have added an impressive amount of power … powerful new pads create an absolute bargin brake.”

Gary Conway, Quad brand manager at Raleigh, is also a big fan of the brakes, using them on his Diamondback Mission full suss.

They’ve already seen Gary comfortably through the winter and are still performing like new,  giving him stopping confidence in the recent ice, snow and mud around our Nottingham HQ.

Conway said ‘The Nanos are the baby of the Quad family but still pack quite a punch. The whole range continues to impress me, price and performance-wise and the introduction of new, improved pads in the brake kits is only going to make things better.”

This brake set weighs in at a modest 463g, producing 97Nm of torque and causing only £60 worth of damage to your wallets (on average, £40 less than many other sets).

Purchase your Quad brakes from any Cyclelife store or Raleigh stockist. Read the full review on page 87 of March’s What Mountain Bike.

Everyone knows about Raleigh, right? Ask the average person on the street to name a bike brand and Raleigh will be one of the first names they choose. Yet not everyone knows about the background of Team Raleigh or GAC so here’s a brief introduction to both companies…

Raleigh began life in Nottingham, England in 1887 and became one of the biggest and oldest bike retailers in the world. Our bikes are still sold in six continents and over 150 countries and we’ve been getting people on their bikes for decades.

We pioneered lots of modern bike manufacturing methods – innovations like carbon road bikes in the 60s, Chopper bikes in the 70s and mountain bikes in the 80s – and our bikes even helped Joop Zoetemelk win the 1980 Tour De France.

Arguably this 1980s period was Raleigh’s heyday for professional bike racing. The TI-Raleigh team and later on, the Raleigh-Banana team were at the pinnacle of the sport, attracting stars such as Malcolm Elliott and Paul Sherwin.

After a hiatus around the turn of the century Raleigh returned to professional bike racing in 2009 with the ambition of making it back to the UCI Pro Tour level. The team was strengthened in 2012 with the addition of UK national criterium champion Graham Briggs and former Australian national criterium champion Bernie Sulzberger, plus a notable co-sponsor, logistics giant GAC. (You’ll find all of this year’s riders on our Team Raleigh website).

We’d forgive you if you haven’t heard of GAC before. Most people don’t deal with them directly, but chances are the clothes you wear, the food you eat and the bikes you ride have travelled on transport coordinated by GAC. They are the world’s leading provider of shipping, logistics and marine services.

Raleigh's Geoff Gidding and GAC's Neil Waudby with the Team Raleigh-GAC SP Team race bike

They also have a proud association with sport, believing, as Raleigh do, that the values driving top cyclists parallel what makes a company great – energy, dedication, teamwork.

GAC are supporting Raleigh during 2012-13 seasons to raise awareness of GAC’s global brand. Their Logistics Director Neil Waudby is an ardent cycling fan and a big supporter of Raleigh’s sporting ambitions and societal beliefs that a two-wheeled world is a better place to live.

Team Raleigh-GAC 2012 kit

Keep your eye out for the GAC logo on Team Raleigh-GAC vehicles and team kit this season. And next time you need to move something by sea, make sure you choose a company that supports professional cycling.

At Raleigh’s HQ in Eastwood we have five highly trained wheel builders who build thousands of Tru Build and Pro Build wheels every year.

We send them out to Raleigh stockists around the country to get your bikes back on the roads.

This week our wheelshop opened its doors and let our camera man in to see what goes on. If you’ve ever wondered what Raleigh HQ looks like or how a wheel gets built then take a look at the video below.

We’ll be publishing more behind-the-scenes videos in the next few months as a celebration of our 125th year. Let us know if there’s anything you’d like to see…

Youngsters at Southwold Primary School in Radford, Nottingham saddled up 1950s-style this week to take part in the first and original cycling proficiency test, marking the start of a Nottingham University project to celebrate Raleigh’s 125th anniversary.

The project, being led by The University of Nottingham and local community theatre group Hanby and Barrett, celebrates Raleigh Bikes status as one of the world’s oldest bicycle companies.

Professor Christine Hall, Head of the University’s School of Education, who is among academics leading the project, said: “This year marks 125 years since Raleigh began trading in Nottingham and its name has since become synonymous with the city.

“We were delighted when Raleigh agreed to collaborate with us on a community history project to commemorate this very special occasion. The site of one of the company’s most important factories on Triumph Road is now home to our own Jubilee Campus and, as such, we feel that we have a very special relationship with the company and its roots in the City of Nottingham.”

The Raleigh project, which involves staff from the University’s Schools of Education, History, English and Computer Sciences, is aimed at engaging with the local community to celebrate the history and heritage of the company — everyone from local residents and former employees to students studying at the University’s Jubilee Campus.

• This month will see the start of a Raleigh-based lecture series organised by the University’s Centre for Advanced Studies, which will be kicked off on February 21 by Andrew Ritchie, the creator of the Brompton folding bike, who will speak on innovation in industry.
• Cycling historian Roger Lovell will talk on the origins of the cycle industry on February 28, including a demonstration of some early examples of two wheeled transportation including an original Boneshaker.
• On March 6, former Raleigh employees who worked for the company from the 1950s through to the 1990s will speak about their experiences as part of a chaired discussion.
• John MacNaughtan and Tim Buxton of Raleigh will round off the series on March 20 with a talk on the company’s international reach and future plans.
• The weekend of March 10 and 11 will see a bike-related film festival at the Broadway Cinema in Nottingham. Alongside a programme of bike-related films, the cinema will be showing archive footage of Raleigh, screening an ATV series from the 1980s about the Raleigh workers, a Q+A session with former European 24 Hour Cycling champion Chris Hopkinson, displays of bikes and artefacts from the Nottingham Museum collection and on Sunday there will be a chance to make your own smoothie with pedal-power.

Reliving memories

Hanby and Barrett will also be creating a performance looking at the 125 year history of Raleigh and the experiences of the thousands of Nottingham men and women who worked there. The performance will tour venues across the city in May and June. Producer Julian Hanby said: “This is a great opportunity to work with members of the community and The University of Nottingham on an event that will celebrate the Jubilee Campus and its former use. It was once the most modern bicycle factory in the world and we hope that members of the public — including many former Raleigh employees — will visit the site for these events, and relive memories of past activity there.”

The events will culminate in a community open day at the University’s Jubilee Campus on Saturday June 16 featuring a range of fun, family activities including races, displays and an exhibition of Raleigh-related artefacts.

Raleigh’s story began in 1887 when Sir Frank Bowden bought an interest in a small bicycle shop based on Raleigh Street in the City of Nottingham. During its 125 year history, the company has become famous for its innovative bicycle designs, particularly the iconic children’s bikes the Burner, Grifter and Chopper. Despite moving from its factory from Triumph Road in the early 2000s — later to become home to The University of Nottingham’s Jubilee Campus — the company has retained its strong links with Nottingham and the company’s headquarters remains close by, just outside the city in Eastwood.

John Macnaughtan from Raleigh said “As the leading UK bike brand for 125 years, Raleigh shaped many of the engineering and processing practices seen in today’s cycling industry. In the 1960s, 70s and 80s these practices were refined through studies carried out by a number of Nottingham University departments, narrowing the gap between ‘theory’ and ‘practice’, resulting in many new innovations and revolutionised working practices. Raleigh is proud of its long association with The University of Nottingham and we’re pleased to be collaborating again in our landmark anniversary year.”