Were Nottingham Raleigh wheels machine or hand built?

I have a set of wheels that had apparently done 30k miles since being
fitted from new one a Raleigh Superbe from 1980. No broken spokes and
a heck of a lot of curbs and potholes.Could Raleigh have had its
wheels built by hand or by that time were they automated? Does anyone
have any knowledge that might shed light on this.
cheers, Nick.

wrote:
I have a set of wheels that had apparently done 30k miles since being
fitted from new one a Raleigh Superbe from 1980. No broken spokes and
a heck of a lot of curbs and potholes.Could Raleigh have had its
wheels built by hand or by that time were they automated? Does anyone
have any knowledge that might shed light on this.
cheers, Nick.

Intelligent guess, would be manual at that stage.

Raleigh was a pretty traditional manufacturer, and much British industry was
still hanging onto very old practises in 1980.


If my memory is correct, Suberbe's were gents roadsters with hub gears, so
the wheels wouldn't have been particularly light weight, and the hub gear
means the spoke loading at the rear is symmetrical, both factors which would
help their long life.


- Nigel (at school in a town about 30 miles from the Raleigh factory in
1980)


--
Nigel Cliffe,
Webmaster at http://www.2mm.org.uk/

wrote:
I have a set of wheels that had apparently done 30k miles since being
fitted from new one a Raleigh Superbe from 1980. No broken spokes and
a heck of a lot of curbs and potholes.Could Raleigh have had its
wheels built by hand or by that time were they automated? Does anyone
have any knowledge that might shed light on this.

It matters not.

Whether parts of the assembly were automated to a greater or lesser
degree, the standards for tension, roundness and lateral runout, choice
of rim, spoke and nipple, thread lubrication and dealer final prep,
possibly including stress relief, are all magnitudes more significant.
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

wrote:
I have a set of wheels that had apparently done 30k miles since being
fitted from new one a Raleigh Superbe from 1980. No broken spokes and
a heck of a lot of curbs and potholes.Could Raleigh have had its
wheels built by hand or by that time were they automated? Does anyone
have any knowledge that might shed light on this.
cheers, Nick.

Nigel Cliffe wrote:
Intelligent guess, would be manual at that stage.
Raleigh was a pretty traditional manufacturer, and much British industry was
still hanging onto very old practises in 1980.
If my memory is correct, Suberbe's were gents roadsters with hub gears, so
the wheels wouldn't have been particularly light weight, and the hub gear
means the spoke loading at the rear is symmetrical, both factors which would
help their long life.
- Nigel (at school in a town about 30 miles from the Raleigh factory in
1980)

The Superbe name was used twice.

The British-built Superbe was Raleigh's premium "A" line Sports model
with Brooks B.66, Sturmey AW-3, GH-6 DynoHub, fork lock and painted to
match steel rear carrier. Colors included the rich Calypso Coffee - a
deep metallic color. Nice bike! Always sold well here.

The later Superbe from Raleigh Industries of America was a Japanese hand
brazed lugged frame in butted Tange tube. The later Superbe was, AFAIK,
the first production bike with a Suntour Superbe 2x7 gear train. That
model was offered in a 'cromovelato' finish - all chrome frame with a
translucent gold lacquer rinse - stunning!

'hanging on to old practices' - In 1980, Raleigh's USA division
insisted that their #1 volume bike, Raleigh Record Ace, move from
England to Japan. It was renamed Super Record(!) Same general spec but
much lighter and the finish work was much better, same price, same
Suntour Seven 2x5 gear train withsteel wheels, $219.

That year the Japanese Raleigh Gran Sport was slipped between the Super
Record and the British Gran Prix. That was the end of Gran Prix sales.
The Asian model, a Super Record with aluminum rims, was lighter,
better looking, assembled much faster and cost less, $249.
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

A Muzi wrote:
wrote:
I have a set of wheels that had apparently done 30k miles since being
fitted from new one a Raleigh Superbe from 1980. No broken spokes and
a heck of a lot of curbs and potholes.Could Raleigh have had its
wheels built by hand or by that time were they automated? Does anyone
have any knowledge that might shed light on this.
cheers, Nick.

Nigel Cliffe wrote:
Intelligent guess, would be manual at that stage.
Raleigh was a pretty traditional manufacturer, and much British
industry was still hanging onto very old practises in 1980.
If my memory is correct, Suberbe's were gents roadsters with hub
gears, so the wheels wouldn't have been particularly light weight, and
the hub gear means the spoke loading at the rear is symmetrical, both
factors which would help their long life.
- Nigel (at school in a town about 30 miles from the Raleigh factory
in 1980)

The Superbe name was used twice.

The British-built Superbe was Raleigh's premium "A" line Sports model
with Brooks B.66, Sturmey AW-3, GH-6 DynoHub, fork lock and painted to
match steel rear carrier. Colors included the rich Calypso Coffee - a
deep metallic color. Nice bike! Always sold well here.

The later Superbe from Raleigh Industries of America was a Japanese hand
brazed lugged frame in butted Tange tube. The later Superbe was, AFAIK,
the first production bike with a Suntour Superbe 2x7 gear train. That
model was offered in a 'cromovelato' finish - all chrome frame with a
translucent gold lacquer rinse - stunning!

'hanging on to old practices' - In 1980, Raleigh's USA division
insisted that their #1 volume bike, Raleigh Record Ace, move from
England to Japan. It was renamed Super Record(!) Same general spec but
much lighter and the finish work was much better, same price, same
Suntour Seven 2x5 gear train withsteel wheels, $219.

That year the Japanese Raleigh Gran Sport was slipped between the Super
Record and the British Gran Prix. That was the end of Gran Prix sales.
The Asian model, a Super Record with aluminum rims, was lighter, better
looking, assembled much faster and cost less, $249.

OOPS- correction
I checked that and the first year 1980 gold Superbe was 2x6, the similar
1980 'Touring 14' model was the first 2x7.

"Getting old is not for sissies' - Katherine Hepburn

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

this Superbe is definitely English and has a rear Dynohub so the
spokes do have different tensions on the rear wheel, and still no
broken spokes. The rims are the better stainless Vanschothorsts
Westricks(far stronger and more durable than alloy) which with
Schwalbe Marathon plus tyres weigh about 3-4kg with spokes and hub. I
think last time i weighed my runabout it weighed 40lbs bare and 58lbs
with panniers and fishing kit with 235+lbs rider, so they take a hefty
load at nearly 300lbs. Don't tandems take less than that, ha. I was
just thinking that considering the scale of the Raleigh output, in the
UK anyway, they must of had quite a few wheelbuilders to keep up with
production.
On the subject of wheelbuilding, does anyone know what the spoke
length should be for a Sturmey 40H AW hub, 26 1 3/8 , iso 590 rim
using 3 cross 13g. The spoke length calcs give it at 282 but i've
measured a broken spoke and it is in the 285-287mm range.
Thanks for the reply,
cheers Nick.

A Muzi writes:

OOPS- correction
I checked that and the first year 1980 gold Superbe was 2x6, the similar
1980 'Touring 14' model was the first 2x7.

"Getting old is not for sissies' - Katherine Hepburn

Sorry Andy, first year was 1979. It's on "list of lusted-after
items", that's why I know :

http://www.ece.ubc.ca/~gillies/ralei...ro_superbe.jpg

- Don Gillies
San diego, CA, USA