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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