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Old 12-19-19, 08:46 AM
  #13  
Kuromori
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The font is just ever so slightly different. Note the opening on the loop of the 5 is parallel in one but not on the other. Huffy probably got enough leeway to use a similar looking sticker, but not enough to use the Reynolds name, as it would have undermined other frames using Reynolds. There's also been a few fakeish looking not-531 stickers before, I don't know if they fell out of use because of lawsuits, or because most of the time they just come off as looking like cheap knock-offs and Raleigh might have been one of the few properties that had enough name recognition and was British enough and started with an R to pull it off. It's interesting to note that Huffy branded what appear to have been genuine 531 frames with 555RSL decals, probably because they sold many more 555T/SL bikes, and felt that naming consistency was more important to pulling off the ruse at the time. I can only imagine if TI licensed the Reynolds name, Huffy would have just made up a bunch of Reynolds tubesets. I think Huffy threw enough money at TI to let them get away with similar looking decals and TI didn't mind because they left the US complete bicycle market except for select models imported by Huffy. They had not left the US tubing market though, since companies like Trek still used them. This is of course all speculation.
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