jdawginsc 

I think this one is legit...probably for the fine quality but minimalist industrial frames made in the Yugo factory?

non-fixie 

This decal is on my Jacques Anquetil frame. Originally thought to be a French product, but since I later learned that a Belgian firm also had a license to use the Anquetil brand name I suspect this may well be Belgian.

Anyway, legit or not, the bike I built with it turned out to be a pretty nice ride:

noglider 

Are you guys making these graphics here and now? It's so easy to impress me.

uncle uncle

^ Puch's blend, somewhere between high tensile steel & 531. (At least it was their 'original' blend... none of that new/improved stuff.)

Chuck M 

My '84 Raleigh doesn't have the Reynolds name on it. I've assumed Raleigh didn't have a contractual agreement to put Reynolds on the Asian built bikes but that could be way off base.

Meanwhile, while Takara wasn't using anything special, they still guaranteed it was special.

JohnDThompson 

...

MauriceMoss

'A' for effort.





Diamant







Tsunoda Cr.Mo




"Ronnys"





"Tuberinni"

Rocket-Sauce 

Here is one I sold last summer:

clubman 

A & P started making tubing around 1901 and were then bought by Reynolds shortly after.
Chicken or the egg?

cb400bill

jdawginsc 

Interesting. I wonder if the company made their own stickers since Reynolds wouldn't give them, or they wanted them to be more non-descript. Were Anquetil bikes bicycle shop level or department store level for the most part?

(For the record, I was kidding about the Yugo bicycle...they were just funny when they entered the US market in the 80s? 70s?)

madpogue 

'80s. The cars just *looked* '70s.

dedhed

My 84 GP doesn't mention Reynolds as well.

oneclick 

Just spotted this on that auction site; looks like a free trinket when you buy cables. I kind of like it - has an honest charm of unashamed imitation devoid of intent to deceive.

T-Mar

There were different grades of Raleigh 555 tubesets. The only one sourced from Reynolds was 555RSL. In that case, the R in the suffix indcates the tubing is Reynolds manufacture. All the other Raleigh 555 tubesets appear to have been sourced from Tange.

At the time, both Reynolds and Raleigh and were owned by Tube Investments. The working reraltionship between the two was very old and had a high profile, prestigious reputation with most consumers. Consequently, when Hufffy acquired the USA license for Raleigh in the mid-1980s and decided to source the bicycle from Asia, they decided that maximum sales would result by preserving the tie with Reynolds or at least convey a public image of a tie over as much of the product line as possible. Having the bicycles made in Asia with Reynolds tubing increased costs. It was cheaper to design new tubing decals with graphics similar to Reynolds. Most consumers would assume it was Reynolds tubing and not read the fine print that indicated Japanese manufacture.

The Golden Boy 

I like that description.

Lattz

Does this count? No offense meant against the brand or national feelings. I know they also use(d?) Columbus tubes

cudak888 

Time to drag this one out of the woodwork.


-Kurt

cb400bill

I've not seen this one before.

Reynolds 

Bobjackson

madpogue 

Here's another "Special" Takara, but this one features some sort of runic symbols in the background (extra credit if you can translate it):

randyjawa 

This German tubing decal bugs me but it is the real deal, believe it or not...

oneclick 

I'll have a go -

'10-11'

madpogue 

Okay, now that I see those "ticks" as quote marks, I can't un-see it, I think that's it. So that suggests 0.11% carbon steel? I guess that's "special".