Friday 14 January 2011

Vintage Triumph Racing Bicycle Badge

Classic, standard, everyday vintage bicycle logo post for you today. This is what I'm finding a million of sitting around the streets of Nottingham. These older vintage racing or city bikes that were made in the city back when it had a manufacturing industry. Relentlessly classy logos abound.


In this case, Triumph have been doing their thing. You can see the decline though. What would have used to have been an enamelled badge, now a sticker on the head tube. Nottingham really lost its way back in the day.


Some of the Triumph bicycle lettering on the down tube.

And this is the whole deal. I feel like I should really explore the old bicycle industry here in Nottingham. How an industry can go from sending bicycles out of the city, to countries around the world (like this Raleigh I saw in Denmark) to just being the administrative headquarters, organizing the plants more recently in Vietnam and Cambodia and that now churn out the bikes with the minimum of labour regulations and industrial safety. A sad story of the prioritization of short term profits over long term corporate sustainability, as demonstrated by the decline and fall of every old Nottingham bicycle company.

4 comments:

  1. I think you have a great idea, I hope you do pursue it. If you are actually in the city where Raleigh built their bikes you may even be able to find people who worked there, and find out what stories they have to tell from those good old days. I think you are probably sitting on a mountain of info that fits in to the larger global picture very handily. The change of the way front badges are just a sticker now, sums it all up. I hope you go for it!!

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  2. I have a Raleigh Royal touring bike Made in England with Full 531 st tubing frame and forks a really nice bike with a low bottom bracket for stable cruising although Raleigh is now built in asia the frames still get rigid qc. A few cycle companies still make bikes in England some specific touring frame makers as well so If you are willing to pay the price of a local bike it is well worth it. I was fortunate to be able to buy a Papalagi from MTB cycletech a Swiss bicycle company formed recently.
    suggest if you are in uk you buy as many old bikes and bits as you can and bring them home to share with the less fortunate.

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  3. This cycle is like as racing type bicycle. This is looking very nice in different colors.

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  4. in search of Triumph cycle head badge. Anyone know where I can find the vintage metal one? Thank you pattilove1@gmail.com

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