Royal Imperial Bikes

[pwa]

There is nothing wrong with the notion of a sturdy utility bike from India. India and utility bikes go together in my head. But if I were in the market for that style off bike I think I would want to pay a bit more and get some nicer steel tubes. India still does a lot of handmade stuff, so there is a gap in the market there for nicely crafted framesets of the sort that have become less common here.

[Brucey]

Who here has a bike whose frame is made in the UK?

Since you ask, all mine were.

nearly all mine are too. There are also some French built frames, and some US built frames too. I guess there are a few Taiwanese frames in the mix as well, but these don't see much use and they wouldn't be the ones I'd look to rescue if there was a fire or something. FWIW I'd sooner have a used frame of high quality than a new one I wasn't so sure of, if/when price enters into it.

FWIW I have seen numerous examples of Indian-made bikes and for the money (in India) they are not that bad. But the finish just isn't up to UK conditions and if they see any weather at all they just disintegrate.

A few years ago (about 2016?) a local car accessory store to me bought in a batch of Indian made 'roadsters'. They had the insanely high bottom bracket seen on some of the royal imperial models, and were stopped with V brakes, working on (rather flimsy) chrome steel rims. They were even fitted with a leather saddle and a SA five speed hub (w) model, just having gone out of production by SA, they probably bought them cheap or something. The handlebars, seat pin, saddle frame, cranks, spokes, rims, front hub, pedals, stem etc were all made of (barely) plated steel and after three or four years these bikes typically looked worse than an average 30-year old raleigh. The hubs may have been a faulty batch; most of them failed inside six months. But the bikes retailed at £99, so they sold loads. That may realistically be about how much such bikes are worth in the UK, if you want to actually ride them that is.

If you have about three hundred pounds burning a hole in you pocket, and you want a bike like that, a used Pashley would be a much better bet.

cheers

[colin54]

I saw this similar pair of brand new Lumala bicycles in Sri Lanka in about 2000, they're Raleigh Superbe clones of the type that you would see all over Asia at one time I would imagine. Possibly licensed from Raleigh themselves, the head badge is similarly shaped to the Raleigh Heron, as well as all the other similarities. I think Lumala are possibly a Japanese firm originally.

The firm is still manufacturing them, and more up to date MTB style bikes to this day.
Here's an 11 minute video of their plant in Sri Lanka showing various stages of production.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVSisYT9Vgo
Their website :- also with an interesting video

http://www.lumala.lk/
You would see and can still see to this day , modern lycra dressed folk riding these en masse in club rides there, a slightly bizarre scene to western eyes.
Sri Lanka's 'Standard Racers', an nice article about them here :-
https://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/a ... ard-racers
A couple of youtube clips of them in action,
the second one is the finish of a race.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL9TAERxS4A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBj842w3j3Y

[simonhill]

I see a lot of cynicism here. I have no interest in this bike but it does seem odd that so much of the cynicism is based on where it might be made. Who here has a bike whose frame is made in the UK?

I think the cynicism, if any, was where the website claimed or implied they were made. As I said in my post they say "there is something very genuine about riding a hand built, classic English bikes that are crafted to perfection."

I have cycled a lot in India and seen many of their roadster style bikes. They are horses for courses and the workhorse in many rural and urban settings. I do agree with Brucey though that quality is not high and this is reflected in the very low price that you would buy one for in India.


Colin54 - loved your tales of the Sri Lankan 'racers'. I met a few while touring there.

[simonineaston]

As an aside, I remember when I was in north India / Nepal, using Indian-made cycles, branded RMI, with 28" rims and S-A hub gears (if you were lucky!), full chain enclosure, rod brakes, enormous banana-shaped leather saddles - and heavy as they undoubtedly were, they did the job. Never has a bike benefited more from making sure the tyres were as hard as you could get them!

[simonhill]

Just watching the cricket from India. An out/not out decision shown on the big screen was edged by an advert for a cycle company.

We can only dream of such a high profile in the UK.

[hamster]

I see a lot of cynicism here. I have no interest in this bike but it does seem odd that so much of the cynicism is based on where it might be made. Who here has a bike whose frame is made in the UK?

Having said I have no interest it doesn’t seem to bad to get sturmey archer gears and hub dynamo all for £300. All you might want is a trip to the shops or through the local park on a bike that recalls your youth. What’s so bad about that? You’re not planning a world tour.

My concern is that it's mutton dressed as lamb. All that PR puff about classic English bikes, then switch to selling them a lightly breathed-over Indian utility bike.

And yes, I have two English-made bikes, a Dawes 653 MTB and a Witcomb. Both bought for less than £100.

[Bmblbzzz]

TBH I don't think it would be sold with drum brakes or hub dynamo in India.

[hemo]

Gents traditional bike is stated as 15kg.

[hamster]

TBH I don't think it would be sold with drum brakes or hub dynamo in India.

Indeed not, that's the light breathing-over.
Same everything else though. It would be fab for taking 20 chickens and a sack of rice to market, like all 3rd world utility bikes.

[KTHSullivan]

Or Bricks!