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Choppers
in Ireland.
(Not a definitive Guide.)
I started to restore some Choppers for Paul of Paul’s
Chopper Bulletin Board. Two of these had “Made in the Republic
of Ireland” stickers on them instead of the usual “Made
in Nottingham.” This led me into trying to find out what I
could about Choppers made in Ireland.
The Raleigh
factory was situated in Hanover Quay Dublin.
From Thom’s Dublin Street directory, Raleigh was first listed
at No 6 Hanover Quay in 1939. In 1943, they moved to Nos 8-11. A
full range of Raleigh Cycles was manufactured at this Dublin factory
in the post war era.
Being an early factory, built and used before safety regulations
came into practice, the wooden floor soaked up all the oil, grease
and other flammable lubricants over the years, so that when a fire
started in 1976, the whole factory burned to the ground.
This lead to the biggest insurance payout in Irish history, although
this has probably been surpassed by now! Unfortunately all the records
stored in the factory were lost at this time.
After the
fire, Raleigh stayed in Ireland, but only as a distributor, not
a cycle manufacturer. They built another factory, but quickly downscaled
to suit their distribution network.
This
is a head badge of a Raleigh Chopper made in Ireland.
The obvious
differences are that the badge is silver; it has the same brass
base with the silver as a covering. Secondly beneath the Raleigh
name instead of the usual ‘Made in Nottingham, England’
are two silver stripes.
Also in place of the ‘Made in England’
sticker is a ‘made in the Republic of Ireland’ sticker.
The ‘Made
in England’ sticker only appeared on the Nottingham bikes around
1974, but the Irish bikes had ‘made in’ stickers from
the early days.
Another difference
is that the frames have two frame numbers, both are on the rear
drop-out as per standard early Choppers made at Nottingham, which
only have one frame number. No information about dating Irish made
Choppers has come to light.
The
last difference that I can see is the chain ring.
On most Choppers
this is the usual three arm 46 tooth ring with the heron’s
head in the pattern. But in Ireland a 46 tooth chain ring with these
extra supporting arms, shown in the picture, was fitted as standard.
Apparently
Red was produced in highest numbers closely followed by Ultra Violet,
other colours were rare.
I contacted
Raleigh and they confirmed that indeed at times local markets used
different badges. Other reps have told me that B.S.A. and Rudge,
both owned by Raleigh, were used in markets such as South Africa.
Hence some Choppers were badged and sold as B.S.A. Commandos.
Thanks
to John Donnelly. (jd@donnelly1b.fsnet.co.uk)
for this article
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