British Brands

sshrky

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Oct 19, 2020
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Hey all,

I'm trying to compile a list of British E-Bike brands - could you help?

I'd also be interested in which ones you rate most highly.

Cheers

:)
 

Nealh

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Aug 7, 2014
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GO CYCLE.
 
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sjpt

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Jun 8, 2018
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Winchester
Cytronex

Difficult to know exactly what is 'British'. Quite a few assembled here, and component choice made by British companies. For example, despite the name I think Raleigh is hardly British at all. Dutch owned, almost all the frames and components from Far East (including the Bosch motors), I'm not sure where they are assembled.
 
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Nealh

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Yes, Go Cylce high tech design and not cheap. Lightweight and quite desirable especially to T- leaves. Speaking of such there is brand new one on ebay for spares/repairs at £250 starting price, a very smelly rat I think.
 

Nealh

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Nearly all parts are of eastern manufacture or ownership. British brands are mainly the smaller independents like Woosh, Wisper 7 Juicy etc,etc who design and spec there bikes and also the first two are producing them within their own production lines now.
 

vfr400

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Jun 12, 2011
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It depends what you mean by a British brand. Their are many british brand names, but very little manufacturing in the UK.

Brompton is just about the only significant British manufacture. Gocycle is a close second, but they've out-sourced their main components now. There are a few niche brands, like Ironbridge Bicycles that manufacture in the UK and a few that do some assembly in the UK, but it's unclear how much, like Mirider and Cyclotricity. Orange has some manufacturing in the UK. They make the full-suspension frames and other main parts as well as assemble in UK

Most components apart from frames are catalogue items from world sources, though Brompton still manufacture a lot of their own components in UK.

Raleigh is a British name, but I don't think we can call it British anymore. It's foreign owned and foreign manufacture.
 

RossG

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Feb 12, 2019
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These days even Brompton have some of their work done overseas, strangely enough they send stuff abroad to be worked on then it's returned to the Brompton factory for bike builds. Why they can't do it all here is beyond me .. and Brompton it seems.
 

Nealh

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I like some of the Pashly frame designs.
 
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flecc

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Oct 25, 2006
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I think Raleigh is hardly British at all. Dutch owned, almost all the frames and components from Far East (including the Bosch motors), I'm not sure where they are assembled.
Background:

In 1960 TI Group (formerly Tube Investments) bought Raleigh.

In 1987 TI sold Raleigh to the Derby International company, later Derby Cycles gmbh, Germany.

In 2001 the management of the UK Raleigh operation bought the Raleigh group companies from Derby Cycles, but still leaving Derby Cycles with rights to use all the Raleigh brand names like Raleigh, Univega etc. That UK management set up the Eastwood location as their main distribution centre for the various products they were buying in.

On 26th April 2012 the UK Raleigh company was bought by the giant Dutch Accell Group who now wholly own the operation.

At that time Accell wanted to buy Derby Cycles gmbh as well and reached 22% of the shares, but since it was a hostile bid situation they changed their mind and sold those shares to a rival Dutch company Pon Holdings. Pon Holdings have since wholly acquired Derby Cycles gmbh, hence both Pon and Accell group selling Raleigh branded bikes and e-bikes as rivals.
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HVS84

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Nov 25, 2019
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Background:

In 1960 TI Group (formerly Tube Investments) bought Raleigh.

In 1987 TI sold Raleigh to the Derby International company, later Derby Cycles gmbh, Germany.

In 2001 the management of the UK Raleigh operation bought the Raleigh group companies from Derby Cycles, but still leaving Derby Cycles with rights to use all the Raleigh brand names like Raleigh, Univega etc. That UK management set up the Eastwood location as their main distribution centre for the various products they were buying in.

On 26th April 2012 the UK Raleigh company was bought by the giant Dutch Accell Group who now wholly own the operation.

At that time Accell wanted to buy Derby Cycles gmbh as well and reached 22% of the shares, but since it was a hostile bid situation they changed their mind and sold those shares to a rival Dutch company Pon Holdings. Pon Holdings have since wholly acquired Derby Cycles gmbh, hence both Pon and Accell group selling Raleigh branded bikes and e-bikes as rivals.
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Derby Cycles is called Derby Cycles because when the guys from the company were on there way to buy Raleigh they decided they needed a more English sounding name for the company, at the time they were on Derby Road, & the rest is history.
 
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flecc

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Derby Cycles is called Derby Cycles because when the guys from the company were on there way to buy Raleigh they decided they needed a more English sounding name for the company, at the time they were on Derby Road, & the rest is history.
Indeed. I still find it odd that it's now Germanically named Derby Cycles gmbh rather than Ltd or plc.
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