Vid': How A Bicycle Is Made - Raleigh!

mercsport

Have just discovered a trove of old, hitherto, unseen educational films following a piece on the radio just now (PM with Eddie Mair), amongst which is this gem upon the making of the bicycle: http://film.britishcouncil.org/how-a-bicycle-is-made.

The root page for more great stuff is here: http://film.britishcouncil.org/british- ... ction?p=2&

Cleat Eastwood

wow that was just FANTASTIC - nostalgia, craftsmanship, just magic. The speed the women fit the innertubes is amazing, and the art of the cormorants head on the chainset. Really glad you posted that.

rolf_f

Excellent! Thanks for posting that. Is there anywhere left (India maybe) where everything is still done in the same complex?

Not sure about the 'dunk it in a tank of enamel' method of painting the frame though!

pinno

I can hear Mr Enfield (Thats Harry Enfield) saying "...and wot do you think of that Chalmonderley Warner-Bottom?"

I like the line "We use steel for the frame, because its strong and light", strong and light?!?! I used a 1930's 'Singer' bike borrowed from my landlord to get to college. It was sh1t brown in colour and weighed at least 263 kg's (on a dry day), took 3 miles to stop and I wrote at least a half dozen cars off with it.

MarksMintness

That was mint, and to think we used to make stuff like that! I like the footage of the women fitting tyres and tubes to the wheel in 50 seconds, the boys at Halfords could learn a thing or two there!
And remember "there are bicycles for all purposes..."

nevman

Agree-fascinating stuff-like `wheres the cycles for women,the ones with the basket on front for shopping!`Great handling of red hot metals without gloves.Acid baths-health and safety,dont make me laugh mate.Great to see such care taken and made with pride.And built to last.Buy British.Nice post there.

kev77

I love films like that, imagine the health and saftey boys looking at that

Just makes you think does it not, about what has happened to the manufacturing industry!

BTW i want one of those tyre women! 50 seconds!!!!!

Brilliant find that pal

p9uma

Great film that, thanks for posting. I wonder what happened to the Hard Hats, Safety Shoes, and Eye Protection? Some of those people on the factory floor, the juniors, looked very young didn't they?

capt_slog

As others have mentioned, those ladies fitting the inner tubes and tyres were quick, they must have had very strong hands. I wouldn't have liked their thumbs on me plums :shock: .

The thing I found interesting about the film was that they bought in raw materials and made up the whole lot from scratch. Can you imagine anyone doing that these days?

keef66

That is truly fascinating. As you say, starting out from raw steel lumps, and every component made from scratch in the one factory. Particularly like the chap dunking the frames into the paint bath with his bare hand. Some excellent haircuts there too!

I must show this to my son who's at Nottingham Uni; his 1st year halls of residence are on the site where the factory used to stand.

mercsport

Glad you all appeared to have enjoyed that vid'.

I didn't have time yesterday to explain that the spot on R4's 'PM' yesterday was about the fact that the British Council had made dozens of films during WW11 for distributing around the world to display what Britain was all about: propaganda I'd suppose. They had never been seen at all in cinemas here in the UK. It was only yesterday, apparently, that they released for public consumption the very newly digitised copies of those films from that period. Hence: 'How a Bicycle is Made'. There are loads more to catch up on. Britain as it was.

Watching the bicycle film I was reminded of Albert Finney playing Arthur Seaton, in the film 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning', bemoaning his lot in life at his lathe, knocking out his quota of a thousand (was it?) bottom bracket spindles per day in the Raleigh works some twenty odd years later: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FivYqQlq7xI (excuse the dubbed Italian.!It was the only decent picture quality YT vid I could find of that scene)

Here's a poorer quality vid' (off someone's telly, looks like) Finney sounding as he is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAKFie-6tUs

Cleat Eastwood

haha indeed - 'i'm out for a good time....all the rest is propaganda'

p9uma

There is an interesting right-up about the Raleigh factory in this months Cycling Plus, by RobertitsallaboutthebikePenn.

edhornby

brilliant - notice how each bike comes with its own tools !!!! the expectation being that the owner would fix it, how times change

btw, weren't they Rudge rather than Raleigh??

mercsport

edhornby wrote:

btw, weren't they Rudge rather than Raleigh??

Good spot. Apparently Raleigh took over Rudge in the 1940's.

A bit more here about it: http://tinyurl.com/cn2698a

nweststeyn

Loved that Thanks!