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6 unusual facts about Raleigh Bicycle Company


Alan Sillitoe

Like Arthur Seaton, the anti-hero of his first novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, his father worked at the Raleigh Bicycle Company factory.

Bowden cable

The invention of the Bowden cable has been popularly attributed to Sir Frank Bowden, founder and owner of the Raleigh Bicycle Company who, circa 1902, was reputed to have started replacing the rigid rods used for brakes with a flexible wound cable.

Harold Bowden

Sir Harold Bowden, 2nd Baronet, GBE (9 July 1880 – 24 August 1960), was the chairman and chief executive of the Raleigh Bicycle Company and Sturmey-Archer Ltd from his father's death in 1921 until his own retirement in 1938.

Sir Frank Bowden founded the Raleigh Bicycle Company in 1887 in Nottingham, and Harold became chairman and Managing Director on the death of his father in 1921, a position he then held for 17 years.

Karel Reisz

In particular, scenes filmed at the Raleigh factory in Nottingham have the look of a documentary, and give the story a vivid sense of verisimilitude.

Team Raleigh-GAC

Founded in 2010 Team Raleigh's primary sponsor is the Raleigh who supply the team's bicycles.


Ernest Monnington Bowden

Sir Frank Bowden, the founder and owner of the Raleigh Bicycle Company was reputed to have started replacing the rigid rods used for bicycle brakes with a flexible wound cable around 1902.


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