todays pics of our mk1s

[4737carling]

hers a few pictures of mine and neils mk1s

[griftergli]

i think that is the most blue mk1s i've seen in the same pic!! all looking quality mate

[4737carling]

theres going to be more john when ive finished my others!!!

[admin]

John

[griftergli]

you'll soon have one for every day of the week!

[4737carling]

and two for the weekend days john!!!

[4737carling]

the one nearest the camera in the first picture is now all stripped. Im taking it to the painters wednesday.

[supergrip]

Hi Carling

A nice line up of Blue MK 1's . Do you and Neil both own pre production Grifters.

[admin]

Yes they do....................gits

[4737carling]

yes andy, mine is still in the building stage! Im starting to clean the bits up now should be on the road in a month or so!

I would love to see a line up of your mk1s andy all together.

[Neil68]

Nice pictures, if I could see them!! The system I work on does not allow me to see the photos because the system I work from is too secure to allow it! So I have to content myself reading all the plaudits, but not actually seeing what they are about! knowing Carling they'll be good 'photies' All praise due to said Carling for the vast amount of work put into my Pre.Pro. Without him it would certainly have not been completed to the very high standard he sets for himself.Apologies to you Wayne for not seeing you today as I'm still recovering from the golf day I went to! Ouch!! Looking forward to launching the bike at Bournemouth fairly soon, once this bl**dy weather bucks up!

[trailertrash]

what distinguishes a bike as a pre production mk1

[Neil68]

Not a great deal actually. As with most early Mk1's, you'll find triangular embellishments on the forks to stop damage to forks when turning too hard against the main frame.The 'bridge' for the rear mudguard support. The handlebar rubber is usually very thin and has poor pattern definition, no doubt as a result of Raleigh testing outing patterns prior to releasing the model. The bikes almost always appear to have Super MX tyres rather than Supergrips which were also used on bikes shipped to the States. The brands I've seen are Kenda, Golden boy and Leo. Also the Decals appear to very brittle and subject to great deal of yellowing over time. It would seem reasonable to say that once again Raleigh were trying out 'styles' as to how the lettering would look and used a water based decal not disimilar to those used on models, all be it a little more hard wearing. Needless to say the paintwork I've seen on the bikes is variable, but on my own bike, the spray quality is very poor, with crazing and paint swirl. Parts being generic, you'll often find that bits from other bikes have been used. remember that most of these bikes would have been rideable 'mock-ups' to no doubt test on the public , so the final layout would have been sorted out after the dealers had given in their responses on how the bike faired with the target market it was intended for. Whoa! Glad that's over. I hope it goes a little way to explain the difference. I'm sure Carling, Supergrip or bomberman can fill in any gaps?

[4737carling]

no youve done a great job there neil and thanks for the praise it was a team effort mate like all our bikes so i thank you also my man

So if you have a may 76 mk1 with very eary numbers mx tyres and very skinny handlebar rubber then its prob a pre pro/pre mass production grifter. Not all may 76 grifters were pre pro they were just the first batch made. If you have a may 76 they are very rare so look after it (or donate it to me where it will get the loving care it needs!!!)