In September 2009, IceniCAM interviewed Raleigh (South-east region) Sales Manager David Denny, and we’ve referred to these notes from time to time in various articles, but a few scraps remain that we’ve never actually used and we don’t want to waste them. So here are a few David Denny gems to share that no-one has ever known, about the very earliest days of the RM1.
David Denny initially joined Raleigh on bicycle sales and was sent to Kenya in 1954 to cover cycle sales in Africa. Originally he was based in Nairobi, but Raleigh soon moved their head office to Mombasa (on the coast), since this location was better for port access and distribution.
In 1958, an early pre-production RM1 model was sent out to Africa with a Nottingham engineer for testing. In those days, at the time of the Africa test, there were just five miles of tarmac road going out of Mombasa, after which it was only bush track.
This test bike reportedly covered 4,500 miles over dirt tracks in East Africa with no trouble, and achieved an average of 176mpg while averaging a daily 214.7 miles daily for 21 days.
The Africa test RM1 was registered as KAN 227, and while this might look like a West Ham registration authority issued around May 1956, that would appear to be too early. David Denny did say the bike was registered in Kenya and, from 1950 to 1989, all Kenyan registrations began with a K. The second letter (A) was used by Mombasa from 1950 to 1966. The third letter, they worked through from A–Z (except I & O). We don’t have information about when KAN was used, however it’s about halfway through the sequence and, given that the number of registrations per year would be increasing each year, it would be over halfway through the 1950–66 span. That would fit with the time he was there, which we know was right in the middle at 1958. If it had been a Nairobi registration, we could have dated it to within a few months, but no matter.
The ‘support’ car was also registered in Mombasa: as KAF 582. which we estimate would have been from around 1955.
The Equator runs in a line across Kenya at 280 miles north of Mombasa, and David Denny supplied us slides of the RM1 and support car at a Pepsi equator marker at height of 8,715 feet (2,656 metres).
Following completion of the test, the RM1 was brought back from Africa, and David Denny returned to Britain a few months later, in time for Raleigh’s announcement launch of the RM1 at the London Savoy in October 1958.
David Denny said that Raleigh was initially considering reviving the Rudge name for the RM1, but discounted this in favour of its own brand.
Raleigh presented the Africa RM1 on its stand 37 at Earls Court Show, still with all the mud and dust on it, and a card on the bike that described the Africa test. Raleigh wanted David Denny to appear on the stand in safari dress, but he wasn’t too keen on that idea and went in conventional attire.
David Denny said the top-end of the engine was designed by Piatti, but the bottom end of the motor was the work of Geoffrey Topliss.
‘La Bicycle Rastique’ panned the RM1 in early reviews; then, shortly after launch, and suffering a high level of customer complaints, Alf Briggs (the scramble rider) was despatched by BSA to Raleigh to become involved and help sort out problems with the motor. He ended up based at Raleigh for two years.
