IN DEFENSE OF CARLTON AND POMMY PRO BIKES IN GENERAL.

A few weeks ago I picked up

a late 1970's Carlton Professional for

a ridiculously small sum from Trade Me.

Anyway, it got me thinking about Carlton,

or more specifically about the 1970's

and later top end English Pro machines, and their place

in the scheme of things

 far as classic racing bikes go.

  Early 70's Professional much like it's stable

mate the Raleigh Professional, which proved so

popular in the USA.

 These late sixties/early seventies Professionals

have gained (and rightly so) a loyal following with

collectors/enthusiasts/riders.

Although other builders where of course using the Prugnat (?)

shot in stay lug sets at this time, for many, this will always

be strongly associated with the Raleigh/Carlton Pro's

 of this period.

 In this 1977 add for the Mk5 Professional, you can see Carlton 
has dropped the classic seat stay

and fork crown of the previous generation.

  These later Mk5 models and onwards

have been overlooked in large part by classic 

race bike collectors and riders. 

This brings me to the point of this post,

the fickle nature of what might be considered to 

be a valued classic/vintage racing machine, worthy of

much time and effort to track down and refurbish or possibly

fully restore to it's former glory.

As readers of this blog will know by now, I am a 

big fan of the 1960's/70's British Pro scene.

So I imagined that a Carlton Professional from

any period when Carlton where running a full domestic

team, would have a reasonable value, but (luckily!)no.

It seems that I am in a distinct minority when it comes

to appreciating these particular bikes from this particular

period. Remember that Falcon, Viking, BSA (one year only,1977)

Alec Bird, Sun and many others competed during this time, and all produced

factory race replicas,these were always of course the

 company's flagship model.

 Barras. Carlton-Weinman 1978

 Hefferman. Mid-Let/BSA 1977

 Harrison. Falcon 1977

Banbury. M.A.N-Viking 1980

So just to really bring home the point,

here is a comparison of a Team Raleigh

and a Carlton Professional from about the same years.

Keep in mind the value of the Raleigh would generally be

 about X3 of the Carlton, although I would hazard a guess

that there would have to be at lest 10-15 or more Team Raleighs

to every one Carlton Professional surviving today.

Pretty similar I think, well they should be
they where built in the same factory.

Now don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of the 

red devil Team Raleigh's, and in fact ride one regularly.

and I of course know that they have a serious competition

history etc. 

But I am just saying.......

...maybe can get yourself into a serious classic racing bike, with 

the right pedigree, all without spending too much coin.

 I know I have.