I love the Tamland 1 I got on a closeout deal; it's a gem of a bike that was never properly priced or marketed. The person who designed it started Noble bikes I believe, and the brand that is Raleigh is just more lost in the corporate shuffling these days.
You can still buy a sale Tamland for $1,700 it looks like, but the Jamis S3 is probably a better deal for most people at that price. At some point Accell / Raleigh will probably have to dump them at a much lower price (I paid $1,100 for a 2018 model).
Shoota and maybe a few others on here got a killer deal on this bike by buying it direct from Raleigh. I paid $799 + $49 sales tax for mine. I am trying everything I can to send some money my way to my local LBS though now as he moved to a new location and really didn't get the spring opening date he wanted to because of the Covid-19 thingy.
You are right in that Raleigh seems to be scaling back on their gravel bikes. Mark Landstat(spelling)saw the writing on the wall and left and formed Noble bikes. I think Raleigh is going more after the beach cruiser crowd now and also e bikes and have no clue why they gave up on the gravel bikes as that is the hot craze now in cycling. I also got lucky in buying a Raleigh Roker Comp on a killer deal before they stopped making them.
For those of you that don't know it Ted Guitar which helps run this site also had some input on the Tamland 1.
GSPChilliwack wrote:I don’t see anything on the Raleigh website under the adventure/gravel category. Did they sell everything out, or have they exited the market?
Raleigh was sold yet again. They are now owned by Alta Cycling. It's not clear what direction they are taking Raleigh. They also bought Diamondback and have been selling their triathlon line at 50% off. The gravel market is incredibly saturated and it seems silly for Raleigh to re-start a new gravel line.
The owner had a lot to do with the original Willard/Tamland/Roker and is making a slightly more refined version of each. He has been active on this forum too. Steel, aluminum and carbon versions. Go click the link above. The GX3 is a really, really solid build for a hair under 2k.
chas wrote:+1 to Dangle. Took the words right out of my mouth...
Not sure I can agree with you Chas or Dangle or I guess I just love my Roker Comp so much and haven't ridden any other bikes to compare them to. With the gravel biking being the craze now not sure why you wouldn't want to make some money off of it. Guessing that is why Mark Landstat(spelling) left as he saw the writing on the wall. Long term don't see how they can stay afloat by pushing beach cruisers and e bikes.
Zurichman wrote:With the gravel biking being the craze now not sure why you wouldn't want to make some money off of it.
There's over a dozen gravel bikes available for every one that was gravel specific when the original Raleigh 'weatherman' gravel bikes appeared. Every brand in bike shops already has one or two gravel/adventure bikes and their road/endurance models have ballooned to 35 mm of tire clearance too. Our local Giant dealer rides around with 38's in his Defy. I had one of the original ones and 28 felt like breaking the law. There's already several direct sales brands with that many gravel/adventure/road options too.
Even my wife's Sirrus has hydro brakes, 1x, tubeless wheels and tire clearance for 42 mm. You may have called Sirrus models from just a few years ago beach cruisers. It's not the opportunity that it was a few years ago when there's dozens and dozens of gravel capable bikes already available.
In the middle of a global pandemic, a company that just bought all of these brands has to convince their investors that putting down the cash to create, market and support new mid/high end bikes in a really crowded market makes sense. This seems crazy when they can't keep up with the demand for <$1000 priced bikes they already produce.
Zurichman wrote:Long term don't see how they can stay afloat by pushing beach cruisers and e bikes.
E bikes are absolutely where the growth is. New riders are choosing <$600 bicycles or e bikes. If you want to grow more trees (over time) instead of shake more fruit from the same tired trees, it's e bikes. For the immediate future, it's figuring out how to get as many <$600 (or <$1000) shipped, built and placed on sales floors asap.
In the middle of a global pandemic, a company that just bought all of these brands has to convince their investors that putting down the cash to create, market and support new mid/high end bikes in a really crowded market when they can't keep up with the demand for lower priced bikes they already make seems crazy.
Too much competition and saturation in the gravel market now. Every bike brand whether road or MTB focus is going after gravel. The core features are easy to copy, bigger tire clearance and mount points while retrofitting on either existing CX or touring geometry depending on the segment you want to hit.
Agree there are 3 bike segments that hold the most growth potential: eBikes, eBikes, and eBikes. That is, from eCruisers to eEnduro bikes.
