What do I have planned next year for My TI-Raleigh Blog? Tricky question as most things with me and my blog and collection just seem to evolve depending on what I find out there. But I do try and influence the direction my blog and collection go in. So there are some plans and hopefully I can make some of them happen.
It’s a short post today. I’m finding it very hard to keep up with the constant demand for information and the pressure to post informative and more importantly, accurate and helpful posts. Time has been something that has simply escaped me over the last 6 months but hopefully I can turn a corner as we head into December.
A quick blog post should help to ease me back into it…
Three of my 2020 Plans for My TI-Raleigh Blog
Plan One
The main focus for me this coming year is to continue an expansion into periods before and after the SBDU Ilkeston & Nottingham. I’m hoping to build a collection that tracks the timeline of Carlton into Raleigh, the SBDU and Raleigh’s Special Products Division. The frames from all of these facilities help me do that.
I’ve never been afraid of adding those higher SB numbers; SBDU Nottingham and RSP already feature in my list of frame numbers.
I also added another SBDU Nottingham frame recently… SB8850
I want to add more early frames too, pre SBDU. So when G4582 came along earlier this year, I quickly snapped it up. This frame is also stamped with ‘DR’ and is believed to be Dave Rollinson’s 1972 TI-Raleigh team frame. It is a Raleigh MK IV Professional and came with lots of original components.
Not only an early pre SBDU frame but also one with massive significance. G4582 is a team frame and the first year for TI-Raleigh.
And that is how I want to continue going into 2020 with My TI-Raleigh Blog… I want more frames from this earlier period and frames with significance or originality that help me to build a timeline of Carlton and Raleigh before the birth of the Specialist Bicycle Development Unit.
Plan Two
The plan is to continue something I started a couple of years ago. In the past I was adding absolutely anything and everything to my collection. I soon realised that quantity was not what this was all about. A collection full of duplicate frames adds very little to my blog. I can now quite happily watch SBDU frames come and go online without feeling that I must have them all!
It is now Quality over Quantity every time!
I made a great start and over the previous two years I have tried hard to limit my new additions to significant or original frames. I occasionally add a ‘gap filler‘. But it is very much now about bringing quality and depth to the collection, and hopefully, frames with a story, rather than simply adding duplicates.
Plan Three
I need another project. Now that I’m happy with SB4059 (or as happy as I can be without repainting it), I need another long term build to work on. And I might have the ideal SB frame for this coming. SB4059 started this blog and fills so many blog posts. Another long term SB build, and a search for components is well over due.
Coming Sooner Rather Than Later…
As well as more plans to do more things (details coming later next year), I have a lovely 1960s Raleigh (non SBDU) frame arriving very soon. This is an intriguing frame that has a story I need to get to the bottom of.
