David perry 1 Posted March 1, 2022 Share Posted March 1, 2022 One for the older members... Im reading a copy of RM from 1967 and theres an advert from Sun Lane Cycles advertising for sale the then new Fleet System of r/c. Is this THE Sun Lane and did Fleet originate at what became SLEC and then part company or is it all coincidence??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Dance 1 Posted March 1, 2022 Share Posted March 1, 2022 It's quite likely that Derek Olley did distribute his products through the trade in a very limited way. Sun Lane may well have made some of his moulded plastic parts, servos Tx sticks, battery cases etc. and in a reciprocal deal they sold his radio systems. Certainly in the 1970's he sold directly to the public. He was a small operation. Two of my club's members built servos and TXs for him on a part time basis. Sadly, both have now slipped the surly bonds of earth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cuban8 Posted March 1, 2022 Share Posted March 1, 2022 (edited) Got me thinking........I'm sure I recall back in the day that SLEC either used to refer to themselves in their ads as 'Small Light Engineering Company' or 'Sun Lane Engineering Company'. Don't recall them being into bikes or retailing Fleet R/C, but others might be able to clarify. As far as I remember, Fleet were always an independent firm and were reasonably popular with modellers back in the 70s when I started proper in R/C. Unfortunately, their gear was beginning to look dated even back then, and by the 80s they were vastly outclassed by the Japanese brands particularly in terms of functionality with their computerised PCM sets that IIRC, had banks of DIL switches and trimmers to set up various functions rather that proper 'soft' screen based settings. I'm not sure if you only had one 'memory' on the Fleet Gear - my Field Force 8 had the huge number of 4 memories (expandable). Their sets always looked smart in the brushed silver metal finish though and attracted mostly older modellers at the time who baulked at the idea of even simple screen based sets rather than the youngsters on a budget or those who fancied something a bit flashier. Edited March 1, 2022 by Cuban8 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David perry 1 Posted March 1, 2022 Author Share Posted March 1, 2022 I deed SLEC WERE sun lane engineering co., which is what got me thinking. I too had a Fleet system, their posh one but even that was outclassed even when i bought it. The idea of reciprocal marketing hadnt occurred to me so maybe thats what was going on. Makes sense Ta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kc Posted March 1, 2022 Share Posted March 1, 2022 The history of SLEC itself is shown on their current website. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cuban8 Posted March 1, 2022 Share Posted March 1, 2022 Interesting and shows how things can change and develop with changing times. BTW I meant the old FF7 in my post about radios and not the later FF8. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken anderson. Posted March 1, 2022 Share Posted March 1, 2022 hello Cuban8...i had a FF7...they were a great radio set,and 4 model memories.... ken anderson...ne..1...happy days dept. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Gaskin 1 Posted March 1, 2022 Share Posted March 1, 2022 Sun Lane Cycles were a customer of Harry Brooks, buying the Sprengbrook radios while I worked there, in the early/mid 1970's. I always thought that they morphed into Sun Lane Engineering Co, when they started to market moulded fittings, in competition to Micro Mold. Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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