In addition to all the new cyclocross and 29er mountain bikes Raleigh has coming for 2012, they’ve got a brand new assortment of full carbon fiber road bikes.
The racier Militus, above, uses their Direct Connect Evolution frame where the head- and downtubes are molded as one piece and the chainstay/bb are molded as one piece. The rest of the carbon tubes are custom “drawn” according to size of bike then cut and mitered to the frame. Raleigh’s marketing guy Brian says “this allows us to custom tune each ride to ensure the ride qualites are the same from the smallest to the largest frame we make.”
For riders wanting a little more upright, endurance oriented experience, there’s the Revenio and women’s Capri. Click through to see it all…
The Militus frame has internal cable routing, carbon dropouts, carbon headset races and full carbon fork.
Frame weighs in at 880g (claimed) for those counting. Complete bike is:
14lbs 12oz with SRAM Red and an FSA carbon cockpit (alloy stem) and Mavic wheels and tires.
The one-piece BB/chainstay assembly is pretty stout in person, and the chainstays have a nice outward curve that looks pretty good. And stiff. The Militus ranges from $2,500 to $6,500.
The Revenio uses Raleigh’s base Direct Connect carbon frameset and gets a taller headtube and slightly revised geometry to make it more of an endurance bike. Compared to the Militus, think Specialized Tarmac versus Roubaix. Yep, Brian, we just compared your bikes to Specialized.
The constructionimilar process as what are used on the Militus but every tube is cut/mitered/carbon welded together. Carbon welding? Here’s the deal: tubes are bonded together, then wrapped with additional layers of carbon to create a strong, smooth joint that appears seamless. The whole thing is then heated until the resin from the wrapping bonds with the tubes.
Both the Revenio and Capri get a full carbon fork on all models. Internal cable routing. The Revenio frame comes in at claimed 980g. Complete bike is:
17lbs 8oz with Ultegra drivetrain, 105 brakes and housebrand Avenir cockpit parts. Prices for the carbon Revenio and Capri range from $2,000 to just $3,000. There are alloy versions of both bikes, too, ranging from $710 to $1,650.
The women’s Capri gets basically the Revenio frame but with parts selection more geared toward the female form, including shorter cranks, narrower handlebars, etc.
