We’ve just had a catch-up with the guys at Raleigh and thought we’d give you a quick round-up of the road bike highlights from their 2013 range. They have some interesting new models in there.
We’ll kick off with the endurance road bikes. Raleigh have updated their Revenio range that's mainly aimed at sportive riders… and there are plenty out there.
The range includes both carbon-fibre and hydroformed aluminium frames that are built to what Raleigh refer to as their RE2P geometry. RE2P is Relaxed Ergonomic Effective Position and what it means is that the top tube is a bit shorter than on a full-on race bike, and the head tube a touch longer. The result, of course, is a slightly more upright ride position. The chainstays are longer than normal too, increasing the length of the wheelbase, which should result in more stability, and the bottom bracket is a little lower.
The cheapest models in the range are the Revenio 1 (main pic) and the Revenio Capri (above), each at £550. They’re built around a completely new aluminium frames – 6061 T6 heat-treated Atomic 13 SL butted frames, to be precise – but the Capri’s frame has been adapted for shorter riders, which includes most women. It has a lower standover height and a steeper seat tube angle.
In terms of build, they each come with a Shimano 2300 8-speed groupset, Tektro R312 brakes and Raleigh’s AC 1.0 wheels, although the Capri has a women’s specific compact handlebar and stem, a Selle San Marco Spid Glamour saddle, and shorter cranks in the smaller sizes. The Capri comes in sizes down to 45cm.
The Revenio 2 (£700) comes in a Shimano Sora build and the Revenio 3 (£900) is largely Shimano 105 – there’s no Tiagra model – and then at the top of the range there’s the £1,500 Revenio Carbon (above), a new model. It comes in the same geometry as the other Revenio models and has the same components as the Revenio 3 but it’s built around a new T700 carbon fibre frame with internal cable routing, and a carbon steerer/carbon bladed fork.
Raleigh’s had a lot of success with their Sojourn and Clubman bikes last year, along with requests for a classic bike with a more affordable spec. Those two are still in the range, priced at £1,100 and £950 respectively, and they’ve been joined by the £700 Gran Sport. This bike is built around a Reynolds 520 cromo steel frame and it comes with a largely Shimano 2300 groupset.
The £800 Gran Tour is fairly similar although it has various component upgrades along with full mudguards, a rear rack and mounts for a low rider at the front. You get canti brakes and spare spoke braze-ons too.
Over on the performance side of things, the SP (Special Products) road racing range has a new model in the shape of the SP Elite. The frame is a Toray carbon-fibre monocoque that weighs, according to Raleigh, 1,050g. It comes with a tapered (1 1/8in to 1 1/2in) head tube, an oversized bottom bracket and internal cable routing, and the build is Shimano Sora based.
This model is priced at £1,100. Raleigh have revised the spec and prices of the other two SP models: the SP Comp is now Shimano Tiagra-equipped and £1,250 while the SP Race (above) is still Ultegra but it as had a price drop to £1,700.
The top-level performance road bike is the Militis, which helped Team Raleigh to over 50 podium places this year and will again be the squad’s race machine in 2013. The frame is made from T800 carbon fibre and it comes with super-skinny seat stays that are designed to sieve out road vibration.
Raleigh give a frame weight of just 880g – very light – and just 365g for the full carbon C5 monocoque fork. The £2,500 price gets you a SRAM Force groupset, a standard 53/39T FSA Energy chainset and Cole’s Rollen Elite wheels.
For more details on the range go to www.raleigh.co.uk.
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13 comments
They look allright to me, and I could be tempted.
They might struggle with brand snobbery (some of which is evident above), but I'm no label victim and I could give one a go and put up with paper round jokes on the club-run
I'm attached to a 22 year old Peugeot so culd quite happliy ride a new Raleigh and think about my first Raleigh bike some 45 years ago.
I think the Team Replica is a great idea.
We had the Raleigh rep in on Tuesday with a Revino 1 and a SP Comp. They seem pretty hard to fault for the money, perhaps a bit weighty on the Revino but generally well finished nicely and sensibly equipped.
Personally I am in love with the Team Replica.
The one cyclocross bike I really want is the Raleigh RXC Pro Disc. It ticks all the boxes for me. I wouldn't want Di2 on it yet though but everything else about it is great. Alas it doesn't seem as if it's going to be available in the UK
Well, I think they look ace and if I was in the market for a new road machine, the Militis would deffinately be on the short list. 880g!
A guy at the club paid about £2k for a Raleigh SP Team or something like that last year. Very nice, full carbon, Ultegra, in white with the old-school raleigh striping (blue/yellow/red was it?) and the name in blue. Looks better than these, they could be any firm's products.
Agree to a point about the graphics (Gran Sport aside). However, overall this range looks like a good move forwards for Raleigh and I really hope they are successful. My first three bikes were all Raleigh - The Grifter and Boxer were cracking bikes to own as a youth and were handed down for years. My first 'proper' road bike was the Raleigh Panasonic Team edition replica from around 1984. I loved that bike, and hope Raleigh can recapture the respect they used to carry.
I do agree though that rebranding the top end bikes might help add some kudos.
Raleigh has an illustrious history in road racing, providing world-beating bikes for the likes of Reg Harris, Joop Zoetemelk, Laurent Fignon and Paul Sherwin. With the new Team Raleigh (our professional road team) getting stronger and stronger and our new premium high end ranges, we're taking great strides to recapture this history, positioning ourselves as one of the best quality road bike brands around. Initial feedback on the 2013 range has been overwhelmingly positive so we're excited to see what the year ahead holds. We'll be putting these bikes under the Road.cc microscope again in the coming months so we can prove why Raleigh stands for exceptional performance and quality throughout the range.
Cheers, Raleigh Marketing Guy.
What Raleigh means to you will be entirely dependent on how old you are.
I belong to the "Chopper" generation...
Raleigh label is as cool as Woolworths and should be put only on low end city shopping and kids bikes.
Mid and high end models should be completely rebranded.
Someone should get "Marketing for Dummies" this Christmas
Sora on the new Carbon bike?
Hmmm
I'm curious to know how many people are nostalgic about Raleigh and whether this would be a factor in them choosing one of the new models.
My real introduction to cycling was through BMX in the 80s and the perception then was that Raleigh was a bit of an also-ran and not really desirable compared to GT, SE Racing, Kuwahara, Mongoose etc. This didn't really change with their clumsy early forays into mountainbikes and for me personally, they are stuck with that worthy but out-dated image.
Just wondered whether others perceive the brand differently?
I was just thinking the same thing belgravedave! I'm sure they're great bikes but stacked up against comparable bikes from other manufacturers the graphics just make me think of things like Burners from the 80s. The more Clubman ones look much nicer IMO.
Really want to like Raleigh and must say the overall shape of the Militis frame and fork looks fantastic, but once again the graphics let it down. Give me a spray can and some stencils and then blindfold me and I reckon I could do a better job.