While the Raleigh brand may conjure up images of your first bike or the world famous Chopper, there’s nothing remotely child’s play about its Team Militis.
Developed as Team Raleigh’s main race steed, the Militis was designed with UK and US-style day and criterium racing in mind. The team has been involved with the bike’s design since the beginning, when they sat down with product manager and bike designer Terry Blackwood, giving him two objectives — to create a bike that was stiff and had positive steering.
Using a blend of high modulus carbon-fibre, up to Toray T800, the frame is put together using a tube-to-tube construction. The tapered head tube, down tube and bottom bracket are moulded as a single piece, allowing Raleigh to use long carbon strands — creating the stiffness and the responsive handling that the team desired.
Compliance was then built into the other frame tubes, and, according to Raleigh, by making them independently they could use higher pressures in the moulding stage, meaning less glue is needed, and therefore saving weight.
The end result is a naked frame with a claimed weight of around 880g. A full carbon tapered fork completes the frameset, which Raleigh state is the jewel in the bike’s handling crown.
It’s understandable that the £5,000 complete bike should dress appropriately, considering it’s at the top of the Militis family tree. Decked out completely in SRAM Red, with an FSA SLK carbon bar, stem and seatpost, a Fizik A1 saddle and Cole C38 clincher wheels shod in Schwalbe One tyres, it’s easy to see how the bike only tips the scales at a claimed 6.9kg.
The end result, thanks to internal cabling and a matt metallic red and black paint job, is a very sharp and clean looking bike. The only downsides as far as we can see it that it only comes in three sizes — 53, 55 and 57.
There are five Militis bikes in the range, all of which share the same race geometry and carbon fork. The Team, Race and Pro use the same frameset, with the finishing kit selection depicting the price tag. The Pro with Shimano 105 starts at £2,275. The Comp and Elite are both 6061 alloy frames and start at £1,300 for SRAM Apex.
Militis Pro £2,275 - Carbon-fibre frame - Shimano 105 groupset
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