BikeP0RN: The Raleigh Militis

Winning a lot of bike races is the Raleigh Militis as ridden by the Raleigh – GAC pro team. VeloUK focuses its camera on the bike and talks to the mechanic Pete Mooney and rider Graham Briggs

Last weekend at the Stockton Grand Prix, won by Graham Briggs on his Militis, VeloUK took a look at the bikes. It’s a full carbon monocoque which when fully loaded with all the bits and pieces weighs in at only 7.14 kilos.

The group set is 10 speed Shimano Dura Ace (non electric for nearly all the bikes) and they have the choice of Dura Ace C35 or C50 carbon deep section wheels. The training wheels are Ultegra and they are clinchers. The Dura Ace ones though have tubulars on them, Schwalbe (22 or 25). Pete Mooney, their hard working mechanic says they mainly use the 25 for the crits and races with dodgy surfaces.

The size of the frames used by the team range from a 47 for Graham Briggs to a 59 for Jamie Sparling and lots of sizes in between, 50, 53, 55 etc. Labelled up on the frame is the name, BB30 which is a very simple system for bottom brackets. Pete explained how it only takes about four minutes to put one in which is a lot quicker than the good old days of screwing cups into the shell of the bracket and then placing individual bearings in.

“There are a couple of circlips, two bearings, two caps; push everything through and tighten it up the other side.” Other components include ITM bars, stem and seat post with a San Marco saddle. The chain is KMC.

Graham is racing on a prototype Raleigh Militis (47cm) frame with custom paint work that was done to match his British Champion’s Jersey (Graham was the 2011 British Circuit Race Champion). The original Militis was designed by Raleigh US and is being sold over there this year – www.raleighusa.com/bikes/road/militis-3-12/

The Raleigh team bike uses different components to the US version and Raleigh UK are said to be bringing out a UK version of the Militis as part of their 2013 range. Look out for news of that in the coming months!

Graham’s other bike is the SP Team Dura Ace bike for training. It’s being sold in the UK this year at £3,900. There is an Ultegra version available at £2,450 and is said to be great for racing. The SP Team Dura Ace was reviewed in Cycling Plus recently, picking up 4.5 out of 5.

Talking to Graham before he went out and won the Stockton Grand Prix about why he has chosen the electric Shimano gears for his bike, he mentioned that after he’d won the British Circuit Title in 2011, he was after a nice bike and that included the electronic gears which he says enables him to shift gear while on the drops.

The non-electric gears …

Graham added that he also likes the shape of the leavers which he says are smaller and more comfortable. “The shifting is also really crisp which does mean having to re-adjust it for different wheels but they work great.”

The system does take getting used as Graham found when the bike with the electric gears was stripped down and he had to use a bike without it. “I was pressing the buttons and nothing was happening! I quickly realised I had to put some force behind it without the electrics!”

Graham added finally that using the electric gears you can be in or out of saddle and applying pressure to the pedals making it more versatile than the normal system. Bottom line was whether Graham, if money was no object, choose electric over the normal gears? He replied the “Di2”.