It's not often that I swoon for modern road bikes and I'm not sure this even belongs in that category. Somehow the 2011 Raleigh International slipped past my radar. This is the first I'm seeing of this bike and damn, that is perfection. Reynolds 853 tubing, chromed lugs, modern road group, the entire package is dialed to perfection. You could even (shudder) race that thing if you wanted to. All it needs are some Panaracer Paselas and some water bottle cages!
Check out the entire specs here at Raleigh.
Comments
... and pedals
Posted by: prolly on vacation | August 4, 2010 8:20 PM
for 6000$
Posted by: jdub | August 4, 2010 8:46 PM
They nailed it all except that ugly stem. If they were willing to weigh it down with lugs, why go with a threadless fork and clamp-on stem?
Posted by: honor | August 4, 2010 8:48 PM
Not complete - just frameset right? $600 for Dura Ace is a fucking banging deal!
Honestly, with that bike, the 1 1/8" aheadset stem doesn't bother me.
Posted by: prolly on vacation | August 4, 2010 8:56 PM
Yeah. It only bothers me in principle. If this bike has so much in common with high-end classic racing bikes, why would they fit it with something that wouldn't be on one? I understand why they wouldn't put down-tube shifters on it, but with a quill stem it would only look and be more authentic, without affecting performance.
Posted by: honor | August 4, 2010 9:20 PM
Whoooooa. Love the clean, lugged lines and subtle branding.
Posted by: dag | August 4, 2010 9:38 PM
Why Paselas?
Posted by: Angelo R. | August 4, 2010 10:27 PM
Classic steel bikes look 10000x better with gumwall tires.
Posted by: prolly on vacation | August 4, 2010 10:33 PM
Whoa! I think it's a beaut! I don't get these "put-a-quill-on-it" comments. We all know quill-type stems are less rigid, heavier AND not even as close as convenient as a-head type stems. And it's obvious designers of this bike wanted everything to be modern apart from the look of the frame? Anyhow, this bike, and yesterday's realization that Nagasawa-san himself drilled that pink frame for SashaE make me want to install both brakes on my next fixed gear project. Brakes are 2011's fixed! ahahaha
Posted by: scorch | August 5, 2010 3:02 AM
I've always thought that lugged bikes look a little... Chip Foose with two piece cranks.
Posted by: clay | August 5, 2010 3:54 PM
Raleigh rep mentioned it would msrp @ $3500. Pretty banging deal.
Posted by: cass_kee | August 6, 2010 9:23 AM
Get thee a Surly Pacer complete instead, and save yourself a lot $. You'll need it for all that traveling you intend to do before you die. But, if you're willing to spend this much $ for a non-custom classic steel road bike, get thee a Chris King Cielo Sportif, or a perhaps a Vanilla Speedwagen.
Posted by: jorge | August 6, 2010 10:42 AM
It's always good to shop around - so while looking at the pacer(a worthy steed), you might want to check out the Raleigh Clubman for an apples to apples comparison.
The International looks like a dream and Raleigh usually delivers good value, so it is unclear to me why it should be considered to be so out of the running. Still, it doesn't hurt to shop around.
Posted by: craig | August 8, 2010 7:35 PM
I've just been looking at the specs on this bike and if they retail at 3.5k, that's a really good deal! Still a lot of money tho and feels a bit like over-kill.
The Raleigh Ace has all the kit I'll ever need and in my opinion, it also looks better than this. Just a shame the Ace comes with a poorer quality tube set. A couple of hundred dollars more for an 853 tube set on the Ace and I think Raleigh would have more customers that the current ace and the International combined.
Posted by: dave | August 26, 2010 6:38 PM