The chassis

At the heart of the Raleigh Militis Comp is a frame fashioned from double butted,  6061-series aluminium tubes.

Militis is Raleigh’s race-oriented range and the low, 130mm headtube of our 53cm test bike provides fair warning of its intent. The dead straight top tube measures 53cm, as does the seat-tube, when measured centre to top (49cm from centre to centre). Raleigh have eschewed the sloping top tube and low seat tube of ‘compact’ frames and given the Militis Comp a classic appearance.

We’ve commented on the oversized downtube, but the remaining sides of the front triangle are far from slender. Only in the rear triangle do the tube diameters decrease, most notably in the seat stays, which are rounded at either end and flattened in the centre. Engineers deploy pencil thin stays when working with carbon to induce compliance and with it comfort. Previous generations of aluminium frames earned no great reputation for either, so we’ll be keen to see what the Militis Comp offers in the comfort stakes.

The chainstays are similarly slender and like the seat stays, change in profile, from rounded at the dropout to flattened at the bottom bracket. While the slim chainstays have a slightly anachronistic appearance compared to the sizeable depth of those on carbon frames, the bottom bracket has a decidedly modern look about it and provides a neat home for the Pressfit 30 bottom bracket.

Steering duties are handled by Raleigh’s C6 fork, a full carbon offering deployed throughout the Militis range (and so the fork to be found on the team issue bike). The paper-thin blades are doubtless a contributor to a claimed weight of 395g, and we’re expecting the 73 degree head angle to provide responsive steering.

Other observations? The internal routing of the rear brake cable through the top tube gains the Militis Comp another big tick, the junction of seatstay and chainstay forms a small and perhaps unintended cowling to shelter the quick release, but the welds are merely neat rather than outstanding (smooth welds would have gained further praise).

All things taken together, the Miltis Comp combines a classic geometry with contemporary features, and a striking paint scheme whose visual effect – that of a machine that looks fast standing still – we hope will be replicated in the performance. Time will tell.