Sorry guys but those steel frames are pretty ugly in my opinion. One thing is want to go retro and other is just forget craftmanship and nah, 4.8 grands for that? I love steel but nah... many here for sure love bottechia, colnago, EddyM, pinarellos and other brands but look, one said that loved chrome lugs, the bike doesnt even come close to a bottechia in the chrome department for example.
The other funny thing is that the forks are super ugly, ok you want something retro? look at some old bikes, 20 or 30 years ago some forks were beautiful but look at this one, the whole bike looks like coming from walmart but with good stuff in it.
Why to forget the most beautifull track bike ever made? The Raleigh professional pista circa 1972 for example?
http://velospace.org/node/15967
And a bottechia...
http://rocka1bikeshop.blogspot.com/2...a-vintage.html
Having these 2 old bikes in mind, look at the 4 thousand dollars raleigh.
How you guys can compare those two pretty old bikes with the new raleigh steel? I love steel dont get me wrong but look, Raleigh has not get a hit in the bike market since practically they went to modern production like 20 years ago, Raleigh UK is dead and Raleigh US is just Raleigh US. And sadly there is no way for Raleigh to go even closer to the craftmanship they had back in the day.
Look at the pictures, besides the dura ace stuff what else? nothing more than, ugly a$$ paint, chrome that i bet is single plated and after 1 or 2 years is practically gone, before was triple plated thats why old bikes still have the chrome intact, the fork is the most awefull thing ever... come one raleigh if you want to ask 4gs for a bike at least give me casting lugs, triple plated chromes and at least a descent paint job like it was done before, one single color? that's darn cheap!!!
I love raleigh thats the part that really hurts me, the company sucks and now with the retro line it sucks even more.
Even fuji did a retro line that looks way better than the 2011 raleigh dura ace in the picture.
Im not mad is just that i cant stand what is going on now a days, i would not pay 500 bucks for the frames and only because of the chrome, as a bike does not even compare to the old raleighs.
Bad bad