Two days ago we gave you a sneak peek at Raleigh's new carbon Roker gravel bike, and based on the spy photo we got our hands on, guessed at some of the details.
At Sea Otter 2015, we got an official look at the carbon Roker, which both verified and contradicted some of our guesses at details.
The biggest news is that the Roker is a brand new frameset, despite the similar appearance to the carbon RXC line of cyclocross bikes. Materials are identical, tube shapes are nearly identical, but geometry and tire clearance are different. There's also a third set of bottle mounts, and hidden fender mounts.
The carbon tube-to-tube constructed Roker mimics the steel Tamland geometry, which is based around a 44cm chainstay, 7.25cm bottom bracket drop, and relatively slack angles (71.5 degree head angle, 72.5 degree seat angle on a 56cm).
The Roker frame offers monster tire clearance, with enough room, by our eyes, for a narrow 29er tire out back. The bike shown shows a bunch of clearance around a 40c Clement MSO tire.
The bike does feature the same carbon disc fork as the Raleigh RXC carbon cyclocross bikes, but will likely offer hidden fender mounts.
Out back, on both the new RXC cyclocross bikes and the Roker, Raleigh has added a new floating rear thru axle nut that offers more precise alignment and faster threading, similar to the right side dropout on Fox's thru axle suspension forks.
The full spec and pricing has not been released yet, as final production details are still being finalized. The show bike on display was dressed with a Shimano Ultegra 6800 mechanical group with a 50/34 chainring combination, TRP Spyre dual piston mechanical disc brakes, American Classic Argent Disc tubeless wheels, and Clement MSO USH 40c tires. Raleigh said the production model will likely switch to a 36/46 chainring combination.
See more details in the Raleigh Roker gravel bike photo slideshow below.
Raleigh’s Roker carbon gravel bike features hidden fender mounts front and rear. Sea Otter 2015. © Cyclocross Magazine
