The Raleigh Royal Reviewed Part 2

The Royal aboard the MV Ullyses

Since I bought the Raleigh Royal I have done almost 2000 miles on it. This includes a recent trip to England in which I done about 900 miles in two and half weeks.

Only one major problem emerged with the bike, the spokes on both wheels became very loose. When I got them tightened up, I was was told that this can only be caused by oil being applied to the threads when the wheels were being built. This apparently makes them much easier to tighten, but has the unfortunate side effect of the spokes later becoming loose. So if you buy a Royal keep an eye on the spoke tension.

For my English trip I needed to carry a lot more cargo than I usually do so I added a set of front racks. I went with a pair of LifeLine Alloy Low Rider Front Rack which I got from Wiggle at €20.29. While the front forks of the Royal come with braze-ons for front racks the Lifeline racks did not fit them. The racks came with two sets of U bolts which I used to fit the racks. To save scratching the frame I used a small piece of inner tube as padding with each u bolt.

On many occasions in England I rode, fully loaded on glass strewn cyclepaths and hard shoulders and I did not have one single puncture. So I am very impressed with the puncture resistant qualities of the Schwalbe Marathon tyres that come with the Royal.

I carried about 22 kg of cargo on my English trip and cycled in some very hilly country in Staffordshire. I found the range of gears more than adequate to pull 22 kg of cargo up some very steep gradients.

Lifeline Front Racks

Two thousand miles and the bike is running perfectly. You could pay a lot more money for a touring bike, and if you were planning to cycle around the world it would probably be money well spent. But if your touring needs are more modest, I doubt you will beat the Raleigh Royal on value for money.

LifeLine Alloy Low Rider Front Rack from Wiggle

The Raleigh Royal Reviewed Part One

The Raleigh Royal Reviewed Part Three