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RDA

Availability: In stock

$2,388.00

Quick Overview

8 speed or 11 speed


The ULTIMATE commuter. Full-stop. Built-to-order in Chelmsford, England and featuring Gates carbon belt drive and Shimano Alfine 8 speed internal hub. The frame and forks have been designed from the ground up, with one goal in mind – being a super-commuter.

RDA

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$2,388.00

Details

The RDA Frameset: 

Milk’s own design, constructed from aircraft-grade, double-butted, 4130 chromoly tubing. Every little detail is the result of hours of careful consideration. Here are the highlights; The frame is belt-ready; there is a stainless steel ‘belt port’ incorporated into the right seat stay (this is not to say that it is belt-drive only – if you want to run a traditional chain-drive on the bike you could). Belts cannot be split like a chain can, so in order to fit a belt you need to have a frame that is designed to take a belt. This is probably the only real drawback of the whole belt system and why it can’t be retro-fitted to an existing bike. The belt-port is located near the middle of the seat stay. The mid-stay location keeps any forces exerted on this joint to a minimum and maintains chainstay-dropout strength, which is important for obvious reasons.

Milk Bikes uses double-butted 4130 chromoly steel tubing. This has been a staple frame-building material for a long while due to the mechanical properties of this grade of steel – the fact that the aircraft industry uses it is testament to this. The end result is a relatively lightweight frame that gives a comfortable ride. Perfect for commuting.

The frame and forks have heaps of clearance and can take 700C or 26″ wheels, up to 44mm and 1.5″ sizes respectively, as well as full mudguards (or ‘fenders’, depending on which side of the pond you call home!). The geometry; featuring classic head tube and seat tube angles help in giving a fast yet comfy riding position.

The bottom bracket height is between that of a road bike and a mountain bike, giving masses of pedal clearance for cornering, curbs, speed-humps, etc - but also allowing you to still reach the ground (on tip-toe!) if you like to sit on the saddle at the traffic lights. This little bit of extra height is subtle, but gives you a better view of the road ahead and the traffic around you (and gives motorists a better chance of hopefully seeing you above the car ahead of them).

The MTB-style sloping top tube (or ‘compact frame’) gives ample stand-over height. Available in 3 sizes initially; small, medium and large.

The frame and forks are designed for disc brakes only. Disc brakes may be slightly heavier than rim brakes, but that’s about the only area where rim brakes are better than discs; rim brakes are simply not as effective as disc brakes, especially in the wet – and they wear out the rims.

The forks are straight-bladed and also fabricated using 4130 chromoly, and the front dropouts are reversed (pointing forward, rather than backward) to counter any possibility of disc-brake-induced-wheel-ejection. This makes fitting the front wheel for the first time feel a bit strange!

The frame has 3 sets of bottle bosses. One set on the down tube and one on the seat tube, as normal, with an additional set on the under-side of the down tube, near the bottom bracket. This could be used to carry additional water bottles, although the intension is for your tools to be stored here – this way they’ll be out of the way and the weight will be kept low on the bike.  Your seat post will be free to fit more lights too. Stainless bottle cage bolts are supplied with the frame.

The cables are routed down the under-side of the down tube, under the bottom bracket and then along the under-side of the chainstays. There are no cable stops, only cable guides. We strongly recommend fully-enclosed cable housings to limit cable maintenance. Housing clips are supplied with the frames. - A full compliment of rack and mudguard bosses are also featured, and all come with stainless bolts.

Milk’s frameset is designed to be used with Gates’ carbon belt drive system and Shimano’s range of internally geared Alfine hubs – that’s not to say that traditional chain-drive systems could be used too.

Gates, an established manufacturer of belt technology for the automotive industry, launched their carbon belt drive system in 2007. This new-to-bicycles technology is growing in popularity within the bike industry due to the range of benefits over chain-drive set-ups;

- No need to lube, at all… ever. This means no grease to get on your clothes and hands, and nothing for road dirt to stick to. Cleaning the bike is a pleasure – simply wipe with a rag, easy as that!

- Belt drive is very quiet, it’s practically silent. Something you instantly love and just as quickly forget (until you ride with your mate who still has a creaky, squeaky old chain!).

- Gates have found that a correctly setup belt lasts twice as long as a chain, “Chains are often replaced due to stretch and wear rather than actual failure. The Carbon Drive belt does not stretch, so the smooth running performance remains consistent throughout its own life.”

- With a chain drive system, there is an initial take-up of slack as you start pedalling. Belts don’t suffer from this, the drive is very ‘direct’ – like riding a fixed gear bike, but with a freewheel. Best of both!

As mentioned, we’ve been testing various components and set-ups over the past year or so – including all through this last winter which was particularly harsh – and we’ve found some really good bits of kit (and some not-so-good bits too!).

As each Milk bike is built to order rather than taken from a big warehouse full of complete bikes we are able to tailor the bike to suit your riding needs. Let us know if there is anything in particular that you would like to have on your bike. Also, have a look below and see which bits we reckon are worth their salt.

Braking:

Unfortunately, commuting needs to be done whether it’s wet or dry. Disc brakes out-perform rim brakes in all conditions and they don’t wear out the rims or need much maintenance. Rim brakes are just so unreliable in the wet and road grit does a great job of wearing away rims. For these reasons, Milk’s bikes are designed to use disc brakes only – there are no rim-brake bosses on the frame or forks.

What we found:
We’ve had Avid BB5′s and BB7′s on our prototypes over the past winter, and highly recommend them for simple to setup and easy to maintain.

Lighting: 

While the rear hub takes care of gearing the front takes care of powering the lights. Never have a battery go flat mid-ride, and never have to remember to charge batteries over night. Dynamo powered lights are extremely effective and low-fuss, perfect for commuting. They’re always there when you need them.

What we found:
The Supernova E3′s we’ve had on the prototypes give out 375 lumens up front and also come with rack or post mounted rear lights. Busch and Muller, another German brand, also making some great lights for hub dynamos.

Cabling:

It’s important to have fully-enclosed cable housings to limit any maintenance and prolong the life of your cables. Milk bikes generally don’t have cable-stops if we can help it.

What we found:
Jagwire’s Ripcords have Kevlar reinforced housings which make them virtually compressionless – perfect for mechanical disc brakes and precise shifting. Their Teflon coated inner cables coupled with full-length housing means you’ll hardly ever have to do anything to them.

Tires:

Punctures are the work of the Devil, and he spent a bit of time on this job! A lot of manufacturers are producing puncture-resistant and puncture-proof tyres for the commuting and touring markets, which is great but a word of warning: these tyres can be a bit draggy due to the additional layers in the tyres that help to protect inner tubes.

What we found:

Continental’s Tour Plus and Schwalbe’s Marathon Tours are both pretty impressive, and they have reflective sidewalls for good measure -gotta be seen! A faster tyre that we have faith in are Contintental’s Gator-Skins.

Racks & Guards:

Full guards are a must for commuting. A rack and panniers makes the most sense as you’ll likely be carrying some clothes, food and possibly a laptop to/from work.

What we found:

Tubus make some fantastic racks – well designed and minimalist, if nice clean and uncluttered lines are you’re thing.

Finishing Kits:

Bars, stems, posts, saddles, pedals etc are really down to personal choice – there’s so much available. Luckily for those that prefer drop bars, Versa have produced STI-style shifters for Alfine’s 8 and 11 speed hubs, so the choice is your’s. We’ve built prototypes with both and not found any issues with either system.

What we found:

Easton, Truvativ, Pro and Titec produce good quality stems, bars and posts. The choice is your’s.

Saddles:

Quite a personal thing – everyone seems to have their favourites. We’ve been using Brooks B17′s and Swifts on the prototype bikes, and absolutely love them (once they’ve been broken in, mind you!)

What we found:

A Brooks saddle can last ages and gets more comfy with age, but if you use something else let us know and we’ll put that on for you!

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