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TECH NEWS
Cannondale Conto 2 1Video: Six of the best urban bikes
Urban bikes have come a long way recently and here’s a video showing six of the most interesting and up-to-date options that we spotted at Eurobike a few weeks ago, including models from Scott, Cannondale and Bianchi.
The bikes we’ve selected here are pretty diverse. Scott’s Sub Evo 10, for example, uses a Gates Carbon Drive belt rather than a chain while the Rabeneick Niagra comes with a two-speed kickshift hub.
Cannondale’s Conto 2 has a single-legged Lefty fork and hydraulic brakes from Magura while the big feature of the Schindelhauer Thin Bike, as the name suggests, is its ability to be stored flat in order to take up the minimum of space. The pedals fold in and you can spin the bars using a clever quick release system.
Bianchi use a lightweight road bike frame at the heart of the Via Nirone Flat Bar for fast commuting but Hey Cycle go down a completely different route with the mixte version of their bike.
Check out what’s on offer. There might be something that suits your needs perfectly.
Click here to read all of our stories from Eurobike 2014 - the world's biggest bike show.
Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.
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10 comments
The thin bike is 24 inch wheeled not 20 as in the video, says on there website, I think its nice!
I've rode a lefty mtb fork for 2 years and I can honestly say it is extremely stiff, butter smooth and extremely good for directness with steering. Not cheap mind.
Can't watch the video at work, but I like the sound of the thin bike. It would save me some hassle trying to manouver handlebars between other bikes in the terrible and overcrowded rack at work.
Grim. Just threw up in my mouth.
There are some truly ugly bikes amongst that lot. The only one I might ride is the Scott Sub 10 but with a Rohloff hub. The front fork doesn't appear to have mounts for a front rack, so as an urban bike it fails. The rest I wouldn't even bother with.
Where is the Genesis Croix de Fer, the Milk Bike RDA or the Shand Stoater with Rohloff or Tout Terrain also with Rohloff?
Another poorly researched subject. But at least there were two bikes with very low maintenance belt drive transmissions which has got be something. An urban bike has to be very low maintenance. An open chained deraillieur transmission is not.
Why would you couple a single sided fork with a disc brake, putting twisting forces through a single leg which is less able to resist them???
The Lefty fork has been around for a decade or so on MTBs, no problems with it. It uses a hexagonal internal cross section, it's actually stiffer than a lot of "regular" forks.
And besides, cars use a single sided axle & disc brake, it's not exactly radical.
My experience of commuting several years on a lefty was the headset wearing out much faster than the standard headshok arrangement I rode beforehand. I put it down to the force on the headset being offset?
Simple...you design it so it is.
Mike Burrows has being using single-sided forks for years - front and back.
It's also the only tidy way to do it on a recumbent trike (tho' you're also splitting the braking between the two sides, so they tend to be a little skinnier anyway).
The angular force will always go through the side of the fork to which the caliper is fixed - the other side is free and takes virtually no braking stress.
ie. It makes no difference - conventional, lefty = just the same
I stand to be corrected, of course