Street bikes are go...

Fancy some singlespeed fixie action German style? No not Fixie inc (we'll check them out later) - here's some Bergamonts that caught the eye. Not sure about pedalling the pink and white number down Peckham High Street but there's also this classy looking flat bar version or a tougher looking urban effect black and green number – I'll try to nip back later and get a shot of that baby in focus…

Something altogether more radical on the technical front - at least in the sense that it's come back into fashion again - is belt drive, in the form of these two new belt driven Treks. Apart from being different and probably silent, not sure exactly what the great benefit there is of powering your bike with a plastic belt. Unless this is very special plastic, which I'm sure Trek will tell us it is, there is no way that a belt is as efficient at transferring your power to the back wheel. Even without the belt drive the new Trek District is an eye-catching bike. Sporty looking semi-discs look great but this isn't a performance machine – and I wouldn't fancy catching one of those urban crosswinds that blast out of sideroads. The clock is nice, maybe it's for timing your run into work – and the chainguard makes a lot of sense. It's weird, but I like it.

Slightly less weird is the '09 version of the Soho which combines belt drive with a rear hub – and still gives you somewhere to carry your coffee.
Street classicism from Salsa (try saying that with a mouthful of würst in a bun), the Casseroll has been around for a while, but I haven't spotted one before with a chainguard – could be I wasn't looking hard enough. If the Trek and the Salsa are anything to go by Chainguards could be something a mini-trend on 'performance' commuters – Mike Burrows will feel vindicated and so he should - not everyone wants to ride around town fast with one trouser leg rolled up or your jeans tucked into your socks (hurts my knee eventually). As ever with Salsa, nice detailing around the dropouts.