Foffa Urban 7 Speed Nexus

Foffa's Urban is an elegant, practical city bike that'll get you from one side of town to the other without fuss. A few component changes would help to make it a better overall package, and the fork isn't the stiffest, but for general urban duties it's a good workhorse.

The Urban has been around a while; originally it was a 4130 chromoly steel-framed faux-fixie with a hub gear, a low front, narrow flat bar and deep-section alloys (John tested it in 2014, see here). This build is a more practical beast with big chamber tyres, mudguards, a kickstand and a more upright position. It's still not a sit-up-and-beg bike, though, the position is more akin to a hybrid than a full-on city bike.

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The new model's 6061 alloy frame is nicely finished, while up front you still get a steel fork with a threaded headset. The bar is a narrow mini-riser with a touch of backward sweep and you get big padded faux leather grips (which I found slightly mushy) and a Foffa own-brand saddle in a matching brown that I had no issues with while the bike was on test.

The ride

Riding the Foffa was, for the most part, enjoyable. The position isn't especially aggressive and at 12.6kg it's not the kind of bike you're going to be setting any personal bests on, but for cruising round town it felt good. The bar is narrow enough to mix it in traffic without being too twitchy, and the geometry sits you up enough that you get a good view of your surroundings. Having the hub gear gives the bike nice clean lines and also allows you to change gear at a standstill, which is handy about town when you're caught out by the lights.

It's not the fastest-accelerating bike, but you wouldn't expect that, and you tend to ease the speed up rather than sprinting out of the blocks.

When it comes to slowing down the first issue with the bike comes to the fore, which is that the front brake causes the fork to judder under braking. It's probably mostly to do with the stiffness (or lack of) of the fork combined with the quality of the rims and brake pads; it's what happens with a grabby brake combined with a slightly flexy fork. Higher quality pads in the front V-brake, or maybe a better quality brake unit, would probably go some way to alleviating the issues. As it was, it was annoying rather than scary, and I just tended to favour the rear brake, which was fine.

Rolling along the flat, the steering is neutral and predictable. It's not the kind of bike you'd be pinning down a mountain descent but on the the fast downhills I did do on the Foffa (you can't ride round here without doing at least one) it felt okay; it doesn't have the poise of a road bike or even a lighter hybrid, but it holds its line pretty well. The Kenda tyres aren't the best I've ever used, but grip levels were decent and the big air chambers give a good level of comfort.

Up the other side, the second main issue with the bike hoves into view: it's overgeared. (Confused by bike gears? Read our feature about it here.)

During testing I never really got above gear five on the 7-speed hub, which is good for 18-20mph around town. The top gear is a chunky 96 inches which is the kind of gear I might choose for a nice flat 10-mile time trial. It's a racing gear, really.

Conversely, the bottom gear is 39 inches, which makes anything over a mild incline a bit of a struggle, given the bike's weight. For comparison, a compact double chainset and 11-28 cassette gives you a low of about 32in and an 11-32 goes down to 28in.

All Foffa needs to do is change the gear ratios. A 40t or 38t would give a much better range. My personal preference would be 38t at the front and 21t at the back (it's specced with a 20t) giving a 30-75in range, which should work for nearly everyone.

In other gearing news the Nexus 7 hub is a pretty solid unit and the twist shift is easy to use. It's not the best at shifting down under power, so it pays to back off slightly when you're shifting. It's something you get used to doing automatically after a while.

The build

Foffa has gone for pretty dependable stuff, and it all works even if it's not fancy. The sealed square taper bottom bracket and threaded headset and quill stem aren't state of the art but they're simple and solid, and should last for ages.

The wheels are well built too, and the radially-spoked front with a wide-flange track hub looks pretty.

The mudguards are full plastic rather than chromoplastic (with a metal layer sandwiched inside) and we broke the rear one at the seatstay mount during testing. It was easily fixed with some judicious application of gorilla tape, but if you'd bought the bike you'd probably be phoning up and asking for a new one.

Utility-wise, the mudguards are a useful addition and so is the kickstand. A chain case would be another obvious thing to spec in a future version (although I'd sort the gearing out first); that would make it a little more casual-clothes-friendly.

Overall

For the most part, the Foffa Urban is a likeable bike. It's easy to ride and it looks good, and the simplicity of the hub gear and inclusion of mudguards make it an out-of-the-box city bike worth looking at.

At £499 it's not expensive either. You can get a much higher spec of sport hybrid for the same money but Foffa isn't really aiming at that market. To be honest there aren't many bikes that directly compete. The Gazelle Van Stael is one; that's £649 with a 7-speed hub (£549 with a 3-speed) but the Brooks Cambium finishing kit is a step up. And it has a chaincase.

> Find more road.cc reviews of urban bikes here

The Foffa has its issues – the fork judder was a bit annoying and the gearing needs attention – but it's a decent and good-looking city bike for cruisy urban riding.

Verdict

Elegant and practical city bike but a couple of build issues need addressing