Interbike 2012: A Few Different Roads...

Let me first apologize for the delay in this post, I had meant to put it up long before now. Like an old leather saddle, I have sat on it while the world has continued to speed by, and the topic has been made somehow irrelevant by now. Anyhow, the time has finally come to bring the curtain down on the showings from Interbike 2012, and do so, on the road, in all its myriad forms:

The BMC Urban Challenge (above) is not new to the show, but I missed it last year and it deserves some attention. Kudos to the company for bringing some sporty flair to a more upright, get-around the city bike. It was shown built with Gates belt drive, Alfine hub and disc brakes for some extra stopping power, because this isn't your typical urban clunker - you will want to go faster on it. Fenders, finished to match the frame, are stylish, but also functional and will help keep the street gunk of your nice office clothes.

If speed does not necessarily factor into your thought process when considering an urban bike, or at least not high up on the list of priorities, you might want to give the tried and tested Linus brand a look or, as I previously mentioned, the new kid on the block (or at least in the States), the Opus brand from Canada:

Don't know how much coffee I have spilt for want of a simple holder

 Opus, bells and whistles for a stately-paced commute

waste not. Brompton shoves a repair kit into an otherwise unused space

you could probably load up a Velo Orange with enough stuff for a weeks-long trip

i have had my mind set on a Yuba for some heavier-duty hauling, but if the Surly Big Dummy came stock with a pair of antlers i could be nudged over that direction

i didn't live in Claremont when William McCready, owner/guru at Santana Cycles, served as a member of the City Council, but the story i heard is that this ultra-tandem was built to seat each of the five council members, and ridden in the annual 4th of July parade. one year the ride did not go so smoothly, there was a tumble, and the council now pedals along on something a little more stable.

Folding bikes become more subtle in their mechanism all the time; case in point is the Ritchey Break Away:

As for the speed machines, those designed for racing and training, I would be hard pressed to pick a favorite. Fondriest, Pantani, Lightspeed, Opus, Eddy Merckx, and Neil Pryde were all showing bikes that I would gladly ride any day of the week. If you throw in the big producers on top of that heap, the Pinarello's, the BMC's, the Specialized's, well. Point is, it is really difficult to pick one over another. Never-the-less, I am giving the nod this year to an old standard remade - the Ritchey Road Logic. As super fun as it would be to speed around on any of those other high-tech, super light carbon dreams, my eyes just kind of glaze over when looking at them. Like the speed at which they fly past they just sort of blur one into another, and it takes something like the Logic to refocus.