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New Bikes // All-City Cycles

May 10, 2013

We just got our first shipment of All-City bikes -- yet another bike brand from Minnesota, the most hipster state in the Union. It is hard to believe, I know, but the cornerstones of hipsterdom are abundantly present in the land-o-lakes: epic beards, epic Pabst sessions, epic ironic tshirts, and of course epic bikes. And because I went to the most hipster college, I know hipster when I see it.

Minnesota: Most Hipster State

Somewhere between the bear and the beard the magic happens, and in the words of Arthur Lee, "I believe in magic. Why? Because it is so quick." Hence our picks from the All-City lineup: the Space Horse (magic) and the Mr. Pink (quick). Also known as the blue bike and the red bike.

Space Horse (aka "the blue bike") $1450

The Space Horse is our replacement for the discontinued Salsa Casseroll. Like the Casseroll, the Space Horse is a light-touring bike; hence, it works perfectly well as a commuter rig. As you can see, also like the Casseroll, it's blue. The All-City Web site sums it up best:

It can handle front and rear racks, fenders, and has clearance for 42c tires. It also has our new custom semi horizontal dropouts which allow it to be set up geared or single. The geometry of the frameset itself, is a mix of traditional road and touring geo's giving the bike agile head tube and seat tube numbers, a relatively short rear end, but with a lower than roadbike bottom bracket for increased stability while loaded. The tubeset was chosen with 30lbs rear and 20lbs front max loads in mind.

So there ya go. Those of you with 30lb rears and 20lb fronts are set with a Space Horse. You can get the full build specs here.

Mr. Pink (aka "the red bike") $1895

The Mr. Pink isn't really a replacement for us at all, it's more like an upgrade. We've always had a bunch of steel road bikes, like the Masi Gran Criterium or the Felt F4130, but the Mr. Pink has something that those bikes lack -- proper fender-ability! It also has clearance, therefore, for fatter tires, which means a comfier ride. And to top it off, strong, lightweight Columbus Zona tubing and a press-fit 30 bottom bracket. Very cool.

The Pink was influenced by our love of classic steel race bikes, our years spent paging though the old Bridgestone catalogs, and our dedication to exploiting new technology and advancements where ever applicable. Geometry wise, it's a no holds barred go fast machine, but we've made a few tweaks to the typical road race equation that allow it to be so much more than just a nice weather show pony.

Its got clearance for 32s (28s w fenders) since some of us love mixed terrain rides and streets only seem to be getting worse, hidden fender mounts, an ED coat for rust prevention, internal top tube cable routing, a Press Fit 30 bottom bracket and Columbus Zona tubing.

The Press Fit 30 BB allows for a stiffer pedaling platform and overall lighter build than a standard English shell, plus it has the advantage of being backwards compatible with most tradtional cranksets. Not to mention that it sprints like hell. The Columbus Zona tubing choice was another easy one, as weight is important to a bike of this style, and after a lifetime of drooling over SLX framesets we understand that theres magic in those Italian tubes.

What does it all boil down to? The Mr. Pink is a fast steel bike that you can go on long weekend rides on, but it is also a versatile bike that would handle equally well as a sporty daily commuter. It has a nice set of specs with a lot of Shimano 105 parts represented. For the full build specs, head over to All-City here. A little postscript here -- come in and test ride one of these fast because we've already sold about a third of them!