City bikes at Interbike
by Richard MasonerCommute By Bike readers already have seen several of the city / urban bikes announced by some of the bigger names in the bike industry. I talked to several vendors who confirmed that they view city bikes and cruisers as a hot trend, and many of them have jumped in on the action. “City Bikes is a relatively new category as far as Several dealers have told me that they’ve sold more hybrids and cruisers over the past twelve months than they’ve sold in the previous ten years combined.
Sun Bicycles is a J&B Imports brand that’s known for their fat tire boardwalk cruisers. For 2008, they’ve introduced the Streamaway Cruiser. The easy step-through frame is designed for those who can’t quite swing a leg over the top tube but would still like to cruise down the trail.
The Sun Cruz is a 29er Cruiser bike!
For urban bikes, J&B created the Cayne brand which includes two new models for 2008. The Cayne Cykel is their 3 speed lugged steel cruiser with “scorcher” style swept back bars, coil sprung riveted saddle, cantilever brakes, and large-flange hubs. This bike will retail for about $450.
I’m going to go take photos of the numerous “Dutch” style bikes and other European city bikes next. I hope to have those posted later tonight. Stay tuned!
The Cayne brand also includes a low-cost ($499 retail) singlespeed/fixed-gear flip flop. I didn’t catch the name of this bike but it’s not a bad looking steel bike.
The Country Road Bob is an established model from Van Dessel Bicycles. This bike features bosses and mounts everywhere and includes an adjustable derailleur hanger as well as a “track style” end. It’s built up as a flip-flop singlespeed/fixed gear bike. This year, Van Dessel went with a nice nude and green scheme with a swoopy curvy downtube.
I’m going to go look at “Dutch” style bikes and other European town bikes next. I hope to have an update here tonight with that information. Stay tuned!
Totally dig the 3-speed. One of my faves so far. Thanks for your coverage!
Also – I must commend the commutebybike team for it’s awesome coverage of the show so far. I almost feel like I’m there. Thanks a bunch for your hard work and dedication to bike commuting. Cheers.
I agree. That 3speed is tasty! I’d love to see specs/size range. Good price too.
The Cayne bike is called the Uno. Cayne Uno.
Thanks for the comments, all. I’ll hopefully have the Dutch bikes post ready soon (photos uploading now…). I’ll also cover new lighting and other accessories in the coming weeks.
I also posted a couple of videos to YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/Cyclelicious
The Cayne single speed looks kicking. Almost too beautiful to ride (what am I saying) and not a bad price. I love steel.
Just bought the 3speed Cykel. It makes my rear happy. Shifting is a snap. And it’s a surprisingly quick bike.
[...] Bingo. But they call it the “Cyckel”. Looks like Sun Bicycles makes it. Special thanks to CommuteByBike for the final leg of info and [...]
I love the Cykel – reminiscent of the Nottingham 3-speeds. No chainguard though, and chainguards are hard to retrofit.