Time for another city bike review.  Last time, I took a look at the upscale Civia Loring.  This time, I’m looking at a city bike that occupies the other end of the price spectrum – the Kona Africabike.

The Africabike is the city bicycle stripped to its essence.  It features a steel frame in one size (18″) with adjustable seat and handlebar heights, fat, rugged tires, three-speed Shimano Nexus internally geared rear hub, coaster brakes and front wheel brake, full fenders and mud guards, a bell, a chain guard, a front basket, and a rear rack that’s integrated with the frame.  And that’s about it.

It’s an extremely simple and straightforward bike, which I think is a lot of its appeal.  This is the pure essence of a classic European-style city bike, at a surprisingly low price.

The Africabike may only come in one frame size, but it’s adjustable enough to cover a decent range of rider sizes.  Even folks over six feet tall can be comfortable.  In Euro city bike tradition, the riding position is essentially bolt upright.  It’s pretty much the same experience you’d get from a Dutch or German city bike.  The frame is a step-through design allowing anybody in any sort of clothing comfortable access on or off the saddle.  The design is classically European.  It’s quite comfortable, and allows for a relaxed running-around-the-neighborhood ride.  The three-speed internal hub gives enough range to deal with the sort of hills one encounters around the urban core, and overall the ride is really nice.  It’s smooth and really fun to ride.

It’s also supremely practical.  Besides the essentials like fenders, a kickstand, a chainguard, a bell, and the like, the Africabike comes will full front and rear cargo carrying ability.  The front basket is deep and made of wire mesh, preventing small objects from falling out.  The rear rack is an integral part of the frame, and is tremendously strong – a person can pretty easily ride on it without fear.  The front and rear basket/rack setup gives great flexibility when going shopping or transporting items.  Add a set of panniers, a laptop bag, or just some simple netting or bungee cords to the rack and you’re all set.

The Africabike doesn’t have the meticulous bamboo detailing or other fancy touches of something like the Civia Loring, but it cuts an elegant and very Dutch sort of silhouette.  The all-black Model T sort of paint job really serves the bike well, and the Model T comparison comes into sharp focus once you come to price.

Kona designed and built the Africabike as extremely practical urban transportation in the grand tradition of the European city bike builders, and wanted the bike to be very affordable.  A lot of the decisions made with the Africabike, like the single-but-versatile frame size, are a result of this desire to keep the price down.  The result is that this is likely one of the least expensive authentically European-style well-made city bikes you can buy new in the United States.  Everything you see pictured here – the Africabike with three-speed hub, chainguard, fenders, front basket, rear rack, etc. – will cost you $399.  That is really, really awesome.  About the only things the Africabike needs to be a full transportation solution are front and rear lights, and for this price, it’s no biggie to buy some LED lights and clip them on.

And then, there’s the thing about the name.  It’s called the “Africabike” for a good reason:  for every two Africabikes sold, Kona donates one to a needy village in Africa.  How cool is that?

The Africabike (and other models of the Kona range, like the long-tail Ute cargo bike I reviewed before) can be found at Trinity Bicycles on South Main in the Near Southside, who graciously provided us with this example to review.  Also check out Kona’s Africabike web site.

Here’s our gallery of Africabike photos – click the thumbnails for a larger view:

Time for another city bike review!  Last time, I looked at the Kona Ute, a long-tail cargo bike.  I liked it a lot.  This time out, and once again thanks to Trinity Bicycles, I’ll be showing you a new city bike from Minnesota – the Loring, from Civia Cycles.

The Loring is, according to Civia, for “tooling around town, cruising campus, or pedaling to the grocer.”  I have to say that, while all that is true, the Loring is no mere cruiser.  It’s a very practical, and incredibly beautiful, piece of bicycle design.

Basics first:  the Loring is a steel-frame city bike, available with either a 3-speed or 9-speed drivetrain.  In either case, it’s using an internally geared hub.  I like internal gearing a lot from a city use perspective – they’re incredibly easy to shift and use in general, and can be shifted either in motion or at a stop.  What’s more, the Loring comes with full front-and-rear disc brakes for impressive stopping power.

The Loring comes with a very impressive bit of kit.  It features front-and-rear cargo racks lined with bamboo, full fenders (also made of bamboo), a sprung Brooks saddle, classic city bike handlebars, a twist shifter, a chain guard, and a fantastic double-leg kickstand to keep the bike stable as you load cargo.

All of this is well and good, but when considering the Loring, one must also talk about it from a less objective point of view, because this thing is simply stunning to look at.  The Loring is bite-the-back-of-your-hand beautiful.  Available in black or green, the Loring’s elegant lines, bamboo trim, subtle shiny bits, and level of detailing make this one of the flat-out prettiest bicycles you’re going to find, especially in the United States.  It is one of a small number of American bikes I’d put on par with the simple elegance of classic European city bikes.  It’s really that good-looking.

There are so many tiny little details on this bike that add up to make it so unique – everything from the barely-perceptible branding (a lovely brushed metal head badge, small logos in the bamboo, and ghostly, just-barely-visible writing on the frame) to that beautiful bamboo to the little spring that connects the front wheel to the frame to keep it from turning while loading cargo.  It’s pure class, from stem to stern.

The better news is that the Loring rides every bit as good as it looks.  Here at Fort Worthology, we’re not of the speed-loving racer/touring sort of bike mindset – we like our bikes comfortable, practical, and utilitarian, and they don’t have to be quick.  The Loring can move when it needs to, but it’s at home smoothly and elegantly bombing around central city neighborhoods.  The steel frame makes it soak up bumps with ease, and it has a great, nearly-completely-upright riding position for comfort and visibility.  It handles well and even the three-speed drivetrain helps with hills.  (Yes, it’s steel.  Yes, it’s heavy.  Yes, it can still go up hills.  Just go slow!)

In fact, I’d say it rides fairly close to a classic European city bike, like a Dutch bike.  Not quite as smooth, but not too far off, either.  I’d genuinely put it in that league, though.  This is a lovely-riding bicycle.

My quibbles are few and far between.  The single biggest omission is the lack of a built-in lighting system – the Loring ships with no lights.  Of course, lights can be added – it’s easy to clip on some LED lights, and one could conceivably have a generator hub built up for the front end for battery-less lights – but I still really wish it came with a built-in integrated lighting system.

Also, if I’m being greedy, I’d say I’d like the chain guard to become a fully-enclosed chain case to reduce maintenance needs by keeping the chain fully protected and giving that much more of a barrier between your clothes and the chain  Just the fact that the Loring comes with a nice chain guard is a big bonus, though.  You can easily ride the Loring in regular street clothes, even a suit or a skirt, and not have to roll up a pant leg or do anything else of the sort.  That’s important in a classical city transportation bike.

Even better – the Loring is available in plenty of sizes, from Small to X-Large to fit most any size of rider.

All-in-all, the Loring is an outstanding city bike.  It’s full of small details that show a lot of thought and care was put into its design to help its intended use.  I’d never heard of Civia before reviewing the Loring, but they have created a gorgeous, practical example of central city transportation.  The Loring starts at $1095 for a three-speed model.  Many thanks again to Trinity Bicycles on South Main in the Near Southside for the chance to review the Loring – they’re selling them now, and have at least one on hand in the shop.

What’s more, my friend Dottie up in Chicago, one of the pair of ladies who runs the fantastic Let’s Go Ride a Bike blog, has coincidentally put up her very own review of the Loring today.  Go check it out, too!

Now, the photo gallery.  Click on a thumbnail to embiggen:

Thanks to the Near Southside’s Trinity Bicycles, we recently took out for review Kona’s new longtail utility bike, the Ute.  The Ute features an extended back fitted with a wood cargo deck and space to attach some truly massive cargo bags.  So, how does the Ute fair in city usage?  Read on.

It’s fair to say that the Ute attracts attention.  Every time we rode it, it tended to draw at least a few passers-by to ask questions or simply to take a closer look.  The Ute has a pretty striking presence – not that of some carbon-fiber spandex racer, but more of an appreciation of clean, straightforward utility.  One gets an appreciation of its sturdy elegance immediately.

To ride, the Ute doesn’t feel radically different from your average city bike.  It’s a bit less nimble, for obvious reasons, but it didn’t take much riding to adjust to its characteristics.  The frame is aluminum.  The riding position is fairly relaxed, not as upright as we like our city bikes to be but hardly uncomfortable.  Disc brakes help haul heavy loads to a stop with a minimum of drama.

It’s not a speed demon, but if you’re of that mindset, you probably aren’t carrying cargo on your bike to begin with.  For those who do, the appeal of the Ute is immense:  this bike will carry an incredible amount of stuff.  The cavernous waterproof bags will accommodate almost anything you can throw at them – the Ute laughs at multiple full-size grocery bags.  Using it in a trip to First Friday on the Green, it carried two full folding chairs (lashed to the wooden deck), a bag full of camera equipment, and every other assorted odd & end we could think of to take.  It is really easy to get hooked on having that much cargo space for handling around-the-neighborhood duties.  Anything too large to go in the bags can be easily strapped to the rear deck.

Kona’s obviously put some thought into the practical applications of the Ute.  A Euro-style double kickstand keeps the bike level and stable during cargo loading and unloading.  Mount points for the bags do double duty as convenient tie-down holes for the deck.  The front & rear gearing enables easy riding at most any speed, even with a load of cargo, and the Shimano shifters work nicely.

What’s perhaps even more impressive is that Kona’s crammed all this functionality and down-to-Earth coolness into a remarkably affordable package:  the Ute retails for around $900.  While other longtails like Surly’s legendary Big Dummy can haul more/heavier loads, they’re also significantly more expensive.

The price point is likely the source of some of our downsides with the Ute.  To be a real, practical city bike, we’d like to see a full lighting system from the factory (as seen in the photos, we attached battery-powered lights for our test).  The Ute uses a derailleur, while we prefer internally geared hubs for city bikes (the pleasure and simple operation of Breezer’s internally geared city bikes and experiences with European city bikes spoils us, we admit).  We would also really like to see some form of chain guard, to make riding the Ute more practical in normal clothing for men or women (never having to roll up your pants leg or worrying about getting a skirt caught are wonderful things).  In addition, the Ute is available only in 18″ and 20″ frame sizes – people shorter than, say, 5′ 4″ or much taller than 6′ will definitely want to test-ride the Ute to make sure it’ll work for them.  Being over 6′ ourselves, we found the Ute a little small, but with some adjusting it wasn’t unpleasant.

Many of these negatives can be fixed by the shop (especially the lighting), so while it’s not perfect, we are impressed with the Ute’s price and practicality.  For urban dwellers looking for impressive longtail utility and a good ride at an attractive price, the Ute should definitely be on the short list.

Click the photos for a larger view.  Check out Kona’s web site, and to take a look at Kona bikes in person, the Near Southside’s Trinity Bicycles in South Main Village is your go-to.

Trinity Bicycles
207 South Main
(Ground floor, Sawyer Building)
M-F, 7:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Sat, 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Sun, 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM
817-484-6825
http://trinitybicycles.com