Getting some last bits together but my All City Nature Boy bike is ready! White bar tape and purple Crank Brothers will need to be haD.

As a rep for Quality Bicycle Products I rep many brands, one of them is Civia Cycles. A brand that is near to my aesthetic craving heart. Their tag line is “Beautiful Neighborhood Bikes.” As someone that has a Civia Cycles Loring decked out with wooden fenders, a wooden front front loader and beautiful spring Brooks saddle I love it. Recently I became very intrigued with a newer model in the line up.

Meet the Civia Cycles Twin City

Available in single speed ($595) or 7 speed ($850). Front v-brake, rear coaster, rack built into the frame, swept back bars, twin top tubes like an old mixte. I requested a demo for the Spoke Easy event last week, and my travels for the next couple weeks. It happens that this week I am in Charleston and it is the PERFECT bike for around town. Not only is it nice and up right but it fits right in to the local flair!

The bag in these photos is a Minnehaha Canvas Utility Bags. Super awesome bags!

As a representative for Quality Bicycle Products I was provided this bike at no charge to use for demo events with my bicycle dealers. Now what FTC?

As I’m touring all over Georgia and the Southeast the next week with Foundry Cycles (and Lazer) I wanted a quick intro of who or WHAT the brand is. In due time I’ll put this in my own words, but it is 10:30pm and I’m sitting in a hotel room exhausted!

For the past couple months I have been riding the 2011 Salsa Casseroll on the road, on side streets, commuting, off the beaten path and really it has been the bike strapped to the roof of my car while traveling all over NC, SC and TN. I will be sad when I have to send this bike back as it truly is the Cadillac of road bikes (minus the drivetrain.) You can read the preview over yonder before you dive into my full review.

What is so different about the Salsa Casseroll?

Normally bike shops have these Casseroll’s grouped with their road bikes. To me, that is a huge mistake. These bikes take the road very well but the tall head tube, mount for rear rack, beautiful front rack and ability to rock fatty 700×38 with fenders this bike is more than a road bike. This bike is a go to commuter, light touring and really to do everything beside the hard single track riding.

This bike would fit in well next to your Trek Madone for when you want to be more up right, haul some panniers or maybe take the slower path next to your kids and want a more stable riding geometry.

The bike is ready for multiple riding positions

Earlier this week I witnessed the most beautiful Casseroll build to date with swept back urban bars and paul brake levers with bar end shifters. The woman riding it was glamorous looking with a rear rack and panniers. The silver bits all over really accented the paint and made me feel giddy that this person really got it. The bike had some minor swaps from the stock build (handlebar, brake levers, bar end shifters) and she totally rocked it hard core. It made me want to run home, order up some parts and duplicate the build.

The Build of the Bike

The bike has some Shimano bits, shifters are STI Tiagra 3×9. Brakes are Tektro. Cranks are Sugino.

For the person riding 20-30 miles maybe twice a week or the girl commuting through crappy weather these parts will be perfect. If riding in rain or anything other than dry weather I may suggest to put on mini v-brakes for better modulation and stopping power.

The build won’t break the bike, and gives you the ability to upgrade parts as you would like.

With the Pro’s there are always Cons

The bike is relatively heavy, it isn’t a super light weight steel tubing. If you are carrying it up and down steps it won’t break your back, but it will surprise you next to that Madone.

The geometry is for light touring comfortable riding. You won’t get a snappy feel out of it, especially with the Sugino triple crank and bb. It will excel and the fat tires float over rough terrain, but will feel slow next to your 700×23 tires.

I wish they had run a compact crank up front and mountain bike gearing in the back. Truth be told I hate triples and as it is a 9 speed in the back they could have kept it at the same price.

Final Thoughts

If this was my personal bike I would totally rock a Salsa Casseroll but with a custom build. Ordering a frame and fork, zip tying a little basket to the front rack, running new 10-speed 105 5700 group in silver. The external bottom bracket will stiffen up the cranks a bit. If I was looking to haul I would run 10 speed mountain gearing in the back, and keeping a compact in the front.

To me the Casseroll is for someone that understands fatter road tires, ability to run geared or single speed, racks, fenders and all that good stuff. It is for someone that has the eye for a custom bike but can’t drop the cash yet.

It’s a good bike and at $1200 you really can’t beat up on the parts for the extras you get.

This bike was provided at no-charge for review. Yes, I am a QBP rep but also have strong opinions that hopefully were shared during this review. I wasn’t bribed or threatened on this review. Amen.

While at the Surly Intergalactic Headquarters of QBP I was able to demo a few bikes for commuting purposes from my abode to the headquarters. While there was also a Civia I haven’t put up yet, there is a Surly Troll that also busted a friends hip on the black ice across the Minneapolis pavement.

The Troll was an interesting vehicle and rather fun to ride. Take the proven 1×1 platform, edit a few things, add a crap ton of braze on mounts for fenders, racks, and various other things. Add mounts for a killer Surly trailer, and have sliding drops like I’ve never had before. The Troll also has a bigger brother, the Ogre, which is the 29er based completely on the Karate Monkey. Once the Ogre is available in another color other than army green I plan on replacing my beloved Karate Monkey frameset with the new Ogre. It won’t be breaking any weight barriers, well maybe with being heavy, but it is tough, stout and can take abuse from the best of them. Oh yeh, it’s steel – that’s a winner too!

Getting lost on a road with two full water bottles and the knowledge of a well packed bag sitting behind you is bliss. 

Details from Salsa Cycles

The Casseroll is our relaxed road bike, perfect for long road rides, credit card touring, and randonneuring events.

Intended Use: Randoneur, Commuting, Century Rides, Credit Card Touring
Key Specs: Steel frameset, Shimano Tiagra 9 Speed, Tektro cantilevers, Salsa Delgado Cross rims, painted to match Salsa front rack

Overview from my Eyes

To say the least, I was elated when the words came through this past September that Salsa would be sending an updated Salsa Casseroll for review.

For the past three years I’ve been commuting, morphing and loving my original Salsa Casseroll purchased as an all around steel bike. (Purchased with my hard earned cash, not given to review.) There were things I wish were different, like the strange semi-compact geometry which was fun to ride as a road bike but not as upright as I would like for long distance or commuting. Or that the long pull brakes didn’t allow me to run fat 38c tires with fenders.

As I have been beating around, commuting, tooling around Charlotte, taking along the back roads, finding hard packed gravel roads and learning what this bike yearns for – I am pleasantly surprised. Never did I think there would be so much change between the two bikes. The characteristics are still the same, but the handling, geometry and capabilities have grown. Personally, I added a rear rack to compliment and allow for panniers or a rear trunk bag. The front rack that comes stock is beautiful, but I’m still left wondering what type of bag to put on it. Normally I am left strapping a stuff sack with a bungee cord.

A full review is coming along well, I need to somehow do a quick over night tour on it before I can tell you how it does for “credit card touring.”

This bike was provided to me for no charge from Salsa Cycles. I’m reviewing this completely unbiased and my relationship with Salsa Cycles as a rep will not taint any views or opinions I have of the bike or how I share them with you. Swear.

For the past month I have been cruising around on the 2012 Raleigh RX 1.0 Women’s cyclocross bike. A good amount of people emailed and tweeted about the bike, so there must be an interest in women’s cyclocross! You can read the preview over yonder.

Spec’s of the Raleigh RX 1.0 You Should Know

Weight for the 56cm is 21.5 lbs
The drivetrain is mostly SRAM Apex, other than TRP brakes and FSA BB30 cranks
MSRP is $1,650
The colors are stunning and I really enjoyed the sea foam green 

Overall Feelings

The bike for the price point is solid. I’m sure you’ll be able to find it a bit cheaper out there, as it is MSRP advertised and most shops run lower than MSRP in store. The setup is proven, the brakes stopped, the tires hooked up beautiful and are some of the best tires I’ve seen on a stock cross bike under $2k.

Recommendations

After my first real ride I swapped the seat. You should know my love of Fizik Vesta saddles and that is what was put on the seatpost. I didn’t change out anything else, not the handlebars, stem, seatpost or tires. This bike (other than saddle which is personal preference) is out of the box ready to race and be ridden hard. My only other recommendation is to take some very fine grit sand paper to the braking surface of the rims. Painted rims aren’t my favorite and after a couple tacky races the paint started wearing off the braking strip and the brakes worked much better.

If you are a first time cyclocross racer, or using this bike for commuting/general purpose riding, leave the sissy brakes on the handlebars. They come in handy and I really enjoyed them there even though I have made fun of them in the past.

Fit of a Women’s Cyclocross Bike

Raleigh women’s line fits me. It always has. Out of the box I can take their 56cm and set the seat height and be done. I don’t need to change the stem length or angle. With that, I am biased on the fit of this bike. Normally for a cyclocross bike to fit me I either have to ride a size bigger with a shorter stem in order to have the head tube height I need, or I run a size that “fits me” and end up with lower back pain on long rides.

Final Thoughts

This is a great option in the women’s cyclocross bike market. The colors are very neutral and appealing to many different types of women. I hope shops stock them and once cyclocross season is over they sell them with a commuter tire. With rack and fender eyelets this is a great year around bike. The spec of the bike is solid, the wheels are stout and it should take any road or cyclocross course you throw at it. At 21.5 lbs some women may complain they need a lighter bike, but this is a price point cyclocross bike. Either a great 2nd pit bike, or a 1st bike to try the sport, or to try commuting and general purpose riding.

Go check out Raleigh and all they are doing for cyclocross in the US.

Disclaimer: Raleigh USA provided this bike for review, I wasn’t paid or bribed. 

Since posting the first photos back in July the 2012 Trek Lush has been a buzz around Bike Shop Girl. The Twitter stream gets many comments, Facebook gets many questions and my email has its own little folder of women waiting to hear more on first test rides and availability. As I mentioned a few weeks back I was fortunate enough to be loaned a 2012 Trek Lush Carbon for review and demo purposes from the East Coast Women’s Trek Demo rep.

Initial Impressions of the Trek Lush

It took a full ride to get used to riding a 26″ full suspension bike again. Lucky for me the Trek Lush is very forgiving and climbs well even when wrenching out of the seat like a single speed freak.

The bike is responsive, with the DRCV rear shock and full floater design on the backend the bike rides very well uphill. The 26″ wheels allows you to whip around the turns and cut short angles as needed. Going down hill is the most fun you can have on a non-all mountain bike. The 120mm of travel (just shy of 5″) is more than enough for cross country riders, while the DRCV rear shock and sturdy fron Fox Shox is confident inspiring to push you a bit harder and faster.

Comparing the Trek Lush to EX Series

I’ve been riding an 2009 Trek EX-8 since it came out. It has treated me well and after riding the Lush it inspired me to pull it out of the attic where it has been sitting, hibernating, since the spring. Riding the two I need to say the suspension works pretty much the same for me. The biggest difference is my EX-8 doesn’t have the DRCV rear shock, and I would love to have the 15-mm thru axle on the front fork as it really stiffens up the front end in the corners.

The other thing you will notice is the geometry and of course weight. The Lush fits women better, has a better stand over and everything I have read on test rides, the Lush reacts better to lighter weight women with the suspension setup. I’m 160lbs, so I don’t need to worry about the lighter weight suspension setup!

Overall Impression

Since the Trek Lush Carbon was a loaned bike from a traveling rep I didn’t have the bike as long as I normally do. I didn’t make as many long 5 hour rides in the mountains as planned due to weather but I did ride the bike a good amount.

The Trek Lush, is a great riding women’s designed full-suspension mountain bike. It is straddling the line of cross country machine and light all mountain. I believe having a completely redesigned bike like this will push the targeted market. Hopefully get more women to try new things and go confident as this bike does inspire confidence.

The handling of the bike tracks very well, allows you to make some errors that other bikes would make you regret. That has always been the way of the Trek “full-floater” suspension design.

 The Trek Lush in the carbon model will be a stretch for some women. I am sure Trek didn’t stock as many of this model, but I do believe there is opportunity to sell a sub $5k mountain bike and the person interested in it will want the spec that Trek put on the bike. A good drive train, carbon bars, light components and stout yet reasonably weight wheels.

It was a very, very, fun bike to ride. Personally I don’t think I would go for the carbon mostly for the cost. If you are a woman in the mountain bike market, the Trek Lush series starts at $2,199 which is rather reasonable for the bike build. If you can find a local demo and take one for a spin.

Things I Would Change

There were two main points on the bike that I highly disliked.

The grips – some folks like those foam basic grips. I am not one of them. The whole time I was missing my Ergon‘s!

The crank – I wanted a compact double on this bike. It would make the shifting and chain slap a ton better, plus I don’t see myself climbing on a 120mm bike in the granny gear or jamming in the big chainring/small cog very often.

Disclaimer: Trek Bikes provided this bike free for review, I wasn’t paid or bribed. 

A beautiful brown box with a huge Raleigh logo on the side showed up this past week for review. Inside, a 2012 Raleigh RX 1.0 women’s cyclocross bike in for review. I previewed the line back in August and received a good amount of tweets and comments about the line. At $1,650 this bike could be a break through road/cross/commuter/do all women’s bike. Allowing more options and ways to get women on one well spec’d bike. I have high hopes, and the bike will be abused to see if they meet the hopes.

Here for photos? Scroll all the way down.

Out of the Box Raleigh RX 1.0

Very first thing I noticed is the coloring of the bike, very white with mint green ascent color.

Next thing was the drive train and sissy brakes. Yes, I call those brakes on the handlebar sissy brakes but I do like them! SRAM Apex shifters front derailleur, Rival rear derailleur, Tektro RL721, FSA Gossamer Pro Cross BB30 Cranks and sprinkled with Avenir components. Finally, rolling on Weinmann rims with Formula hubs and Vittoria CX Cross XG Pro tires.

Features of the 2012 Raleigh RX 1.0 Women’s Cyclocross Bike

A few key details I am really digging on the bike so far.

Rear rack bosses. Allows the bike to be used for more than cross. Commuter, grocery getter, campus ride, road bike, baby puller, and well… do you get the idea?

Tektro brakes. These brakes set up well, and are rather inexpensive.

Shaped rear seat stays. It is hard to see in a flat photo, but the rear stays are flattened which in practice should smooth the rear end allowing the aluminum to give some. At the least it shouldn’t be as darn stiff vertically (to your butt/back.)

The rims are slightly deeper in depth. The jury and all of its testing is still not shown if deeper rims help get through mud and sand. Regardless, they are deeper on these wheels and show the labels off well. Also, makes the bike look faster.

 More words to come soon…

A first review will be ready in a couple weeks. Need to get this bike dirty first!

Disclaimer: Raleigh USA provided this bike for review, I wasn’t paid or bribed. 

For the past month the women behind Bike Shop Girl have been test riding the 2011 Specialized Myka Expert 29er. Getting our own first hand impressions of how Specialized does women’s 29ers. Along the way this has also allowed us to try out the Specialized 29er tires, Specialized Riva saddle and Rock Shox “Specialized Womens Tuned” fork.

The Fit of the Specialized Myka 29er

As a woman, I stand 5’10 with 33″ inseam. That is a crazy long inseam and if you have ever seen my bikes first hand I take what is women’s geometry to an extreme. Super high seat height, with the need of a decent stack height on my head tube or stem. When sizing “normal” mountain bikes I normally am sizing up inorder to get the right seat height and handlebar height, giving myself a shorter stem to achieve the reach I need.

Specialized did a few key things to the sizing of the bike to make it more women’s friendly.

• Relatively low stand over for a 29er. If you look at the pictures the top tube swoops down and the cross bar is there to reenforce. Several women at 5’6″ that tested out the bike could stand over the 19″ 29er.
• Shorter front end. This is something all companies are trying to achieve with 29″ wheels. The bigger wheels, and taller fork lift the front end up. Many companies are using integrated headsets, flat stems (compared to ones with an angle up) and flat handlebars. Specialized is no different, there is also less spacers on the fork than most other mountain bikes. Leaving this bike with a relatively low “stack height” or amount of space taken up by the headset/spacers/headtube.
•  Shorter reach. This is a given, a women’s designed bike is going to be shorter in the reach from saddle to handlebar.
• Bottom Bracket drop isn’t too extreme. When manufactures try to go smaller on their mountain bikes, they often have to drop down the bottom bracket. Leaving you to pedal in to rocks and bang your feet along the trail.

Riding the Specialized Myka Expert 29er

It took 6 rides to get used to the fit of this bike. It wasn’t the bikes fault, I have been forced to make 29ers fit me over the past 8 years. This means my setup as I have been running it, has been a bit backwards. Once I rode the bike for a few times and put a slightly longer stem on the bike, the handling became natural and quick. One of the first 29ers I felt that I could flick around corners. Normally the bigger wheels leave me taking turns wider, but the Myka 29er rides like a 26″ for handling. (This is a good thing ladies!)

The front end came with a Rock Shox Tora 80mm coil sprung fork. The fork is “tuned for women” and what I found was it was more sensitive and seemed to have a lighter spring than what would normally come on a 19″ mountain bike. This is completely based on your personal weight and riding style. Sitting at 160 pounds  it rode well and the coil fork is very easy to maintain. This may change depending how much weight you have on the front end, and where you are riding.

More Saddle Time