One of the barriers to more cycling in America seems simple: More than 100 years after bikes ruled our nation’s roads, we still don’t have access to a bike with the right mix of features, design, quality, pricing and availability that could spur a real revolution. For years Americans have had to choose between bikes from bike shops (more expensive, higher quality, harder to find) or bikes from big box retailers like Target or WalMart (cheaper, terrible quality, available everywhere).
Ikea’s “Sladda” — which just became available to U.S. customers — could bridge that gap.
Along with the bike, Ikea also offers rear and front racks, a helmet, a pannier, and a U-lock. The bike retails for $499 (my wife got an email which led to a “Family Member Price” of $399) which makes it extremely competitive with what major bike brands offer — especially when you consider that it comes stock with fenders, front and rear lights, a belt-drive, disc-brakes up front (a coaster brake in the rear) and an automatic internal 2-speed rear hub. The bike comes with either 26 or 28-inch wheels and weighs 33-pounds thanks to an aluminum frame.
Ikea also offers a bicycle trailer that’s made to fit the Sladda. For just $169 the trailer (which is not made for carrying children) comes with 24-inch wheels and converts to a hand-cart if necessary. Another plus for cargo haulers is the optional $35 front rack/basket that slides into place via two bolts on the head tube. Notable from a marketing perspective is that Ikea puts the bike in its “family products” category.
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In a video about the bike on Ikea’s website a narrator says it was born from the company’s desire to meet the transportation challenge facing many growing cities and to create “a better everyday life to and from work”. The designer of the bike said his goal was to build a bike with as many functions as possible and utilize, “Solutions that had been accomplished by bikers before us.” (Some of the Sladda’s features remind me of bikes entered into the Oregon Manifest Design Challenge.)
Thankfully the Sladda is much nicer than the bike Ikea gave to 12,400 U.S. employees as a thank-you gift back in 2010.
And of course since this is an Ikea product, buyers are expected to put it together themselves. Thankfully the bike ships nearly completely assembled. Buyers will have to attach the front wheel and fender, handlebars, pedals, seatpost and kickstand. I imagine if someone has put together an Ikea shelf they will probably be able to put together this bike. And that’s a big deal for everyone who doesn’t have a good bike shop nearby and/or who wouldn’t feel comfortable going into one if they did.
Ikea has clearly done their homework and seems to have hit all the right notes. When you combine the bike’s features, price and design with the vast reach of Ikea (39 stores nationwide and a first-rate e-commerce site) and their trusted brand name, the Sladda could introduce cycling to millions of people and provide them with a viable and useful tool for urban life.
What do you think? Would you give this bike a try or recommend it to your friends and family?
UPDATE, 5/26/18: IKEA has issued a recall on this bike. See the official statement from the Consumer Products Safety Commission.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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I prefer my local shop.
Almost all the major brands offer similar town style bikes (Specialized Roll, etc) at equivalent or just slightly higher prices.
With that you get local service.
I have no idea who would get an IKEA bike…..
hi dwk,
you assume everyone has access to “local service”. did you know there’s only one bike shop east of I-205?
So where are you taking your IKEA when it won’t shift?
Do you have to walk the mile maze to return it.
Well I’m not talking about my personal choice or experience.
But since you asked. Someone could take this bike to any shop. It also comes with features that should make it very low maintenance. Also worth noting that Ikea has a very very good return policy.
You can do the same with a Walmart bike. What is the difference?
a bike from walmart: will be extremely hard to service and repair due to poor quality, will be extremely annoying to ride due to poor quality, will be extremely hard to return due to whims of Walmart employees, will be nowhere near the quality of design and engineering of a product from ikea. huge difference IMO.
I know a ton of local people in the bicycle business. I don’t know anyone making a lot of money.
I could care less about IKEA….
I know lots of people in the local bike business too. My thoughts about this bike have nothing to do with them. I think the bike business hasn’t been well served by always seeing the market as a tiny pie with slices everyone must fight over. Maybe that’s one reason biking has struggled to take off in the U.S.?
IMO it’s possible to love the idea of this bike (I say idea because I haven’t tested it out in person) AND to want local bike shops to thrive.
Really, because the amount of time you spent talking about their bike implies otherwise..
This could be great for local shops. I don’t think it’s going to take away sales from them, because I’d guess people buying these aren’t choosing Ikea over the local shop’s bikes, they’re choosing it over not getting a new bike, or maybe getting a Walmart bike.
But once people get one, some percentage of them will want better bikes, and will end up at the local shops to upgrade. So Ikea is expanding the customer base for local shops. At least that’s my theory.
Also, going into a bike shop can be intimidating. Even looking at a place like REI can be intimidating. “What if they ask me how many gears I want? Will they make fun of me if I say I’m only interested in the cheapest ones?How am I ever going to choose a light out of what looks like 50 choices? They’ll laugh because I’m so out of shape”.
This eliminates the need to go to a bike shop in order to get a bike. You don’t even have to talk to anyone.
If one is intimidated by going into an REI or a bike shop…then it’s best to probably just stay inside.
Fortunately, REI and most bike shops don’t take that attitude. They know it can be intimidating for people to come in and shop for a bike costing hundreds to thousands of dollars, and take great efforts to make it more comfortable for people. The Ikea bike takes that to a level REI or the bike shops can’t match–you can’t get any simpler than offering one single model, sold in the same store you’ve already been shopping at for years.
you seem to know a lot about the high quality of the ikea bike yet you didn’t cover any of it’s quality aspects in the article…
where’s it made?
who makes the crank, belt, tires, and brakes?
are the bearings sealed? standard sized?
A fair amount is known. Conti Belt Drive, Sram Automatix hub, Tektro brake. Not high end stuff, but decent for this price point. The tires look like they may even be Schwalbe Marathons, though I’d expect a cheaper substitute.
No one is going to put much mileage on one of these things or going fast, so no point in engineering it for long distances in slop or tricking it out for performance.
Interesting alternative, and who can argue with a wider audience of bicycling supporters? You gotta love commenters who choose no reply option, and who say going into a bike shop is intimidating. How do they deal with buying a fridge, a dishwasher, a big screen TV, nevermind a car or a house, for heaven’s sake, both FAR more complicated, expensive, and intimidating processes, which nonetheless virtually all American adults seem to manage not once, but over and over again without having mental breakdowns (well maybe not the house purchasing!). Don’t feel you know enough about bicycles to enter a shop? There’s this cool new thing called the Internet where you can look up and learn just about anything about everything. Maybe worth a look? In your pajamas, you can even see what people who rode the Ikea bike actually thought about it.
Sounds like you’re referring to me, since I don’t remember anyone else mentioning going into a bike shop as being intimidating, and who (in your thinking) chose “no reply option”.
The “no reply option” thing is simple. It sounds like you think I turned off the reply button so I wouldn’t have to read or respond to replies. I didn’t “choose” it. After a few replies to replies, the “reply” button disappears.
And it’s just a fact that going into a bike shop can be intimidating,and 15 “recommends” show that others seem to agree. I’d guess any bike store that sells to the general public would also agree that it can be intimidating to some people, and many shops would say they do things specifically to help people overcome that feeling. I also bet most people here know shops they’d recommend to non-biking friends, and others (still great shops) they’d think a non- or casual biker might not be as comfortable with.
You listed many other purchases that can be more intimidating, and I agree, they’re MORE intimidating. That doesn’t mean less intimidating things are not intimidating. And by “intimidating” I didn’t mean to the point that it causes the mental breakdowns you mentioned.
Plus, many people would say things you mentioned–buying appliances, and especially cars and houses–are among the more intimidating, unpleasant things they have to do as consumers.
Retail and service businesses spend huge amounts of resources helping people feel more comfortable about buying or doing things–fitness, choosing wine or a phone…Buying a bike combines several things that can make people feel uncomfortable–fairly expensive products, lots of choices, some need to acknowledge your fitness level, and technology and terminology. Of course a decent shop can allay those fears, but not until the person enters the shop.
And of course you can use the internet, and one of the reasons many people like the internet is that it allows you to browse products and do research without going into a shop and talking to a salesperson.
wow, apparently i’ve failed at adulthood. i haven’t bought a fridge, a dishwasher, a big screen TV, or a car!
worth noting though, since you seem to know about the internet, all of these things can be purchased without intimidation or much complication on the internet. bike service and repair still takes place in shops, which very much can be intimidating.
inwe–good point about the service. I think a reason people become so loyal to their preferred shop is that the relationship often starts with taking a bike in for service, which requires some faith and trust, and having things go well. From then on, you’re relieved to have someone on your side you can trust for maintenance or any problems that come up, and advice.
When Ikea sells a bike, it’s like it’s also selling an introduction for its buyer to a local shop, since that’s where they’ll end up for service.
Outer Rim and Mall 205 Performance come to mind
Also Rosewood Bikes.
Yes for Portland, but Gresham has at least one bike shop.
There are at least two. You have one job, Jon. Do it.
yeah I forgot Performance in Mall 205 — but I hear it won’t be there long. My point is east of 82nd is basically a bike shop desert.
I’d give serious consideration to that trailer, if I thought it could be attached to my existing bike. It looks far better suited to my needs than the fabric-over-frame one that I have. Cuter, too.
That’s the if that has me wondering!
The IKEA website says that it fits most bikes. I might seriously have to go have a look at it!
I’m in!
Looks like a decent bike. I like the frame-affixed front rack and rear rack. Anything that makes bicycles more accessible to everyone is a good thing!
IF the bikes are competently assembled and if buyers of IKEA’s bikes are willing to pay real bike shops real labor $ to correct factory errors and replace defective or missing parts–all things that are done by those shops when they sell their regular bike brands. Some dealer-level bikes can be 30 minute assemblies straight out of the box. Many, maybe even most, are not. Many highly esteemed dealer-quality bikes are the result of dealers who serve as last-stage engineering and quality control facilities for their bike suppliers. I wouldn’t think of an IKEA bike as any better than one from Freddy’s or Walmart.
To my thinking, all those things are good points to consider…what is the bike using for headset, crankset, hubset bearings, and will those things, plus shift and brake cables have proper adjustment upon delivery? It can be a pain to have to take a new bike to a shop where it wasn’t purchased, to have the mechanics there fix things someone else didn’t properly do.
How does this bike perform on the street? Probably not a lightweight, 30 pounds or less, but perhaps there’s a good chance it’s lighter than biketown’s bike share bikes…close to 60 pounds for them has been suggested. For mainly riding around the neighborhood, a 30 pound bike should work well enough.
Sladda is a nice enough looking bike. Never ridden a bike with belt drive. Less dirt and crime and moving parts to wear out is the big appeal there.
The disc brake could be nice…also something I’ve got no first hand knowledge of. Not sure how a disc on the front works out on the street. When I ride, my primary brake is the rear, followed by and used in conjunction with the front. The disc on the rear, where for me the heaviest braking action happens, is where it seems to me the disc would be better…but maybe that’s not right. I haven’t used a coaster brake since the one on my old cantilever frame Schwinn…never liked the braking action of the coaster brakes used on it.
Would you take an ikea shelf to a carpenter to compensate for its shoddy construction?
I think it looks great! The built-in lights are the biggest selling point in my opinion, with the racks and panniers close behind. I don’t know why more bikes don’t come with those. Talk about barriers to using a bike for anything practical.
you mean the cheap clipped-on light… which I think might be included since they mention batteries, but it’s hard to tell since they mention it along with the lock that’s not included…
I’ve browsed the comments so far to see if anyone knows…but I’m wondering how good, and how bright those lights are. What I can suggest as a basis for comparison is limited, but I use the 2 watt cygolite hotshot, and same brand 400 lumen headlight. The illumination those two lights have, by no means makes for the brightest bike lights available on the market; they offer a moderate level of illumination… but I don’t think I’d want to try get by for less illumination, even just riding around town.
Ease of use and recharging, is a big priority for me too. I’ve heard people say they don’t mind switching out throwaway batteries, but lights with those type batteries rather than long life USB rechargeable batteries, are a major downside for me. With it being just a $400-$500 bike, it’s probably not realistic to figure $60-$80 of that cost to be put towards bike lights.
…ummm, LBS could do the work? That’s where the margins are for bike shops.
“Lights and locks help keep you and your bike safe”
but they don’t offer a light…
I don’t even see a front reflector…
they’re selling a bike to the general public that’s only legal during the day…
Look closer. There’s a front and rear light, as well as a rear reflector. They appear to be removable battery-powered.
yep, totally missed both of them… they should really list those clearly on the web site…
wait, they do include the light? it’s not mentioned but now I see it on the handlebars… they mention batteries…
they don’t mention what size rider this fits…
still seems too cheap to me… too many corners cut…
not enough information listed…
as far as I can tell this is just another walmart-style bike…
Price point is very good for what you get.
However, that 2 speed transmission and very upright position strikes me appropriate only for low speed flat commutes. It will be interesting to see how they sell.
just saw that it’s a coaster brake in the rear, which makes it a hassle for new riders trying to get the pedals into position to restart from a stop…
I like that they pay $11.87 an hour and are proud of it.
Seems like exactly the kind of business we should support in this neoliberal world….
hi again dwk,
in my view, not every statement made on the internet is an argument.
checked BikeGallery.com and even they have better bikes for $450-$500…
afraid this is just another big box bike to appeal to the masses…
maybe if it were $300 it’d be worth it… but not for $500… not even $400…
This is a good thing.
Worked for me with a Public.
I’m taken aback by all the negative comments. Isn’t the whole idea to introduce bike culture to new people in order to make cycling a mainstream mobility choice? Not all that of us started with something from the local bike shop. Almost everyone I knew years back started with a chain store bike. Mine was from Walmart. This will positively impact the lbs when people ar ready to graduate, need repairs or accessories. This is literally the kind of marketing machine needed to expand bike culture. I will recommend the lbs to anyone asking, but I will be ecstatic if this becomes a best seller.
Welcome to the BikePortland comments section. You can never please the purists here.
Hey! This is great. Seriously, if there’s just one option of a “Bike” at Ikea, people will buy it. And they will ride it. And all the bike geeks can still ride theirs.
The front rack attachment is really trick, too. Not sure how secure that keyhole attachment is, but I’m sure it’s on there. Integrated lights would be nice, too, but would drive the price up.
Can they build an indoor test track in that maze of a warehouse?
The smart local bike shop will be the one that offers Ikea bike mods/upgrades/trade ins. Getting a huge company selling bikes in their stores is a good thing.
What I like about this bike is that it’s designed with all the bells and whistles (no pun intended) for errands and short trips. Fenders: check. Front rack AND rear rack: check. Chain guard: check. Lights: check. Low top tube: check. Trailer: check.
In other words, not some bike industry dude’s idea of what a city bike should be. Finding a bicycle will all these standard features (or design-for options) is rare indeed. The closest I’ve found is my Public bike, which is one reason it’s my go-to daily ride.
It will be interesting how the general market (non-BP readers) react to this bike in Portland plus the rest of the nation.
The belt drive plus internal hub plus fenders plus adjustable stem plus limited warranties looks to be a good attempt at getting it right[er] than before…though I wish the reflectors / lighting had been handled better (perhaps LED magnetic wheel lights or a dutch style battery LED bullet headlamp with metal bracket vs. plastic handlebar LED lamp).The two speed hub will probably put off most buyers…vs a more useful 3 speed hub.
LBS may embrace the periodic repairs these bikes need from novice users if the parts hold up vs. banning them from the repair shop like some (cheapest) big box bikes are handled.
Just out of curiosity I went to the Dutch IKEA site to see if they spec’d the bike differently…its the same safety gear and similar 399 discount price (for now). The German Ikea…has the same bike too (even with the stricter lighting/ safety code…and 80 euro higher too!
It will be interesting if these bikes become the next generation of “barn finds” like all the 1970s/ 80s bikes that Portland devoured 10 years ago in its bikie commute binge.
Whatever happened to Ikea’s e-bike (2014 for ~650 euro)?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWs34jgUkqk
Now that could have been a game changers for novice cyclists…assuming it worked well.
It looks perfectly fine for flattish terrain. The price is not lower than you could find at Critical Cycles or Bikes Direct, but most people don’t know about those places.
My first bike was from Montgomery Wards. My second bike was from Sears. My third bike was from Walt’s bike shop in Columbia Missouri. My fourth bike was from (Northwest Bikes?) at 21st and Lovejoy. My fifth bike was a used mountain bike from Sellwood Bikes? I think. That’s been a few years. Then I bought a cargo bike from that one place in Eugene. Then I bought various bikes from Bike Central which used to be a thing.
I’m giving this sordid history to make the point that it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference where you buy your first bike.
Almost forgot, last year I bought a bike from City Bikes. Sort of a doggie-in-the-window thing. Must stay the ! away from bike shops.
Hmmm. I’ve owned a lot of IKEA housewares and the bottom line is always “not that good… and not that cheap, either.” They’ve rarely come up with anything that I’ve felt compelled to rave about.
My partner bought a very sensibly appointed urban-oriented model from Gladys Bikes for about $78 more. It has a wide-range cassette and a triple crankset, and there’s literally nothing on it that the average bike shop couldn’t tackle. It’s got fender and rack eyelets and I wouldn’t hesitate to borrow it if I needed it to commute or run an errand.
Meanwhile, IKEA’s non-assembled offering has a belt drive and what sounds like an oddball no-name automatic hub… good luck finding parts for that if something fails. And just two speeds? Come on, we’re not Amsterdam, we have hills, bridges and volcanos to deal with. Are we sure this is much more utilitarian than the average beach cruiser or comfort bike?
Finally, let’s talk about resale value. IKEA’s known for making “disposable” stuff, even though some of it is quite sturdy. But it would be hard to see these things holding value. There’s no desirable brand name, no fashion appeal, and the utility is questionable. I can’t imagine these will fetch much on the secondary market.
So where’s the value? Seriously. IKEA’s big enough that the occasional misstep doesn’t hurt, and I guess that’s okay because this design seems half-baked at best.
Thaddius Nugent writes:
“Meanwhile, IKEA’s non-assembled offering has a belt drive and what sounds like an oddball no-name automatic hub… good luck finding parts for that if something fails.”
Well SRAM is hardly no name. The bike uses a SRAM Automatix (https://www.sram.com/sram/urban/products/automatix).
The SRAM Automatix is a further development of a german producer (Sachs), who was bought by SRAM/Chicago. much of the in germany prouced hubs was revised by SRAM(planned obsolescence).
i have assembled one of the ikea bike a few days before.
The IKEA assembly guide for me is a liitle to Inconvenient. Every part the assembler who threw in the garbage is pictured. The quality of the bike is not bad. A few parts of it i would change, like the stem. The frame, the brakes, the wheels was a good quality.
The bike should be simple and longlife. Gor this Idea its o.k.
sorry for my shitty english, i am german.
That rear hub sounds like a mess. . .that’s going to make work for some Local Wheel Builders when it craps out. Probably you could get some sweet wheel to replace it. What’s the failure mode? Slipping? Random shifting? Or just, fixie?
I like the front basket fixed to the frame instead of the fork. (Assuming the mounts are sturdy enough). Bet local frame builders are slapping themselves on the forehead right now.
Hub brakes are a good fit for Portland. If the front disk brake isn’t up to it that’s an easy upgrade. By the time it plays out the rider will be ready for a serious brake, hopefully.
–still waiting to hear about the mass market edition of the Bike Share bike.
Surely neither you nor your partner needs 27 gears to get around PDX. And unless you are rigorous with weekly chain and cassette cleaning you’ll soon be stuck in a very few gears anyway….just like the majority of participants in the Bridge Pedal.
JM mentioned the first great bicycle splurge…all were fixed gear with poor or ineffective brakes…none of which reduced their appeal.
Cheap 27 speed bikes…even not cheap 27 speed bikes…are the bane of urban cycling. 120 years ago folks would just hop on their fixies and go for it. You ought to try it!
One speed is enough.
I’m not sure who that reply was for? But I like the fixie I have just fine thanks! A two-speed bike would be OK but I prefer to do my own shifting. A black box hub backed by the Ikea service department? Nope.
How do you know that someone rides a fixie? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you. 😛
That’s really not a fair statement.
It’s pretty great, because by saying “I could care less about IKEA” he is actually saying “I care a lot about IKEA”.
Words are important, people.
Help me understand your comment.
Above I count 4 posts where Dwk appeared to express a negative preference for “budget” bikes (I don’t know what specifically people call bikes targeting that price point), from whatever their source.
I agree that words are important.
I think the idea is that the grammatically correct phrase is “I COULDN’T care less”, so if you say “I COULD care less” you’re saying that you care more than a minimum amount. Never mind that everyone knows there ain’t no difference between them.
it appears I have been moderated out of here.
Yes dwk, I’ve put you on our list for automatic moderation because you have been mean to others repeatedly. If you start being nice I’d be happy to take you off that list.
If I needed a new trailer… the hacked Burley I’ve got can’t last forever, can it?
I think it’s okay. I don’t like the lighting but whatever. This will be many people’s first bike and it’ll get them going.
I initially didn’t like the frame shape but I don’t know how else it could be to be unisex and simple. Two speeds is enough for some places. Back kick two-speed gear hubs have been around over a century and some are still working. It’ll be okay. This won’t be the bike for everyone but for some it will work out fine.
My guess is that they knew what they were doing with the hub — and BTW, before kvetching about how unreliable or troublesome things are going to be, it’s not a bad idea to find some info first.
If you look at pics of the bikes and check a few articles, you’ll see the hub is a SRAM Automatix. It has been consistently well-reviewed and it has proven reliable. It changes gears in response to speed rather than some action that you take such as backpedaling or actuating a cable.
Ikea is obviously chasing a casual market for whom price, reliability, and basic utility are key. Eliminating the cables and parts needed for shifting and the rear brake are a good way to meet this objective. People who buy bikes like this are not going to be into speed or hills.
It’s also not difficult to service, though it’s cheap enough that if there’s a problem you might want to just replace the hub.
I put a Sram Automatix on a around town bike that I built. Also had a friend that is a bike builder put an Automatix on a knock-around bike that he built. Not high performance but very practical for stop sign to stop sign riding and around town use. Has been reliable over years of use, and the combo of coaster in back and disk in front is legitimate. Hopefully these bikes will act like an entry level drug and get more people in to practical cycling and then they can step up with a bike from a local shop or even one of Portland’s frame builders.
The design intrigues me. Paired with the Conti Belt Drive, this strikes me a good combination for building a minimalist getting around type of bike for those who aren’t into speed — you could skip everything. Normally, I’d build such a bike myself, but I already have 5, including a minimalist one intended for lower speed in town rides.
I put a SRAM Automatix on my folding bike about 3 years ago – with the coaster brake, so the exact same hub these bikes have. I chose it specifically so I could have more than one gear, but without shift or brake cables going to the back of the bike.
Practically every kids bike ever built has a coaster brake, so almost every non-regular bike user knows how to use them, and that makes it perfect for this bike’s intended audience.
And so is the 2-speed design, which is perfect for the people with “slow flat commutes” who will be most of this bike’s consumers. Like most internal hubs, the auto-shifting hub upshifts instantaneously and silently, at about 11-12mph. he only glitch I found in its normal day-to-day performance was that it would occasionally upshift if I hit a big bump while pedaling, even if my speed was below the shift point. Not a big deal in normal use.
More concerning, I had problems with mine and no longer use it. After a few trips down the West Hills – EVEN though I was being extremely careful to not to get into a “repack” situation by avoiding continuous use and overwhelmingly favoring the front brake – it started making braking poorly with terrible crunching sounds. I thought I was babying it but apparently not enough. I lived with that for quite a while, but then last year it abruptly decided to stay locked in high gear and refused to downshift, turning it into a single-speed with 4:3 overdrive.
I know this hub gets great reviews in general, but my copy of it was disappointing. Hopefully my experience was an anomaly, because this is the one part on the bike that your typical LBS doesn’t have the ability to service.
Looks nice.
It’d be fun to Max to Ikea, buy the bike, put it together, and ride it away! Right through that huge parking lot of cars.
If IKEA would add a Sladda Cargo bike, with the general design of a baekfiets, that would really be something. Cargo bikes are so costly. However, I suppose that the requirements for a useful baekfiets wouldn’t allow an IKEA-ish price.
I read an interview with an Ikea designer once who said the whole process starts by setting the price. Then the design team has to work within that constraint in regard to shapes, materials, everything. And I’m sure the prices aren’t arbitrary.
So if all that’s true, that’s interesting to me–that Ikea decided that they wanted to make a bike at this particular price, versus a better one for more, or a worse one for less. Then the final product also reveals what Ikea thought was important beyond the price–for instance, including a light and fenders, versus leaving those out and say, using more durable components, or providing more gears.
It’s all interesting to me because you can bet everything you see–right down to the color–was a conscious decision made by a company that’s been through this process a thousand times with other products. It’s like watching a movie, knowing that everything in a character’s living room and everything they’re wearing was decided on by a team of experts. It doesn’t mean the decisions are perfect (half the broke single writer characters in movies sit in $2K Eames office chairs because the set designers like them themselves) but it’s fun to analyze the end result.
Being a welder/builder by trade and having seen many of those $2k+ Eames chairs I can honestly say I’ve seen better craftsmanship on shelves of Ikea.
I’m no fan of Ikea by any means (I see them kind of like an international version of Walmart) , but it looks like a great bike, simple, little to no maintenance, well stocked and thought out (it even looks one can sit comfortably with your feet flat on the ground at a stop- BB height about 10 1/2″ which was common in prewar transportation bicycles) perfect for those that want to start riding a bicycle for commuting or errands without the hassle of needing to learn how to ride with clips, or worry about crossing gears, oiling a chain, and no hard sell from an “expert” who knows what you need more than you do (being a retro grouch, I’m very aware of this problem at many of the LBSs).
Personally, some bars which sweep back would be more comfortable than straight bars – but they cost more so I get it.
Toss in the 25-year warranty on the frame and 10-year warranty on the belt drive. I’m tempted.
And should anyone reading this decide to get one, get the 28″ wheels – if it’s anything like the old Raleigh Tourists – it’s like riding on a puffy cloud.
belt drive and respectable warranty? $400 Seems a reasonable entry. Curious about the internal automatic 2 speed drive. While I’m very much wanting the LBS to survive and thrive, I do imagine that this bike will induce demand for better bikes plus service in the long term. It will also push the typical brands to improve their commute-minded offerings.
Huh, I think the idea is good, the bike looks simple and clean, and accessories are priced right. I cannot, however, make a judgment regarding quality or reliability without even seeing one in person. I look forward to seeing and touching one!
I thought that the disc brakes and other features seemed like it could go electric with an add-on mid drive…