Linus takes inspiration from the 50’s and 60’s era of French cycling to produce city and urban bicycles that are affordable and fun. New for 2014 they are debuting their drop bar road bike dubbed the Libertine. It has a 16 speed drive train comprised of a Sora derailleur, downtube shifters, and a double chainring fitted to the crank. The pretty blue paint is covering a double butted cro-moly, tig welded frame. The fork is held on with a 1″ threaded headset, and the bike includes fender and rack mounts, plus painted to match fenders already installed. MSRP will be a very reasonable $939.
Join us past the jump for new Linus pannier on/off the bike bags, plus something new from Brooklyn Cruiser.
Present in the Linus booth was their accessories line. New for this year are two bags that look equally as good on and off the bike. The women’s version, the Elanore, and the men’s version, the Harrison, are both constructed from canvas and leather. They sport hardware that allows you to hook them to a rear rack. And, they have a D ring and supplied pad lock to secure them to said rack if you need to pop into the shop for just a moment.
In my visit to the Brooklyn Cruiser booth, I was shown two new models. Like the Linus bikes, these two are designed to be affordable, around town bicycles. Brooklyn is hitting a pretty aggressive price point however, and doing so with a quality parts build. Both the new Bedford (traditional diamond frame) and the Franklin (step through frame) are made from straight gauge cro-moly steel, not hi tensile steel. And, they come with nice features like a metal headtube badge, reflectors that are slotted into the pedal so they don’t pop off, painted fenders, a rack mount, and even a Shimano Acera rear derailleur rather than a Tourney mech.
Both are available in either a single speed version for a cool $399. Stepping up to the 7 speed derailleur version will cost you a scant $489. These rides weigh in at around 23 lbs. This is definitely a ride I would recommend to anyone looking for an entry level bike when they don’t have a lot of cash to drop. Heck, I am thinking about getting a Bedford myself for runs to the store, coffee shop, and even the bar.
