Back in January, Swobo added step-through versions of their existing Fillmore and Novak city bikes. They followed up with the launch of an all new youth line called Farrier. Now, they’ve more than doubled the adult line with four new models covering a range of terrains.
If you’re looking for a do-it-all road bike that’s ready for gravel rides, cyclocross races and backroad adventures, the Scofflaw is the ticket. It’s built on a Reynolds 531 steel frame with tapered carbon fork and room for 700x42c tires. It comes complete as a singlespeed bike, making use of the Tange sliding dropouts, but will include extra dropouts with a derailleur mount if you wanna add gears later.
That drivetrain versatility is built into some of the other bikes, too, and all are worth a look…
Top tube cable guides direct the transmission lines where they need to go when used.
Subtle logos on the bottom of the downtube keep all of the bikes’ appearances clean. This one will get some orange in the logos on production models, and a chameleon pearlescent orange/green frame color will also be available.
The frame and fork have mounts for fenders and racks. The Scofflaw will start shipping by January 2015, possibly as soon as early December, and will retail for $1,249. Pre-order now with a $50 deposit. Available in even sizes from 48 to 60. Framesets will also likely be available.
The Assailant is a steel fat bike with color-matched steel rigid fork. Like the Scofflaw, the idea is to make it available as a complete bike that’s affordable and spec’d with legit parts. It’s meant to ride great as a rigid bike, the geometry is not fully suspension corrected. That said, production versions will have a tapered steerer and tapered headtube, so you could add a Rockshox Bluto. Head angle is about 68 degrees, and adding the Bluto would make it about half a degree slacker.
It does, however, use the same Tange sliding dropouts with included sliders for adding a derailleur. Rear spacing is 170mm, so you can do standard gear cluster and derailleur, or add the new Rohloff internally geared fat bike hub (which is why Swobo went with 170mm spacing instead of 190mm). The front spacing is 135, but they’re using a Dice Parts Company hub that can swap axle end caps to fit a 150×15 thru axle (ahem, Bluto).
It’s not up on their website yet, this one was just a prototype. They should be getting their final production sample in a week or so and get photos done to upload. Actual production bikes will get a new segmented steel fork with tapered steerer tube! Retail should be around $1,399 but may change a bit. The goal is to have it available in early December.
The Mutineer is an odd bird. It’s a trail ready rigid hardtail singlespeed with 650B wheels that’s meant to rip short tracks and fast trails. It’s also suspension corrected, ready for a fork if you want it.
It’s a segmented steel fork feeding into a straight 1-1/8″ steerer tube. That might make it a bit of a challenge to find a suspension fork, but there are a few out there. The shaped downtube with oversized contact patch and gusset, plus the very tall bottom bracket, are giveaways as to the type of aggressive riding Swobo designed this for.
The boxy, oversized rear end should make it brutally stiff and efficient. They even threw in a three-piece BMX style crankset to further differentiate it. The complete bike with Swobo cockpit, Alex rims, Kenda 2.2 tires and Avid BB7 brakes drops in at $699. Also available in black.
The Accomplice isn’t brand new, but they wanted to show it off. It’s a 700x42c urban cruiser that comes ready to tame rough city streets for just $549. We reviewed it here and rather enjoyed it. Also available in black.
