Over the last couple of years we’ve seen a number of motorized cycles masquerading as regular bikes, so it’s somewhat refreshing to see it go the other way. The Capuchin from new company Monkey Faction is a proper pedal bike with a look inspired by scooters. It claims to blend the smooth ride and durability of a mountain bike with the easy on & off comfort and cruising style of a classic scooter. The end result is a fat-tired, disc brake pit bike that you can cruise around town on or hop out onto a bit of light trail riding. The Capuchin is getting Kickstarted into production, so check out how you can be cruising on one later this year…
While Monkey Faction is an upstart company in Florida, its three founders are each veterans of the cycling industry, having traveled the path from working in local bike shops to bigger product companies before hanging out their own shingle. The guys had ended up working in companies focused on continued race bike evolution, while at heart they just wanted to tool around on bikes for fun. Without the need to focus on aerodynamics or trimming every single gram, they opened up their creativity to build a bike that is just a blast to cruise around on.
Monkey Faction is pretty sure that the Capuchin pit bike isn’t really for everyone. But if you looked at that first pic and immediately had the reaction “Cool!”, then the $380 early backer price is a small price to pay for putting that smile on your face.
Key features of the mountain bike/scooter hybrid are a light step-through welded aluminum frame that helps keep the weight down to right around 35lbs/15.9kg, and makes it easy to get on and off. A big 18″ long custom scooter-style seat, reminiscent of the long ago banana saddle, lets you move around on the bike. Then of course there are the small fat 20″ x 4″ wide tires that give the bike both the comfort of high volume tires, as well as the ability to choose fat slicks for cruising around town or the optional knobbies for hitting the beach or trails.
The bike gets spec’d with a RST coil-spring suspension fork that will smooth out some bumps, but don’t expect too much at this price range. It’ll really be the 70mm rims and 4″ tires doing the most to soften the ride. Drivetrain is a simple Shimano 7 speed setup with a 14-34T gearing range out back that should lend a wide enough range for cruising. Mechanical disc brakes front & back then bring you back to a stop.
The Capuchin will sell for $450 when it hits the market towards the end of this summer, in two frame sizes that fit a huge range of riders due to its foot-forward design. And Monkey Faction is so confident in the bike that they are offering a lifetime warranty form the first frame.
Until the end of this week though you can still get in on lower pricing through the Kickstarter. Crowdfunding ends early on Friday March 3, and it looks pretty likely that they are about to hit their funding target, so act fast if you want to get in on the deal. Delivery of the Capuchin is slated by at latest August 2017, so while it won’t be on your doorstep at the start of the summer, there still should be some time left to tool around this year.
