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Spot Brand Updates Street Bike Line, Anchored by New Lotus-Inspired Wazee

Written by Mike Albert
20 Comments
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SpotBrand_Wazee1

You could say the Spot Brand is getting back to their roots with their latest street bike, the Wazee.  The Wazee boasts retro styling based on the 1960s Lotus 38, is named after an iconic street in Spot’s hometown of  Denver, and is made of classic steel.  The Wazee will be sold with other Spot staples, such as a Shimano Alfine 11-speed internally geared hub, a Gates CenterTrack belt drive system, and Avid Elixir 1 disc brakes for lots of smooth, low maintenance miles.  The Wazee will be available in sizes 49, 52, 55, 57, and 60 as a complete bike for $2199 in late August.  Click through the break for updates to the other models in Spot’s street line…

spot-wazee-city-commuter-bike

Spot Brand Acme
Spot Brand Acme

The Acme and Ajax, Spot’s aluminum street bikes, both get tapered head tubes, full carbon forks, redesigned sliding dropouts, longer top tubes, cleaner cable routing, and a kickstand plate.

Spot_Bikes_ACME_04fork_900x600 Spot_Bikes_AJAX_06brake_900x600

The Dualie, Spot’s two-speed kickshift street bike shown below, now has 130mm spacing to allow for the use of conventional road wheels and an easy transition to single speed if the mood strikes.

Spot_Brand_Dualie
Spot Brand Dualie

 
Mike Albert
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David
David
11 years ago

Why BB7s? Why not hydraulic disc? You have a flat bar, why not take advantage of the ability to run mountain levers?

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JasonK
JasonK
11 years ago

David, the article text does say BB7, but those are Elixir 1s in the photo. If the delivered bikes actually have BB7s on them, though, I share your bafflement.

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Parker
Parker
11 years ago

I would take a set of BB7s over Elixir 1s all day long.

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Devin
Devin
11 years ago

Who owns Spot these days? It’s one of those brands that’s been sold so many times.

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Quinn
Quinn
11 years ago

on any urban bike there is No need for hydro, I use BB5s on my Salsa Vaya commuter and They are just fine, besides the bike is expensive enough, not need to jack up the price unnecessarily.

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jimmy
jimmy
11 years ago

I disagree with the notion that there’s no need for hydraulics on an urban bike. They’re not necessary, sure, but they’re superior. If nothing else, they self-adjust – a plus for a bike that gets frequent use and infrequent maintenance. I run the Shimano CX-75 discs on my commuter and while they’re great, I definitely miss that feature from the flat-bar commuter that I previously had.

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David
David
11 years ago

I agree that they aren’t required, and maybe even overkill. But I’ll take one finger braking and self-adjust all day long over pretty much anything else. If you are already spending 2200 on a commuter, which I agree is expensive, what’s another few bucks? It wouldn’t increase the price that much.

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nathan
nathan
11 years ago

the real question is whats up with the upside down riser bar?

There are these really cool things called negative rise stems and flat bars. They put your bars in the position without making you look like a tool……

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bbb
bbb
11 years ago

If you need more than one finger to operate BB7s you need to get someone else to adjust/reinstall them for you.

The whole pad wear compensation business involves nothing more than a click or two on each dial every few weeks or months depending on mileage.

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Miles Ahead
Miles Ahead
11 years ago

Styled after the Lotus 38? It’s painted Green and Yellow. Lots of effort there then.

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David
David
11 years ago

BBB- you got me… My experience with mechanical discs is limited to some tektro’s that I was not a fan of – compared to some XTs that are awesome.

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Gillis
Gillis
11 years ago

@nathan, you are free to put the handlebars any way you’d like. But it is a style that predates all that you mention. It’s part of the retro feel that they are apparently going with.

@Miles Ahead, agreed. The Lotus had a yellow nose that tapered to a racing stripe down the middle, including yellow exhaust pipes, with a reddish interior. This is none of that

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Tim
Tim
11 years ago

2200 bucks for a steel singlespeed? That’s some solid margin.

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PaulM
PaulM
11 years ago

“2200 bucks for a steel singlespeed”

that’ll be a singlespeed with an 11-speed Alfine hub and a Gates belt-drive…

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satisFACTORYrider
satisFACTORYrider
11 years ago

Need more design effort to pull the lotus out of it. Green and yellow plus utilitarian – johndeere

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Texast
Texast
11 years ago

pretty ho-hum if you ask me. Unless those are top shelf Reynolds steel frames, there is NO reason these bikes should cost so much.
Who is the target consumer for these bikes?
Must be trying to capitalize on a few swiss consumers vacationing in Colorado or Trustafarian design student who just got his first job in Portland.

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filibuster cash
filibuster cash
11 years ago

Or the entire city of Eugene. Good thing there aren’t iridescent wings on the fork crown.

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Mike C
Mike C
11 years ago

Do not mind hydraulic disks on the new Spot; do mind Elixir 1s on it. Anything Shimano, please… Anyone who says “low maintenance” and Elixir 1 in the same sentence hasn’t had to work on these in a shop…

Does the bike at least come with an Avid bleed kit…?

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Willis24
Willis24
11 years ago

Take that Wazee and fit it with Deore hydros since it has a Shimano Alfine hub afterall, then add a set of dirt drops and Clement MSO tires and you a good gravel base to compete with the new Surly and Raleigh. Otherwise it will fade into the background like most of Spot’s other urban turds.

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BV
BV
11 years ago

OK, so if this bike is overpriced, trust your judgement, where do I find a steel commuter, internally geared and belt driven for less? The BMC Urbanchallenge is aluminum and priced higher, two negatives for me. The Tout Metropolitan runs up to 5K, Shindelhauer 3K Al, Milk RDA a few hundred bucks more. Scot sub-10 is Al, 8-speed at 1,300. I afraid I might be the target consumer!

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