Retro styling meets 21st century technology

Posted by Nathan on 18th Jul 2010

So yeah, I bought one. It's big. Short guys need not apply. Not because I'm a hater, but because the seat tube is 18.5"! What that means in layman's terms is that the distance from the center of the crank to the top of the tube is nearly 19" and that's a lonnng stretch for some legs, believe it or not. That's not the only thing about the bike that's big. It's HEAVY! Mostly that'd due to the NuVinci Hub, but the design of the bike has a wide, WIDE top tube, and even though it's aluminum, it's HEAVY. (Did I mention it's heavy? It is. Heavy.) The bike certainly has lots in common with the namesake brand...from 40-50 years ago, besides being heavy and BIG...it handles like a PIG! Now that I've gotten past some of the points that make the bike less than optimal, let me now sing the bicycle's praises! This bike is AMAZING!

"Modern" bikes are skinny, weigh less than a gallon of milk and seem to have more moving parts than a Saturn 5 booster. This bike, has a shifter built into the grip, and a rear disc brake. One crank sprocket, one hub sprocket, and a chain 'tween the two. It's not as simple as a fixie (Fixed wheel bike with no brakes), yet it looks like an old school cruiser. Easy to ride? Lord, YES! Shifting gears in a modern, derailleur bike can be unsettling to new riders, between the clicking to shift it, and the chain jumping, and the pedals slipping, it's all VERY mechanical, and requires some hours of seat time to become competent. HOURS and HOURS. Not so with the Cadillac. Twist the shifter, there's nary a sound, and the only things that change are the speed at which you pedal, and the effort required to pedal the bike. Modern Bikes, pfui. This is an old school retro styled cruiser that rides like a big bike. When I'm riding along, I'm 6'6"! (Though I'm only 5'9" once I climb off the bike.)

I did some research. Next cheapest bike with this technology is 2 thousand dollars. That's right, two GRAND. Sure, the next cheapest bike at 2 grand gets you some bells and whistles, but the heart of this bike is the NuVinci hub, and if easy riding, easy shifting is what you're after, this is the best value to ride away...