I want one, Italian bikes really are beautiful... Robert

K?<9@>K<JK
Style and
substance?
Does retro styling mean compromising performance?
We’ve been riding four bikes chosen for their looks
alone, to see if they’re behind the times in function as
well as form…
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THE
STYLE
ISSUE
THE BIKES ON TEST
CIOCC MOKBA 80 £930F/F
A homage to a bike ridden at the
Moscow Olympics, the Mokba is
a classy looking steel fixie. Our
version, with Miche kit and
wheels and Selle San Marco
leather saddle, costs £1550.
www.grupettoitalia.co.uk
ELECTRA TICINO £859.99
California cruiser cycling crosses
the Atlantic in the shape of
Electra’s retrotastic 16-speed
Ticino. Sure, it looks the part,
but is the Ticino more California
Dreamin’ or nightmare?
www.hotlines-uk.com
PRINCIPIA EVOLVE £1099
Danish design is famous for
being subtle, laid-back and cool.
And while this disc-equipped
multicoloured hybrid is far from
laid back, beneath the paint is a
more than decent frame.
www.principiabikes.co.uk
VIVA BELLISSIMO 7 £699.99
Our second Danish design comes
with a flavour of Copenhagen
about it. And with its classic steel
lugged frame, mudguards and
hub gear it has a lot of practical
touches to complement its looks.
www.evanscycles.com
www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk
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K?<9@>K<JK
“W
ow, can I take a
photo?” Well, this
doesn’t happen often
(actually ever). We’re
sitting outside Look
Mum No Hands, a new
bike-friendly café in the middle of London,
during a photoshoot and a ‘fixie-chick’ –
skinny jeans, retro specs and expensive
hair – is asking to snap one of the bikes
we’re photographing.
The bike she’s interested in is the
Principia Evolve, which boasts one of the
most flamboyant paint jobs ever seen on
two wheels. We ask whether she’s thinking
of buying one. “Mmm, not sure I’d ride it,”
comes the answer, “but I’m getting a new
tattoo and I really like the design on the toptube.” Well, we did expect the Principia to
attract attention.
Actually, we expected each of the bikes on
test to attract attention. In fact we chose
them simply because they attracted our
collective attentions in the first place. We
wanted to see what happens when you pick
a bike simply by its looks: can letting
aesthetics rule over aerodynamics, or colour
trump componentry lend itself to a good
buying decision?
When it comes to creating a ‘stylish’ bike
it seems fair to say that many manufacturers
look to the past for inspiration. And when it
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CIOCC MOKBA 80
comes to choosing a stylish ride it seems that
many of us want to hark back to how it used
to be (or at least how we imagine it used to
be…). And that’s why three of the four bikes
on test have a distinctly retro feel.
Ciocc’s Mokba 80 Scatto Fisso – the last
part of which is Italian for fixed gear –
actually wears its old-school leanings on its
top-tube. The link seems to be a little
convoluted but the essence is that this is a
reissue of a replica frame that was first
produced in the early ’80s to commemorate
a Polish rider’s silver medal in the 1980
Olympic road race. Which is fine, but the
decade wasn’t all good, so will it be more
miners’ strike than Moscow magic?
The Electra Ticino and Viva Bellissimo
look like proper time machines – both have a
distinctly 1950s look to them. Unlike the
Ciocc, though, neither is based on bikes from
the builders’ halcyon days – both companies
were born in the past two decades so the
retro stylings are just that.
The Principia Evolve’s paint job has a
distinctly hippy-ish vibe, but underneath the
acid trip graphics it’s the most modern bike
on show. The lightweight aluminium frame,
carbon fork and Shimano Tiagra shifting
mean it’s also likely to be the most versatile
to ride. It would be fair to say, however, that
you may need to be rather flamboyant to do
its paint job justice…
FRAME 9 Lovely hand-made steel Columbus
tubeset with elegant lugs and hand-stamped Ciocc
logos. Chromed fork adds shiny retro bling.
HANDLING 9 Fast, lively and smooth over even the
roughest of UK road surfaces. Perfect for
commuter sprints or café ambles.
EQUIPMENT 7 San Marco saddle is perfect here,
and shiny Deda kit is competent but inexpensive
WHEELS 7 A little heavy but strong with it – though
a set of silver finish Mavic Open Pros would have
looked even better.
SPEC HIGHLIGHTS
FRAME Columbus 27.2mm steel, chromed steel fork
DRIVETRAIN Miche Primato chainset
WHEELS Miche Xpress track wheels with 18T fixed/
free ‘flip-flop’ rear
WEIGHT 8.68kg/19.1lb without pedals
Ciocc Mokba 80
Steve Ovett, Sebastian Coe, Allan Wells and
a boycott are likely to be the only things
most Britons remember of the 1980 Moscow
Olympics. But what of Czeslaw Lang’s silver
medal for Poland in the road race? He was
riding an Italian Ciocc frame and shortly
afterwards the firm brought out a
commemorative replica; 30 years later it’s
back as an exclusive – and very pretty –
singlespeed road bike.
There are of course plenty of pretty
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THE
STYLE
ISSUE
singlespeed/fixies around right now, but the
Ciocc does manage to rise above most in
terms of performance. It boasts the best
qualities that only a butted steel frame can
deliver – stiff, light and rewarding for traffic
light sprints and commuter rivalry, but with
the compliance and rough road bump
absorption that is always so welcome on a
bike you’ll spend most time sitting down on
in fixed gear mode.
The butted Columbus Acciaio (this just
means steel in Italian) frame has 27.2mm
diameter tubing and elegant lugs. There are
braze-ons for rear brake cable housing on
the top-tube and a drilled rear brake bridge
on the stays ready for a rear calliper if you’re
not intending to run fixed.
We’re talking style here and on the whole
the Mokba is top drawer. The frame is
complemented by the tasteful crema colour
– even plain, subtle shades sound exotic in
Italian. The lovely Selle San Marco Regal
saddle with a rough leather finish, big
polished decorative studs and matching rails
comes from the marque’s new Vintage range
ELECTRA TICINO
FRAME 7 Surprisingly light, comfortable and lively.
Relaxed angles make for relaxed riding.
HANDLING 7 The big rake and swooping bar make
for lazy steering, but it goes where you want it to. .
EQUIPMENT 8 Reliable Shimano gearing plus pretty
finishing touches including a classic looking
crankset and mudguards.
WHEELS 7 Chromed and reasonably light – they roll
smoothly and are reasonably nippy.
and is wonderfully comfortable. The
polished Deda Dritto handlebar, Quattro
stem and Metal Stick seatpost chosen to
match the chromed forks give a classy look
too. For our part, we would choose silvered
alloy wheels – Mavic Open Pros for example
– and a leather-clad drop handlebar.
That said, although the wheelset – with
the flip-flop hub providing freewheel
singlespeed drive on one side and a fixed
Stiff, light and
rewarding for sprints
or commuter rivalry
gear on the other – isn’t a looker, the deep
flanged hubs are good and strong. No
amount of kerb hopping knocked them out
of true, and if anything, the small amount of
extra weight helped iron out rough roads.
The frame is 73 degrees at both head-tube
and seat-tube, which explains the nicely
nifty but not over-sharp handling – the Pista
track bike in the range has a more upright
head angle of 72.3 and no doubt a risk of toe
overlap with the front wheel – something
blissfully absent with the excellent Mokba.
Electra Ticino
If you were asked to draw your idea of a
typical 1950s all-American cruiser bike,
chances are you’d end up with something
like the Electra Ticino. You could easily
imagine Jimmy Dean riding up in front of
Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift and
pulling off a cheeky little skid...
While the Ticino’s looks are old school,
Electra, perhaps surprisingly, isn’t especially.
The San Diego brand was established in the
early 1990s. And it’s not even actually that
all-American; the founder Benno Banziger is
Swiss – Ticino is a canton of Switzerland –
and he started the brand with the aim of
encouraging Americans to use bikes for ‘fun
and transport’.
If the Ticino is a typical Electra then it’s a
definite success on the fun front – it’s a
really enjoyable bike to ride. From the
pictures we were expecting the Ticino to be
a heavy old beast, but were pleasantly
surprised by its lightness – overall weight is
just 10kg. As a result, any expected
sluggishness simply isn’t there and it’s easy
to get moving and rolling along nicely.
The sit-up-and-beg position afforded by
the high front end and swept back ‘Cyclo
Tourist’ bar provides a stately, commanding
view in traffic that’s better than most
hybrids. This position has another added
bonus – it encourages you to dawdle and
enjoy the view.
The taking-it-easy approach is also aided
by the Ticino’s ride – 6061 aluminium
frames aren’t necessarily renowned for their
shock absorbing qualities, but the longwheel-based Ticino feels smooth and coped
well with rough towpath stretches, helped
no doubt by the wide saddle, steel fork and
SPEC HIGHLIGHTS
FRAME 6061 Butted aluminium, Electra steel fork
DRIVETRAIN Shimano 2300 16-speed STI
WHEELS Electra Elite double wall alloy
WEIGHT 10kg/22lb
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32mm tyres. The lazy steering – thanks to
the long, extravagantly raked fork – adds to
the relaxed feel.
For town riding and reasonable distance
cruising, the Shimano 2300 group offers a
decent enough range of gears, although the
riding position does mean the Ticino isn’t
The taking-it-easy
approach is aided by
the Ticino’s ride
the fastest ascender of steep slopes as it
really isn’t a bike for getting out of the
saddle and honking. Whack it down into a
low gear and continue to dawdle upwards,
though, and the 2300 double and 8-speed
SRAM 12-26 cassette is capable enough.
A few of the details on the Ticino are
really pleasing though – this is, after all, a
stylish bike. The classic hammered pseudo
Honjo aluminium mudguards are very pretty
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and the wraparound stays mean that they
don’t rattle. We also liked the machined
aluminium cranks which are reminiscent of
classic TA Pro-5-Vis (Cyclo Touriste) models.
The rear rack is small and only takes small
or tapered bags as heel clearance is an issue
with big ’uns. Quite a few of the Ticino’s
components are tagged Cyclo-Touriste but
we’re not sure that it’s a bike for epic rides,
more like epic views that you should sit up
and enjoy.
Principia Evolve Disc
“Truth is ever to be found in simplicity and
not in the multiplicity and confusion of
things” is a quote attributed to Sir Isaac
Newton and it’s printed along the inside of
the chainstay of the Principia Evolve Disc.
Perhaps more famously Newton also said,
“To every action there is always opposed
and equal reaction…” and some of the
observed reaction to the Principia’s bold pop
art inspired looks fell distinctly on the
‘opposed’ side.
PRINCIPIA EVOLVE
FRAME 8 Garish, but light aluminium, nicely made
and smooth rolling. Carbon fork adds comfort.
HANDLING 8 A great commuting bike – sharp and
direct but stable and predictable.
EQUIPMENT 7 Tiagra is reliable, the Bengal Helix
discs work fine and it’s all colour matched!
WHEELS 7 Principia’s own wheels spin up nicely –
solid and unspectacular .
SPEC HIGHLIGHTS
FRAME Aluminium with carbon fork
DRIVETRAIN 18-speed Shimano Tiagra
WHEELS Principia disc, Conti Ultra Race tyres
WEIGHT 10.4kg/22.88lb without pedals
But hell, surely being stylish is about
pushing a few boundaries, and the Danish
Principia – a brand with a decent record of
building classy road bikes – does that. Let’s
be honest, put some of the current crop of
flat-barred hybrids in a police line-up and
you’d be hard pressed to pick out which one
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was guilty of looking dullest.
Ordinarily of course, Danish design is
associated with functionality and simplicity
– we all love Arne Jacobsen’s Chair 7, don’t
we? – and underneath its skin the Evolve is
actually rather simple and functional. And
we don’t mean that in a bad way – it’s a
thoroughly decent, commuting-friendly bike.
With an all-in weight of 10.4kg, the 57cm
Evolve on test isn’t the lightest alloy hybrid
out there, but it isn’t necessarily outclassed.
In fact it felt lighter than the scales showed –
both when being manhandled and when
being ridden.
On the road the Evolve impressed
everyone who rode it – for starters, when
you’re looking at the road you’re not looking
at the frame. That’s made from Principia’s
own triple-butted PMA tubing and this
offered a smooth and fast ride. The comfort
level impressed with the frame and Principia
own-brand carbon fork and wheels doing a
decent job of soaking up city centre
potholes. Sharp, direct handling adds to the
sorted feel.
The wheels are Principia’s own as well
and spun up to speed quickly and stayed
true despite plenty of towpath mileage.
Bengal Helix disc brakes aren’t particularly
well known or widely specced here in the
UK, but they did a good job – plenty
powerful enough and easy to modulate. The
Evolve is also very well put together – look
beyond the paint and the welds are neat, the
bike feels solid, and everything is colour
coordinated – even the centres of the disc
rotors are painted white, while rack mounts
on the rear and the mudguards add allweather and all-year versatility.
While the reaction to the Evolve’s looks
was mixed in the office, we’re pleased to
report that the expected catcalls, wolf
whistles and ‘hello sailors’ from burly
builders failed to materialise. Which was a
little disappointing… In fact, the wider
public seemed to like it – few bikes have
received quite so many curious looks and
questions. Whether they’d buy and ride one,
of course, is another matter. And then there’s
the question of whether you want a bike,
especially a town bike, to draw too many
admiring glances…
But if you’re flamboyant, and security
focused, the Evolve is a fine ride. We reckon
that it wouldn’t feel out of place with a drop
bar, and although the £1099 list price puts it
tantalisingly over the Cycle to Work limit, it’s
still pretty decent value. If a little garish.
Viva Bellissimo
It’s easy to dismiss bikes like the Viva
Bellissimo as anachronisms that don’t
VIVA BELLISSIMO
FRAME 4 Nicely finished steel but the steep head
angle creates a racy position at odds with rest of
the bike.
HANDLING 2 Fine in a straight line, but the
toe-overlap means slow manoeuvring around
town is horrible.
EQUIPMENT 5 Shimano’s Nexus hub works well,
but the one-piece bar and stem is incredibly
uncomfortable .
WHEELS 5 The chrome rims look lovely and
Schwalbe’s Delta Cruiser tyres are good, but the
wheels are weighty.
SPEC HIGHLIGHTS
FRAME Lugged chromoly steel frame and fork
DRIVETRAIN 7-speed Shimano Nexus
WHEELS Chrome rims with 28mm Schwalbe tyres
WEIGHT 13.6kg/29.9lb
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K?<9@>K<JK
belong in the carbon fibre clad 21st
century or, perhaps worse, style
accessories designed simply to make
Nathan Barleys empty out the pockets of
their skinny jeans for the latest twowheeled look. Check out the excellent
blogs Copenhagen Chic and
Copenhagenize, though, and you’ll see
what appear to be thousands of good
looking folk riding around on good
looking bikes like the Bellissimo. For
cyclists, the Danish capital is by all
accounts wonderful – miles and miles of
cycling lanes, and priority for bikes over
pedestrians and cars – and retro styled
bikes aren’t retro styled bikes, they’re just
bikes. Everyone’s got one!
So, should we make like the Danish?
Well, as Evans Cycles is now stocking a
large selection of Vivas, the
‘Copenhagenising’ of Britain’s high streets
is a distinct possibility. On a purely
aesthetic level we think the Viva urban
range is one of the prettiest out there and
the prices are competitive.
For this test we went for the 7-speed
Bellissimo in powder blue and very first
impressions were good. The lugged frame
looks lovely and it’s all finished to a high
standard. It’s not light, but then it’s steel
in combination with a Shimano Nexus
hub gear and as soon as you add these to
a bike the scales take a battering. On the
flip side, you’ll likely get reliability and
little need to get your hands greasy.
The Bellissimo has the look and feel of
the café racer about it – the low bar giving
you a slightly stretched out position.
Sadly, something is lost in translation as
the Bellissimo disappoints almost as soon
as you start pedalling. The frame isn’t too
bad – it feels like the simple steel number
it is, neutral and rideable. In a straight
line… But every tester quickly discovered
the Bellissimo’s first big flaw: toe overlap.
While manoeuvring at low speeds – like
one does when riding through town – toes
were repeatedly clipping the loop-over
mudguard stays. This soon became
tiresome, especially as the natural reaction
when toes hit ’guards is to backpedal,
which on the Bellissimo simply engaged
the coaster brake.
While that was disappointing, it was
nothing compared to the ride. As we’ve
said, the frame and fork seem fine. It’s
hard to be sure, though, as the front end
of the Bellissimo is possibly one of the
harshest we’ve come across. The onepiece chromoly bar/stem appears to have
no flex at all, so almost every road
imperfection was transmitted to our
hands. This was exacerbated by the low
sporty position as the rider’s weight is
forced forwards. We simply couldn’t find a
comfortable position and every tester
ended up having to shake out their
numbed hands after a few miles.
It’s a shame because we really wanted
to like the Bellissimo, but we just didn’t –
riding it for anything more than a couple
of miles was simply too much of an effort.
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CIOCC MOKBA 80
ELECTRA TICINO
Fast, fun and comfortable. It’s
a pretty snappy dresser too
8
Comfy, laid back and surprisingly
light. Sit up and enjoy the view
7
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THE
STYLE
ISSUE
THE VERDICT
PRINCIPIA EVOLVE
VIVA BELLISSIMO
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Incredibly flamboyant paint
scheme on a lovely commuter
Beautiful by name and looks
but not so attractive to ride
8
4
Whether something is stylish or not
is, of course, a matter of personal
taste. It’s fair to say though that all
four of the bikes tested here have
something in their appearance that
sets them apart from other bikes out
there. Principia’s Evolve is without
doubt the most extreme example –
its paint job is a love it or hate it affair
and, to be honest, many people
simply won’t be able to see beyond
it. They should try, though, because
this Danish hybrid is very good. It’s a
more than capable commuter, which
could easily be called on for longer
riding. Perhaps a more restrained
version is required.
Viva’s Bellissimo, on the other
hand, is a big disappointment. It
looks great and, on paper, should be
a lovely choice for hipster types. But
the toe overlap means it’s awful at
slow speeds and the unforgiving
stem/bar means it’s a proper chore
to ride any distance. We’d like to try
other Vivas to see if it’s a one off, as
we love the looks.
Electra seems to have got a better
grip on how to blend retro-chic and
everyday usability with its Ticino. It’s
a surprising bike – lighter than it
looks and a heap of fun to ride. We
challenge anyone to ride it without
smiling – it encourages you to add a
horn and wave gaily at passers by.
Finally, Ciocc’s Mokba 80 isn’t the
cheapest singlespeed around, but if
you want an exclusive, attractive
statement bike for shooting around
town there’s not much to match its
lively, exciting ride.
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