Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Biomega MN 03 Review




My first Biomega was the shaft driven Copenhagen - it suffered from great design, minimalistic aluminum frame and a smooth ride. Just yesterday I received the second member of the Biomega family - the slimmed down MN 03 Relampago. The MN 03 differs from the other MN models in that it has a single gear, steel front fork and bi-disc brakes.

Design: as you can see it's pretty spectacular. The frame is made from bonded super plastic aluminum - some pretty high tech stuff. The paint has the depth that is usually reserved for vehicles. The fit and finish is also top notch. It's very obvious Marc Newson designed the bike to look great with traditional bike components.

Components: the pedals that came with the bike are terrible plastic blocks that looks like they belong on walmart bikes. I threw them away and bought some cool but dangerous looking DMX V12 pedals. I'm afraid they start tearing into the soles of my shoes. Brakes are from Avid and still need some adjusting. Tires are Scarab from Vredestein and wheels from Mavic.

Ride: unfortunately I got used to starting in a low gear from riding the Copenhagen so when I first pedaled the MN it needed more effort than I thought. But it all came back very quickly and is much more fun. The ride is really solid as it feels like your riding a bike made from a single piece of steel. The geometry of the MN is also very differnt than the Copenhagen - you are stretched out a bit more and at a sharper incline which makes it feel very sporty.

For more pics go here

Read more at Biomega

Monday, May 28, 2007

Bike culture coming in strong


Ever since I started seeing bikes in design mags I knew the urban biking culture was going mainstream. Now this nice article from nytimes points to the popularity of the fixed gear bike.

Unstoppable