What Makes Cruisers Special?
The new beach cruisers are flying out of the shop as fast as we can build ‘em, but they’re also raising some new questions for us. The most common being, “what’s the difference between a beach cruiser and a city bike?”. The short answer is: simplicity. The long answer, well let’s take a look!
Singlespeed
Remember what we said about simplicity? Well it doesn’t get any simpler than a singlespeed drivetrain and, because most beaches tend to be flat (sea level too, go figure) that’s all you need! No derailleurs to adjust, no sand-clogged shifters, no cables in the way of strapping on that picnic basket and beach towel – just pure cruising.
Coaster Brake
And in the spirit of keeping things clean and minimal, coaster brakes are the go-to stoppers when it comes to cruisers. Because when you’re baring it all at the beach, why should your bike be all covered up? No cables hanging all over, no levers cluttering up your bars, just pedal back lightly to engage the brakes, and pedal forward to keep going. Simple. Just like the bike you had growing up.
Sure Foot Geometry
You know what’s more relaxing than standing up? Not. When we’re on the beach, it’s all about soaking up the sun, spending time with friends, and feeling, just for an instant, what it would be like to not have a care in the world. That’s a hard feeling to maintain if you have to get up every time you stop. For the cruisers, our engineers pushed the crank forward and angled the seattube back so you can get good leg extension and still reach the ground with both feet, all without leaving the comfort of the saddle!
Fender Free
This one’s really comes down more to personal preference than objective fact, but we opted to keep the cruisers fender free for the sake of simplicity (noticing a theme?). Fenders are great in the rain, but since we rarely head for the sand in the wet, they’re pretty optional when it comes to beach cruising. Besides being underutilized at the beach, fenders are one more thing to check the bolts on regularly, one more potential source of mystery noises on your ride, and one more thing to get in the way of loading up your blankets, boomboxes, and brewskis! We’d rather maximize our lounge time and keep the maintenance to a minimum, so we opted to go leave the fenders on the shop floor!
But don’t worry, even if you surf in the rain, or live somewhere a bit more tropical, the cruisers will fit fenders with ease and your bike shop will be able to help you customize your ride to personal perfection!
Because at the end of the day, a trip to the beach is really all about making yourself happy – we just wanted to design a bike that would help.
See you in the sand!