I had the chance to go for a quick carpark test ride on this big-dollar Ellsworth Ride cruiser while buying some tyres and tubes for the Cross-Check at my LBS. I like cruisers but it's too hilly in my part of Auckland for this type of bike and I'm always too tall for them anyway.
The bike has some interesting features like the integrated rear fender but it was the rear hub that caught my eye.
I was curious how the NuVinci "geared" hub would ride after reading good reports about them. You just twist the controller and the gearing changes in a completely linear fashion, no steps at all. It was super-smooth and seemed to have a wide enough gear range but you had to twist the controller more than once to go from the lowest to highest ratio. Either that or the grip on it was slipping.
I think these hubs have a big future on city bikes and if they can get the weight down they would be great on all bikes.
Midget photographer's assistant wanders into frame
I like the internal cable routing
One-piece carbon-fibre bar/fork
