As they say in business school, competition is very, very good. And that聮s what you聮re seeing here. The bike brands you mention are all sort of 聯upstarts,” trying various distribution and business models to undercut the more established players such as Trek and Cannondale. Scattante, for instance, is the 聯house brand” for the Performance bike shops. The frames are made, for the most part, in Taiwan, at factories that have plenty of experience and, in fact, probably make some frames for the big guys. Habanero is just a small shop where a guy is passionate about bikes and wants to give customers good value on titanium bikes. And Leopard offers carbon-frame bikes on a Web-only store, saving the overhead of running a shop.
Scattante CFR road bike
Scattante CFR road bike
Although these guys don聮t get a lot of review space yet, there are some signs of life as they become more well-known. Our very own 国产吃瓜黑料 magazine recently named a Leopard road bike as a 聯killer value” in the annual Buyer聮s Guide聴not a bad recommendation.
So, I聮d trust any of these brands. Last winter, for instance, I purchased a Weyless-brand hardtail mountain-bike frame from Supergo聴then owned by Performance, and now absorbed into the parent company聴and think it聮s just great. Light, stiff, and well-made. No complaints at all. You can get a Leopard (www.leopardcycles.com) L1 carbon-frame bike for $2,300 with Shimano Ultegra components. That聮s a smoking deal, if ever there was one. Or, Performance (www.performancebike.com) has the Scattante CFR carbon bike, also with Ultegra, on sale right now for just under $1,900. Or, price out Habanero (www.habcycles.com) titanium cycles from $2,000 (with perfectly serviceable Shimano 105) to $3,400 (with super-sexy Campy Record). Too hot!
The votes are in: , including the year’s hottest road bike.