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I spent about an hour on the phone with Haniya from Urbana bikes the day that I put this thing together. Haniya almost dared me to break the Urbana. Well, she told me that I wouldn't break it, and wanted some action shots if I decided to try to break it. That sounds like a challenge, right? I'll save the video and other highlights for my final review, but let's just say this is one of the more tame things I subjected the Urbana to this afternoon.



Urbana is trying to position themselves in the niche of hard-working, durable utility bikes for the urban, car-free lifestyle. They're meant to be comfortable and bomb-proof over everything else. sturdy alumimum frame, CrMo fork, quality welds, beefy drop-outs, well-built wheels and flat-resistant balloon tires mated to high-quality hubs means that it'd work fine for weekend strolls down the bike path or boardwalk, but it'd be a waste. Comparing it to my wife's dainty Townie cruiser also made it clear that this isn't a beach cruiser.

I put another 15 miles on it today, and some of those miles were over some of the worst railroad crossings I know of, and on some of the most blighted streets near my place. Lots of curbs were taken at speed without making any attempt to pop over them, and, as you see here, I did the obligatory stair descent. I also ramped it off a shorter stairway, but couldn't get an action shot of that.

I'm having quite a bit of fun with this bike, and I haven't even been able to knock the wheels out of true.

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