Canadians Talking Tech

Beautiful custom urban bikes by Republic

by Noah Bloom Posted in Sports

Republic makes gorgeous, customized bicycles for $344. By customized, we mean nearly every colour (saddle, chain, tires, wheels, etc.) and through a nifty interface. The physical bike is pretty standardized steel frame and components, but you can have fun and create a very unique looking bike. They come as interchangeable fixed gear and freewheel drivetrains.

Here’s one:

Republic Aristotle Build 6

Check out the build quality. Looks like decent components:

Aristotle build quality

The full bike weight a very reasonble 24 pounds.

What’s your Aristotle? Share it here. Here’s ours:

NorthGeek Aristotle build

Again, we’d love to see some social media site sharing by this company!

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  1. 2 Responses to “Beautiful custom urban bikes by Republic”

  2. By ravi on Jan 3, 2010

    I bought one. It is a rip off. The only thing good on it is the frame/forks, neck, the handle bars are nice, and the brakes are great quality. The pedals are okay but I replaced them. Everything else is crap. Beware that the crank set is not a real track bike crank set, its a very low end 44t crank that goes nowhere fast. It is not a standard track crank so if you want to use a standard fixie chain ring you will need to buy a larger crank set and trust me you will. The cogs both fixed and free wheel are pretty decent, I’m not too big on high end cogs. The wheels suck, they are deep V wheels designed for bikes without brakes, even though Republic puts brakes on them anyways. The worst part is they are 700×18/23c SCHRAEDER VALVE! To make matters worse is it is like a 44mm valve or something irregular. I tried making a normal schraerder valve tube work but it causes a large bulge. I finally had to buy a normal wheel set with presta valve holes because I could not find the tube anywhere. The only people I found who supplied the tube was Republic. So if you buy one, expect to change the crank and possibly the wheels if you get sick of trying to find tubes online like I did. Oh yeah, and the seat is horrible, definately invest in a nice road bike seat because the one it comes with must be off a little kids bike or something, feels like its gonna break your tail bone. My advice, go to a bike store and pick a bike you could test ride and do your research because I didn’t know much about fixies and solely went off of the picture before I purchased. Big mistake, same amount of money I invested in this steel republic, I could have got a specialized globe or any other high quality fixie.

  3. By Noah Bloom on Jan 4, 2010

    Thanks for the review @ravi. I didn’t check out the drivetrain, but thought the brakes looked like decent Shimano knock-offs. Shraeder valves are no fun either.

    Sure you’re best off building the bike yourself, and it’s more fun that way. I’d always prefer components to my liking. But it’s a kick to be a virtual-Flash-bikebuilding-hipster on their site.

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