Project Left-Field: Urban Assault Bikes

Where does your mind go when I say the words "Urban Assault Bikes"? To be sure, these two bikes do not represent the average rig we see here at Predator Cycling. And that's exactly the reason why they're so cool!  Though we're not really sure what to call these types of bikes (somebody mentioned monstercross, but they don't have drop bars—I'm not sure if that's a prerequisite or not), but they're not really mountain bikes and they're DEFINITELY not a road bike.  For now, we've been referring to them as Urban Assault bikes. These bikes can pretty much handle anything the road can throw at them and about 50% of what mother nature can dish out. The project started with the inspired dream of two customers who came into the shop. They both wanted bikes they could ride on the street and around town, yet also ride on fire roads as well. We built a bike similar to this a little over a year ago for a local contractor so he could ride to job sites. So we took some inspiration from that, then went a bit farther. It's always good to stretch yourself a little, right? In this case, both guys—Glen and Josh—knew what they wanted, and believe that we could deliver it.  Aside from the color scheme, which Glen and Josh already had in hand, they just let us run with the concept. The final result came out looking pretty sharp if I do say so myself, and man oh man, they are so much fun to ride!  The staff here at Predator fought over who got to take them out around the shop first. While they are not as fast as our road bikes. you can ride over just about anything! Here are the specs:

• Custom Predator Cycling alloy frame
• Ritchey WCS full carbon fork
• Cane Creek ZeroStack headset
• FSA Afterburner BB30 2x10 cranks
• Ritchey WCS cockpit (bar, stems and seatpost)
• SRAM Double-Tap flat bar shifters
• Avid BB7 brakes
• FSA and Ritchey Wheelsets

We dig special projects here at Predator. It's the kind of thing that gets us up in the morning. If you have an idea for something "outside the box", let us know.