When Marin first contacted me about reviewing the Lombard, I wasn’t terribly excited. I saw an aluminum road bike with disc brakes and figured it was another out of touch product manager’s vision of a commuter bike, with a price tag well above what the average person can afford. I’m glad to report that I was wrong.
The Lombard is named after a famous street in San Francisco, and the bike is appropriately designed to ride it. When you live in a city known for its hills (like San Francisco, or Pittsburgh, for that matter) it’s nice to have a bike that’s equally adept at climbing and descending. And with big hills often come less than perfect road conditions, so the ability to run high-volume road tires is rather beneficial, too. The Lombard has all of these things in spades and comes with a price tag of just $860 complete.
When I saw the price tag, I did a double take, making sure I didn’t miss a 1 before the 8. Sure enough, the price was right and surprisingly, Marin didn’t take any shortcuts to get there. The bike is well-spec’d, which I’ll elaborate on later.
The heart of any bike is the frame. We don’t review a lot of hydroformed aluminum frames on Urban Velo, but they’ve certainly got their advantages. The ability to shape 6061 aluminum into virtually any tube profile imaginable has given engineers the ability to design lightweight frames that do virtually anything they want—stiffness here, flexibility there—without breaking the bank by using more expensive alloys. Marin’s designers decided to go for a definitively stiff frame that’s great for transferring power to the pedals. Instead of allowing the frame to flex, they simply ship the bike with 32c tires to absorb the road vibrations and leave the customer room to run bigger tires if they want.
Of course the first thing many people notice are the Lombard’s bright orange disc brake calipers. The Tektro Lyra disc brakes pretty much do exactly what you would expect—they stop the bike in a hurry. I have to admit, I’ve never really had any complaints about the caliper brakes on any of my road bikes, but as a mountain biker, I’ve got a special appreciation for disc brakes in adverse conditions. And they simply inspire confidence to do things like bomb hills in the rain.
Of course you won’t be bombing any hills if you don’t climb them first, and the Lombard has the gearing to make it happen. In fact, with the TruVativ Touro triple crankset, I’ve regularly been inclined to take the long route home—just to tackle a few more hills. And on the days I’m just too pooped to party, the little ring up front is like my new best friend, painlessly towing me up Liberty Avenue or One Wild Place after a long day at work.
The component spec is really quite nice, although it’s hardly anything that’s going to make dyed in the wool roadies drool. The Shimano 2300 drivetrain components simply work, and while they’re new and well-maintained, they work quite well. Marin’s house-brand saddle, seatpost, 31.8 drop bar and stem all do their job admirably. The sealed cartridge hubs are laced to Alex rims, which have stayed round and true throughout the test. And the FSA Orbit C integrated threadless headset is still smooth as butter. No surprises there.
Nits to pick? Given its price and performance, I’m a bit hard pressed to criticize the Lombard. The stock pedals aren’t great (the pedals shown are my own) but that’s to be expected. I do wish that it came with in-line cyclocross levers, but I’ve made do just fine without them. I should also mention that with the 2300 levers, which have a thumb-actuated downshift trigger, it’s pretty much impossible to downshift while in the drops unless you’ve got gigantic man hands.
Throughout the test period the Lombard’s been my go-to commuter. Maybe its looks aren’t for everyone, especially steel-frame junkies, but most of my friends from outside the cycling world took one look at it and said, “Cool!”
Visit www.marinbikes.com for more info.
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From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
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