The design Swobo Crosby is based on Swobo’s cumulative 678.4 years of actual city and dirt biking, over every concievable of terrain and distances, and in varied weather conditions, many of the design and research team Swobo prefer the cross bike experience for tooling around on trails, commuting and road biking. It seemed obvious to them that the way ahead was to engineer the definitive two-wheeled version of the Swiss army knife…. strange because ther is nobody from Switzerland on the Swobo team .
This all lead to the developement of the Swobo Crosby commuter bike, an all- round road or dirt bike. Swobo began with a clean sheet of paper on which they designed the adaptable and convertible frame and fork combination, thereby creating a truly original frame fork and dropouts to complete their wonderful design concept .
Fixed or free. Single-speed or geared. Cantilever or disc brake. Fenders and or/rack. Fat tires or skinny tires. Knobbies or slicks. Street or dirt. City or country. Touring or commuting. Racing or cruising. I think you get the picture .
The core of the bike is the frame and the Swobo Crosby frame is shaped and butted aluminum with varied diameter and shapes to give it the best possible stiffness and compliance. Square-section top tube near the seat tube makes it easy to carry, when you have to shoulder the bike for cross. The fork is carbon, designed to work with the frame. Frame and fork are further refined to allow for cantilever brakes or disc brakes.
The very clever SRAM Torpedo hub is designed to be to be used fixed or free, on the fly, with simply a few turns of a screwdriver. There is no need to flip the wheel, if you are riding fixed and feel you’d like to to roll down the big hill you just climbed. Or vice versa. Put the screwdriver in the small hole, and seven turns later you go from track bike hero to single speed coasting casual.
The Swobo Crosby specialy forged dropouts allow for horizontal wheel movement to get proper chain tension for those times that you are using the bike as a single-speed. Wheel removal is simple and quick , as the wheel drops down, out of the dropouts. There is no need to push the wheel forward and drop the chain, as with traditional horizontal dropouts. An optional dropout can be swapped out , for use with a derailleur gears. Which is a French phrase that is not used too often in these parts , but the Swobo design team are tolerant individuals.
The Crosby will be sold as you see it, as a free-wheeling single-speed with cantilevers, but you can make variations by adding gears or discs, fenders or a rack, tires with varied widths and tread patterns. On sizes 55cm and smaller, Swobo use a seat tube clamp for the rear cantilever brake cable stop. Sizes 57cm and larger sport the welded cable stop. Crosby is available in 6 sizes.
With the Crosby, Swobo set out to redefine bicycle versatility. Interchangeable dropouts give you the option to reconfigure the Crosby a fixed-gear, single speed, or geared bike.
In my opinion this is one of the best all in one bikes as It can be used as a long-distance road bike, urban , or even as a cyclocross racer.
