What is it about these new retro bikes...they are getting better but they still seem to be designed by people who just don't quite "get it". They have retro styling queues but they also have things, like the fork in the this case, that just don't fit. Like they assigned the job to some 23 year old designer right out of college and said, "Design a retro styled bike" and he just looked at pictures of old bikes without really understanding the history of vintage bikes, the styling, or the things that totally turn on or off the people would actually buy these bikes. In this case it's pretty minor. If you could get past the $1500 price tag it would be simple enough to swap the fork for a nice curved chrome fork assuming it had the correct rake. But some of them are beyond redemption with sloping top tubes and TIG welding. You can't fix that stuff. I think the worst so far has been the Bianchi. Decent frame, nice celeste paint job, but a carbon fork, low spoke count wheels, and black components everywhere...oh, and a $3300 price tag. Now those guys were smoking something.

So far the Electra seems to have the most thought put into it but it's painfully obvious they are copying Grant Peterson over at Rivendell with the super tall head tube and sloping top tube. That's unfortunate as it's allowing function to get in the way of form. If horizontal top tubes are the pointy toed high heels of the bicycle world so be it. We all know that you have to suffer to be beautiful