Bike review: All-City Space Horse

With a spirit of adventure, Simon Vincett takes a trip on a spacey steed.

The Space Horse is the type of bike that makes me daydream. A morning commute has me settling into a rhythm that I just want to keep tapping out, pedalling past work and onto the open road. It’s also about knowing that this bike is up for adventure, with ample carrying capacity and a geometry and tubing that promises all-day comfort.

The British racing green and white colour scheme, along with the lugged forks, seatpost clamp and dropout details, and the head badge, makes an attractive package with vintage appeal. The old-school look is maintained with an almost-horizontal top tube and quite narrow tubing. However, the rear brake cable is internally-routed through the top tube, keeping it sleek and uncluttered—a nice modern touch.

Curious to me was the 612 Select steel decal on the frame. It turns out to be the name that All-City have given to their proprietary treatment of the frame tubing. It’s 4130 chromoly tubing that has been carefully double-butted in the main tubes, tapered in the seat stays and tapered, ovalised and dimpled in the chain stays.

The fork is tapered 4130 chromoly as well, with a lugged fork crown. The fork is raked with a 52mm offset, which is something I always appreciate for providing more stability in steering when loaded with front panniers. Accordingly, the fork comes ready with mid-blade mounts for a front pannier rack.

This careful crafting of the frame extends to ensuring appropriate sizing across the range and, maybe due to healthy representation of women in the All-City team, also offers a wide range of sizes. The Space Horse for instance comes in a size 46, with a 450mm seat tube, which is a massive 110mm shorter than the smallest size of the popular Surly Long Haul Trucker.

The Space Horse geometry is reminiscent of Salsa and Surly frames, a connection reinforced when you notice that the handlebars and stem are Salsa brand. It’s a relaxed touring geometry I find instantly comfortable and inspiring to ride, particularly coupled, as it is here, with wide, 80psi tyres and springy, double-butted steel tubing. The forks and stays leave clearance for tyres up to 42mm—perhaps some knobbies for gravel grinding—and room and mounts for comprehensive mudguards front and back.

The frame’s semi-horizontal dropouts make the Space Horse supremely versatile, enabling the bike to be set-up derailleur-geared, singlespeed or hub-geared. They are a proprietary system that improves on the traditional horizontal dropout system with an adjustment screw and a tab at the dropout to retain the skewer securely. A nice touring touch is that the bottom bracket is dropped lower than their other models for better stability when loaded up. I made sure to ask for a rear rack on the model I road-tested.

The drivetrain is a compact road set-up in the durable 10-speed system of Shimano Tiagra. The 30–34 lowest gear isn’t super low for a touring bike but the Space Horse doesn’t promise to be an uncomplaining beast of heavy burdens. The advised maximum capacity is 13.5kg on the rear and 9kg on the front. That’s the top of the weight range that the frame tubing and the 32-spoke wheels have been designed to accommodate, and indeed the vast majority of the riding likely to be done on this bike—commuting, around town and touring—will easily be within that weight range.

Unfortunately the Tektro CR-720 cantilever brakes are underpowered—particularly for a load-carrying bike—to the point where I had some slightly anxious moments trying to pull up in time. I accept that the Tektro brake pads aren’t great and grippier pads like Kool Stop can be fitted, but set up with clearance for mudguards the Tektro CR-720 simply don’t have enough mechanical advantage to provide adequate stopping power. Without mudguards you could improve their performance but I’d be installing mudguards and replacing the brakes with an Avid or Shimano model with better mechanical advantage and clearance.

Which might make you think this would be a good bike to buy as a frameset to build up. It’s certainly a finely crafted frame and fork; in the end it’s about how enjoyable the bike is to ride, and this one was hard to give back.

 

Specs

	Frame	“612 Select” 4130 chromoly steel
	Fork	4130 tapered chromoly steel
	Gearing	Shimano Tiagra 4600 shifters, derailleurs, crankset (50 and 34 tooth) and cassette (12–30 tooth, 10-speed)
	Brakes	Tektro R720 cantilever
	Wheels	Shimano Tiagra hubs, Alex DA16 32-hole rims and Freedom Ryder 700×35 tyres
	Weight	12.5kg
	RRP	$2,300

85%

A versatile utility bike ready for touring, commuting and adventure.

	Function	35/40
	Quality	32/40
	Appearance	10/10
	Price	8/10

For more info, allcitycycles.com

To buy, www.humanpowered.com.au

 

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