Ways to change the world

It doesn't look all that imposing in the box. In fact, it's really rather boring being brown and all and pretty much non-descript. There's a suggestion to the UPS carrier printed on the side suggesting that despite the appearance of this box it is, in fact, not oversized and under the maximum allowable 130 inches. And like a lot of things it has a top and and a bottom though most things don't need an arrow to tell the user which way is what. And that's it. Who'd a thunk the way to save the world would fit in a "normal" sized, uni-directional box?

Opening the box isn't nearly as exciting an event either when compared to what Pandora went through, or even the Raiders of the Lost Ark Nazis. It mostly looks like a bike partly dissembled and wrapped in plastic. I guess that's kinda what it is at this point.




What comes out of that box though is chock full of potential. It's a pretty stellar bike, really, with all the luxuries one would hope a good bike might have. It has fenders, lights, gears, a rack, brakes, but the light doesn't need batteries because it plugs into a dyno hub that gives you free electricity, and the brakes are hydraulic and disc driven meaning they'll stop you even when the sky has cracked open and is dumping untold amounts of precipitation upon you like Vancouver skies are wont to do periodically. The fenders are real metal meaning they won't crack when they get cold and if you do something like drop a small animal or box on them and they get bent you can likely bend them back instead of throwing them out and starting all over again.

But like that wasn't enough the good people who put this bike together said, "hey, let's put on a decent seat so that the first thing the customer does when they get this bike is ride it instead of cursing about how uncomfortable it is to sit on the damn thing." The Civia Hyland does, indeed, come with a saddle that is more liked than not. It's not a cheap seat but that's cool, because this bike is in no way about cutting corners to make a price point. This bike is all about providing the customer with a complete package that doesn't beg for upgrades and modifications to make it suitable. This bike is about doing it right the first time.

For instance, the bike comes with what is likely the best available stem and seatpost as stock items, Thomson components the both of them. I have never in my ten years in the industry seen a Thomson seatpost break and the manufacturer quite proudly showed their stem holding up a small car in a poster they gave away at Interbike a few years ago.

IT'S IN THE DETAILS:





Sometimes the details get lost when looking at the bigger picture. The goal with Civia was to make a pretty damn good city/commuter bike, one that wouldn't leave the customer wanting for more, for upgrades, for some sort of modification to make it a bit better. Civia was looking for the holy grail of city bikes. But while doing so they didn't forget about the little things. Cables are neatly tucked into grooves to keep the lines of the bike nice and clean, the bike not only has gears but it has enough gears to get you up the steepest of hills with ease and allow you to rocket down the other side at some stupid irresponsible speed but with eight gears to choose from all provided by an internally geared rear hub so you won't be worried about cross chaining and you won't be going from too hard a gear to too easy a gear because the "in between" ratios are missing like they are on most three speed hubs. The tires have a full circumference reflective strip and a puncture resistant belt. It's good to be seen but it's better to not have to stop for flats. There's also grips that bolt on meaning they won't slip around on the bar when they get wet. Bolt on grips isn't new technology but it's good technology and it's rarely seen on commuter bikes so it's nice to see it come stock on the Hyland.

And just to show they were proud of what they've done Civia took the time to bolt on a rather elegant headbadge to each frame. Special bikes deserve headbadges and I'm quite happy that this bike got one.

So how does this bike change the world? Simple. You ride it. Every day and everywhere, you ride your bike. It's that simple. And the folks at Civia have made it that much easier for you to do just that, ride your bike.