Swobo Announces 2014 Bikes

The guys over at Bikerumor.com just posted an article about the new line up of 2014 bikes from Swobo and we thought we'd give them a plug here on the Fyxation blog.  Swobo is based in Colorado and has been in business since 1992.  It's actually had a few different owners along the way and most recently split off from Santa Cruz, hit the reset button and opened under new ownership in late 2011.

Swobo is best known for their edgy branding, apparel and for their singlespeed bike, The Sanchez.  The Swobo Sanchez is made out of double butted chromoly steel and retails for $689.00. New for 2014 is the Swobo Accomplice for $799.00 which is also double butted cr-mo steel but has a slightly different geometry than the Sanchez enabling it to fit up to a 47c tire. The bike ships with 42c Kenda Euro Trek tires.  Also new this year is the Mutineer which is an aluminum singlespeed mountain bike that looks fun to ride.

Swobo recently partnered with US distributor Hawley USA which might explain why the Sanchez is $689 and the Accomplice is $799.  Hawley is a US distributor that is headquartered in South Carolina and also has a distribution facility in Sparks, NV. Hawley distributes products from lots of parts companies but unfortunately none from the crew here at Fyxation.  They have a number of house brands of parts and accessories such as EVO, Singleworks, eleven81 and Toba, which are basically re-branded product from Asian suppliers. It's a very similar model to what the guys at J&B offer through their Origin-8 brand.  Distributing a brand like Swobo allows them to fill a gap in their offering and lets them compete with Surly Bikes, whose branding and positioning is very similar to that of Swobo.  Surly is owned and distributed by our good friends at Quality Bicycle Products (QBP) up der in Minnnesota.

Take a look at Swobo's website for more info - http://shop.swobo.com/.