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Consumer Reports Picks Top Bikes

Published June 30, 2010

PHILADELPHIA, PA (BRAIN)—Pat Cunnane was in a Performance store in Raleigh, North Carolina, the other day when a customer walked in and asked whether the store had a Fuji Absolute 3.0 in stock. Cunnane immediately took note.

As president of Advanced Sports, Fuji’s parent company, Cunnane was curious why this customer was so specific in his request. “He mentioned that he had read about it in Consumer Reports. That was the first I had heard about it,” he said.

The magazine’s August issue, just mailed to subscribers, includes its latest lab tests on two key categories—fitness bikes and comfort/hybrids. “This customer, he looked to me like he was in his early 60s, had read Consumer Reports, gone online to research it, and then used a dealer locator to find the bike,” Cunnane said.

Fuji’s 3.0—a 700c flat bar bike—got top billing in the fitness category followed by Giant’s Rapid 3 and the Specialized Sirrus. All three received top ratings for handling. Also scoring well were Felt’s X-City 5 and Schwinn’s Volare.

In the comfort/hybrid category, Cannondale’s Comfort 4 led the pack as a number one pick followed by the Schwinn Midmoor, a CR Best Buy, and REI’s Novara brand, the Corsa. The Cannondale sports a Spinner fork and suspension seatpost.

Other rated models in this category were a Trek 7000, the Diamondback Wildwood Citi 26, Raleigh’s Detour4.5, Trek Allant, Jamis Commuter 2 and the Electra Townie Sport 2200. Huffy, which over the years has often fared poorly in Consumer Reports testing, was dinged for poor braking on its discontinued 26-inch Huffy Commuter.

—Marc Sani
msani@bicycleretailer.com

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