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Mezzo unveil new curvier D9

Award winning folder gets a Whyte Bikes makeover

The Mezzo folding bike, originally developed by bike design big-hitter Jon Whyte, has been given a Whyte bikes makeover for 2010. This time it's fellow designer Ian Alexander, the man responsible for many of the recent Whyte and Marin bikes, who's been doing the tinkering, and the result is a new, curvier D9.

The essential format of the Mezzo hasn't changed – you still get the single-piece main frame for stiffness and that slightly odd-looking stem and riser arrangement – but the new design has much smoother lines. The main frame has been given a makeover – it's gently curved now rather than being a flat beam – and the stays have also been redesigned to mimic the lines of some of Whyte's mountain bike range. The stem at the front has been through the pipe bender too, and the overall look of the bike is a lot less angular than the standard D9. The new bike also scores a V-brake at the rear to improve stopping.

Interestingly the new bike also features a Whyte head badge, which suggests that the Mezzo brand is likely to become a sub-brand of Whyte now that they're moving more into the urban market with their range of city bikes.

The new bike will come in graphite or blue and will retail for £825 with a SRAM Attack/Shimano Tiagra drivetrain, which is £100 more than the similarly specced standard D9. Clearly it takes a bit more time and effort to get that curvaceous look. The Hydroformed D10 will increase in price to £975 from July, and the hub-geared i4 will remain at £625.

Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.

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cactuscat | 14 years ago
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Definitely an improvement but a Mezzo's always going to look mental with that stem arrangement, no matter what shape the frame is  1

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John_the_Monkey | 14 years ago
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I'm not sure why they don't just use the same frame, tbh - the D10 is a reall looker, this is better than the old D9, but still blocky...

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