All City Macho Man

The All City Macho Man is solidly built, and descends and bowls along like a tank. Unfortunately its heft retards it seriously on climbs and it's way under-specced for the money.

All-City are a bike company from Minneapolis - a city in the mid-west that has a vibrant bike population and deep cycle sub-culture, and alongside their trendy track and freestyle bikes the brand also has bona-fide road and cyclo-cross bikes in their collection. The singlespeed cyclo-cross Nature Boy has graced their line up for a few years now and the geared version, the Macho Man, is here to keep it company.

Frame

The first thing you notice about the Macho Man is that it looks just like a bike. There's no hydroforming or swoopy carbon here, no oversized tubes, tapered anything, nothing that anyone could call bottom-bracket real-estate or clever trickery, just straight thin steel tubes.

Even the fork is steel with none of that carbon wizardry that's omnipresent these days. And there's a refreshing lack of graphics on show too with just 'All City' in a panel on the down tube, no model name on the top tube and no infomercials on every other tube describing the profile or manufacturing process with yet another pointless techno acronym.

The second thing to notice about the Macho Man is that it certainly lives up to its name, it's a muscular beast. In a size 55 it up strides to the scales at a brawny 10.79kg (23.13lbs), which is a significant amount of weight over most bikes at this price. But that's what you get from a bike with a steel frame and fork instead of something alloy or carbon.

That steel would be 612 Select ChroMoly, it's been double butted for the down, top, and seat tubes while the chain stays are externally tapered, ovalized, and dimpled for clearances and the seat stays are simply tapered. The fork is 4130 ChroMoly steel with straight but tapered fork blades slotted into a nice looking retro lugged crown.

The whole frame is E.D. coated inside and out (that's electrophoretic deposition to non-paint-nerds), a process that not only improves the quality and durability of the paint according to All City, but is the best rust proofing agent they have at their disposal. So that's frame longevity assured right there. Maybe.

All the cables run along the top-tube to keep them away from the clart this bike is most likely to be dragged through, the front mech cable runs through a down-tube stop that's conveniently threaded with an adjuster in there for subtle tweaks and it makes use of Shimano's new CX 70 'cross specific top-pull front mech for a direct cable run. If you want to run a standard road front derailleur there's a pulley mount at the bottom of the seat-tube to let you.

The rear gear cable is fully enclosed all the way down the seat stay which is great for keeping crud out but it does make shifting a tiny bit slower than normal, not in annoying way, just barely noticeable, it's a fair trade off though for longer cable life and a cable less sticky with grit.

There are reinforced bottle-cage mounts on the down and seat tubes for all-day action and both the fork and the seatstays have hidden mudguard mounts for day-on-day wet use.

Components

There's nothing on the spec sheet that gets the heart particularly a flutter, 'cross bikes on the whole are utilitarian rather than bling, but there are some disappointing choices on the Macho Man that prompt teeth sucking. STI's and rear mech are Shimano 105, which is okay at a push, just, as some other CX bikes manage Ultegra at a lower price.

The wheels unfortunately are well below par, the hubs are Tiagra laced to Alex Race 24 rims, and the tyres are Continental Cyclocross Race 700 X 35c, all of which are fine in and of themselves, but not on a £1600 bike, and in a really cheeky 'the customer won't notice' move those tyres have a weighty and cheap wire bead instead of a lighter folding one. Not angry, just disappointed.

An FSA Gossamer chainset with 46 and 36 tooth rings is matched up to Shimano Tiagra 12-28t 10 speed cassette which is a good bunch of ratios for a cyclo-cross bike, although those that like to ride further and longer than a Sunday morning thrash round a field might want something smaller on the front. Again, Tiagra cassette. Really? But All-City get extra points for the KMC X-10 chain and its split link making cleaning and maintenance easier.

An FSA SL 280 seatpost has an All-City Gonzo saddle on top of it, no real complaints there, the seatpost isn't the most elegant but offers a decent amount of layback and adjustment that all does up with a big ham-fist friendly bolt and the saddle is basic but comfortable, your bottom may have a different view obviously.

Tektro R720 cantilevers do the stopping, and they're a popular and perfectly adequate rim brake, if a bit rattly on the posts. If you want to embrace a version of the future the Macho Man Disc is now available for another hundred pounds.

Steering is done via a Salsa Pro Moto 3 stem that holds onto a set of Salsa Cowbell 3 bars. Based on the company's previous Bell Lap bar that had admirers amongst the long-haul and adventure rider the Cowbell 3's are oversized, have a compact 76mm reach, 126mm drop and in a departure from the road-barred norm have a 12 degree flare to the drops. Although they may look a little odd a flared bar gives you more control in the drops, these Cowbells open to a rangey 470mm apart at the tips, and whilst you're there stop your forearms interfering with the tops if you're sprinting or moving about on the bike a lot off-road.

I'm not usually a fan of outward flared drop bars, they usually put my hands in all the wrong places, render riding on the hoods uncomfortable and making STI shifting awkward to me, normal drop-bars are perfectly fine, but I found the Salsa Cowbell 3s on here really comfortable. The top section is wide and flat before the bars drop in which makes for relaxed cruising and the flared drop felt just right for off-road control, although the wide elbows-out stance made battling into a headwind harder and puts you in a less racey position, if that's your thing.

All-City are proud to point out their Signature Vertical Dropouts which are investment cast from stainless steel and they do look shiny and pretty - but they don't have a replaceable gear hanger. That sort of thing's not usually a deal-breaker but we found out it could be a frame-breaker. On the first ride out on the Macho Man, less than a mile from home an excitable stick jammed in the rear mech and bent everything into the rear wheel, including the hanger. Not a great start to the relationship.

Not only was the rear mech a complete write-off but the frame almost was as well, the hanger was not only sharply bent in towards the wheel but it was ripped backwards as well, quite the compromise to gear changing, rear wheel security and frame life. Luckily the bike shop were able to gently coax the hanger back into its rightful place, but there's only so many times you can do that to steel, even if it is stainless.

Bending a mech hanger isn't an everyday occurrence but on a cyclo-cross bike that could get dragged through grabby undergrowth or thick mud that can strain a rear derailleur into doing silly things it's a more likely and having a replaceable gear-hanger would be nice, for the sake of not destroying a frame in an incident. There's a reason most other frames have them on now.

Ride & geometry

All-City say that the Macho Man has race geometry, and that's certainly apparent when you get the beast up to speed, it's a wonderfully happy handling bike. The head and seat angles are right in there with more speed specific machines so despite its weighty burden the All-City certainly wants to play with the fast boys with no sedate steering traits to lumber you down.

While we're on the numbers you'll want to pay attention to the sizing as they rock up somewhat larger than their listed size would suggest, the 55 here has a lengthy 565mm top-tube which would be something in a 56 or 57 on other brands' size charts.

The steel frame does do that clichéd ferrous thing of taking a bit of the buzz out of the trail and at no point did the steel forks feel like they instantly needed to be replaced with something in more absorbent carbon with the tapered blades doing a good job of ironing out the lumps, within reason.

Unfortunately there isn't any of that lively spring and skip that steel frames are supposed to exhibit because it's a solid and stout beast. The Macho Man doesn't spring. It sits there, takes as many punches as your legs can throw at it, and moves steadily forwards at its own pace rather than responding whippet-like by bounding towards the horizon. It's a substantial unyielding platform held back by chunky wheels and tyres so as long as you don't expect it to leap forward with a keen hop in its step and settle instead for reeling in hills and other riders over some glacial measurement of time then you'll get along just fine.

There is a plus side to this sturdy character though, the Macho Man simply refuses to be knocked off line on stuttery terrain and it descends like a piano, a piano playing a happy tune. That all-steel weight and those steamroller wheels combined with what's a low bottom-bracket for a 'cross bike all combine to keep things super stable at all times.

If you're scared by nervous race cross bikes then you'll like the Macho Man. Where the spindly racehorse bikes need to be coerced and finessed over and through lumpy stuff this All City can simply be pointed forwards and blundered through, and downhills can be conquered at speed, hands free. It's quite fun in a carefree hooligan kind of way.

To be fair there are a few pointers that the Macho Man isn't meant to be just a tippy-toed race bike and a whole bunch more versatile than that. Although you could race the citron-coloured beast quite happily it's quite heavily weight disadvantaged between the tapes and is far more suited to big days rumbling across the hills or bolting mudguards on and using it as a bombproof commuter.

It's got tons of tyre clearance in the rear triangle, so you can run fenders or fit big whoomphy tyres in, and it's a shame it doesn't have a full set of dedicated rack mounts as it would suit being a beast of burden with its sturdy frame, you could squeeze something on the fender mounts and chainstay bridge/fork crown holes though.

There's a lot of people who like the 'Steel Is Real' thing, whatever that means, and it has a lot of that ferrous factor going on. The frame is well made, it looks tidy and the lugged fork crown and nice headbadge are attractive features to make an owner smile, the all steel construction and related weight will put off just as many people as it attracts though.

Conclusion

If you want a cyclo-cross bike for racing on then you're better off looking elsewhere; the Macho Man's weight makes it a hindrance in the thrust and parry of a muddy Sunday morning, which is a shame as the geometry figures make it more than capable of the odd Ballestra.

It's not a bike that you'll want to shoulder too often either. There's no getting away from its weight, but what it sucks from your soul on the climbs it more than gives back on the other side by being a stable and fun steamroller on downhills and over bumpy ground.

If you want a good value 'cross bike then once again you'll need to look elsewhere, the spec sheet reveals some inferior choices that just can't compete against its rivals at this price and in cases such as the wire beaded tyres are just plain inexcusable making it hard to see what you're paying for to make those sacrifices worthwhile. If however you like that whole Steel Thing and want a bike that will happily stroll over the hills or roll into work with you and let that metal emotion over-rule all others then knock your sandaled socks off.

Verdict

Fun in certain circumstances, but its weight and below-par spec really drag it down.