Firefox Surfelo - Review

The Surfelo is a built on a lightweight alloy frame. The frame geometry is a bit aggressive and thus makes the bicycle look a bit like a road-focused hybrid. The build and welds were of top quality and felt super rigid as well. The bladed forks and thin seat stays makes the bicycle weigh less. But the frame does let the rider feel a lot of vibration on urban roads when going over bumps and speed breakers thus making it slightly uncomfortable, especially when riding without gloves. The aggressiveness in the frame geometry helped with acceleration on flat roads.

The drivetrain on the Surfelo is the most exciting feature. This road-focused hybrid bicycle consists of Shimano Tiagra at the front and rear as derailleurs. These are road bicycle gearing components found on 7k + road bicycles built for pure performance. During the test ride these gears worked flawlessly and the 2-Speed range helped climb those flyovers and hills with ease as well as accelerate quickly on flat roads. The Shimano Tiagra 47 2x1 speed shifters were lightning quick and easy to use. Going farther ahead of commuting needs, the gears on the Surfelo will help you ride those 1km rides with ease and at good speeds.

The bicycle that I test rode came with blue as the primary colour and a combination of orange, black and white as the secondary colours. The gloss paint job is of superior quality and makes the bicycle look shiny. The welds on the tubes are smooth and the internal cable routing on the frame makes the bicycle look neat. While aesthetics are very subjective the Surfelo's design with multiple colours does look funky and bright. This is a rather new line of thinking from Firefox for a bicycle that is priced high and it does look refreshing.

The Surfelo is equipped with Tektro's mechanical disc brakes at both the front and rear. During the test ride on both highways and urban roads these brakes were efficient and helped be in control while riding amidst traffic. The brakes functioned in a balanced manner when trying to brake at intervals and jamming the brakes as well. But for the price of this bicycle, I was expecting to see a pair of hydraulic disc brakes than the mechanical ones.The Uno alloy handlebar was one of the components on the Surfelo which makes it road inclined. This handlebar is fully flat and measures 62mm in width. This give the rider an aggressive riding posture and the ergonomic curved grips make it comfortable on the palms.

The double walled alloy rims along with Kenda's K118 Kriterium tires on the Firefox Surfelo made this wheelset roll fast. The 7x25c tires are suited for both commuting and racing. During the test ride on fairly decent urban roads I did encounter a puncture and thus it is recommended to get some puncture protection liners if your ride routes might have some unexpected rough patches. The Cionilli/Firefox performance saddle was designed ergonomically to keep the rider sore free on long rides with ideal length and width. The overall ride quality was comfortable and fast on urban roads.