IKEA’s new flat-pack SLADDA bicycle may just be one that you have always dreamt of.
The bike, from the Swedish home furnishing company IKEA, has been anticipated for about a year now and will be available in IKEA stores all over the US this February. The DIY bike is supposed to take an hour to be assembled. Some people have found it to be quite more time-consuming than that, though.
The bike is a fine reflection of IKEA’s peculiar Swedish style. Instead of a metal chain, the bike comes with a quiet, frictionless silicon belt. The belt is promised to last a 15,000 km. It is available in two different sizes and only the gray color, the SLADDA has an oil free system that also comes with a 10-year warranty. The rust proof powder coated aluminum body has a guarantee of 25 years. The bike pack has 29 parts that include a two-speed internal gear hub, a kickstand, chainguard, bike bell, a front disc brake, and a rear coaster brake with front and rear lights.
The super sleek SLADDA has already won the Red Dot Design Award for its design in the category of ‘Best of the Best.’
The assembly guideline comes in an IKEA instruction manual, along with a spanner and an Allen key. Some reviewers, however, think that the manual is lousy as it comes with no written instructions and instead, it has ambiguous pictures. Either way, even if you have a bit of manufacturing knowledge, you can do quite well with assembling it. In case, it takes longer time, the cute little accessories that come with it, like the cargo rack, rear panniers, and trailer will make you feel good about the time you spent on it.
The best part is that the SLADDA is a part of IKEA’s environment-friendly measures. Steve Howard, the Chief Sustainability Officer of IKEA Group, explains,
“With more and more people living in urban places, there’s an increased need for easy and flexible transportation. Having a car in a city is often not a practical solution. The SLADDA bicycle, trailer, and accessories make it possible to move heavy things across the city, for a truly sustainable and healthy way of life. Just attach the trailer to the integrated connection point, and you have a solution that replaces the need for a car.”
For the IKEA family, the bike costs only $399. If you are not a part of it then, you’d have to pay $499. The accessories come with an additional charge. The bike trailer sells for $129/$169, whereas, $29/$39 is the price of rear panniers, and you may buy the front cargo rack for an additional $25/$35.
If you are a crazy cyclist, this bike may not be the one for you, as the manual warns that it is designed to be ridden on bicycle paths and roads only. Performing jumps or stunts or off-road use is expected to cause an injury to the rider while also damaging the bike. If you are not a cyclist already, the SLADDA bicycle sounds like a good start for your comfortable journey.
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