Product Review: All-City Mr. Pink

Let me start off with the two biggest complaints I have with this bike:

1. The components suck. It's like the parent company, QBP, had a bunch of spare parts lying around so they just decided to clear the shelves and put it all on the Mr. Pink. The drivetrain is a hodgepodge of Shimano 105, 10 speed Tiagra, KMC, Jagwire, and FSA; the headset has a plastic crown race; and the Formula wheels, Ritchey cockpit and seatpost, and generic brakes all add about 142 pounds to the already heavy steel frame. I ended up selling a lot of that junk on ebay and switching to a Campagnolo Athena group with Scirocco wheels. 

2. The handling sucks. At low speeds the steering flops around, making it very difficult to ride no-handed. At high speeds it felt like I had to fight the bike in order to swerve and hold a clean line through a corner. I don't know if it's the cheap plastic headset that's to blame here or the design and geometry of the frame or if I just got a bum fork out of the box, but I wasn't about to buy a new headset or start warranting parts -I just sold the thing after a couple months. 

However, I really like All-City as a brand. They have an impressive collection of quality niche bicycles that cater to the urban cyclist and they do a lot of cool little touches to their frames that make a difference. Such as: Internal coating on steel tubes for rust prevention, premium paint with a thick clear coat, optional tubing upgrades on some models, internal cable routing, hidden fender mounts, and cool custom All-City dropouts. 

Also, their prices are reasonable. The MSRP for the Mr. Pink is around $1700, which aint bad for a 20 speed bike with Columbus Zona tubing and a press fit 30 bottom bracket. 

Lastly, the 2013 model has better wheels and tires than the previous year, but the cheap headset remains the same. 

If you're thinking of buying the Mr. Pink, test ride it first. It's possible that All-city became aware of the handling issues from  2012 and did some tinkering that they didn't post on their website, or I could have just had a bad batch. I really want to believe it's the headset's fault because, on a conceptual basis, I really like the idea of a premium steel racing bike with modern components, rust proofing, internal cable routing, hidden fender mounts, and kick-ass paint.