Frostbike Day 2 -- Civia

Blazing a new frontier, Civia is a purpose-built line of serious commuters. The difference between Civia and Breezer, besides price, is that Civia bikes are a bit more speedy, aggressive, with the target customer being an enthusiast cyclist who decides to commute, and wants the best tool for the job.

Here's the Shimano Alfine rig, in blue. $2K or so, and a derailleur version is available too.
And the Rohloff version, $3K or so:
Both bikes have disc brakes, premium internal shifting, dynamo hub and light, Thomson stem and seatpost, color matched fenders, rear rack, channels for brake lines, sliding rear dropouts, and a super tough matte finish. They'll also offer the frame, fork, fenders, and rack (with entirely-too-large diameter tubes) a la carte.

So, the question of the day is, will hardcore cyclists plunk down $2-3K for a fully-outfitted, super nice, purpose-built commuter? Ideally, bicycle manufacturers would provide some of these answers to dealers, by doing things like market research, and sharing it with prospective dealers. It would make it a lot easier to plunk down the cash to buy into a product that is no doubt pretty cool, and we all want to live in a world where the commuter bike is lavished with such great spec and engineering. But come on, bike brands, at least TRY to do some research into your market theories before developing your products.

That's a long way of saying, I have no idea if City Bikes will buy any of these bikes. They are cool, but it's an entirely new market that may exist, or may exist only in Civia's imagination.