Boutique American bike brand announces closure

The American parent company of All-City Cycles, Quality Bicycle Products (QBP), has announced that its boutique bike brand will be "retired in a few years," with "no new product development beyond model year 2024."

All-City Cycles achieved something of a cult status since the brand's inception in 2007. Based in Minneapolis, but with the manufacturing handled in Taiwan, those early days were characterized by single-speed, fixed-gear urban framesets - with stunning paintjobs being central to the project. 

The finishing details were closer to that of a custom frameset builder, rather than the (relatively) more mass-market production scale that All-City maintained. The brand drew inspiration from vintage motorcycles, hotrods, ski and snowboard magazines - as well as classic cycling catalogues from days gone by.

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All-City's reach began to broaden when it moved into performance-oriented bikes in 2016, with its custom extruded steel tubing. The Cosmic Stallion started life as a steel cyclocross bike ('Gravel' was just a niche still gathering pace), but since expanded its remit to broader off-road performance. 

To some, the very idea of a steel bike for "chasing PRs and podiums" on is the very definition of an oxymoron. But for others, the juxtaposition has a pleasing irony all to itself and is all the better for it. Any self-aware amateur racer who knows that a pro contract is beyond them, yet still competes for the pure bloody-minded fun of it, is surely able to share the sentiment. 

But there are also less quixotic models in the range, such as the Space Horse - essentially a less aggressive Cosmic Stallion (you can see what they did there) - which is designed primarily for light-touring on mixed terrain, but can be turned to just about any all-road application.

Then there's the Gorilla Monsoon, a fat-tired monster-cross rig, capable of fitting in rubber up to 2.4 inches wide on 650b rims - but still packing all the wonderful touches, from the lugged 'Bi-Plane' fork crown, to the custom dropouts and reinforced bottle bosses.

Although Quality Bicycle Products as announced that it is winding down the All-City brand, it hasn't communicated when that date will actually be. Although there will be no new products developed beyond 2024, the current stock of All-City bikes will still be available to buy - whilst stocks last, that is.

Over in the US, there might not be too much of a need to rush, you can still get All-City bikes from the Pro's Closet and other retailers.

But over in the UK, they weren't ever a super common brand in the first place. Ison, the UK distributor, reports that the available stock is only around 100 units across all options. So if you were ever considering one of All-City's models, you might have to be quick.