I’ve had my Quella Varsity with the Classic Handlebars for 6 months now, and I wanted to give it a proper review for two reasons:

• For myself, to reflect on purchasing my first bike and what I’ve learnt from it
• For prospective buyers, as there are no reviews on the Classic Varsities online

Assumptions

I’m not a cyclist by personality, so I won’t be critically examining the components that come with the bike, and I won’t help you answer the question: “is it worth it?”.

I bought this bike because I had a budget of 500 pounds, and based on my research I concluded that, outside going for a second hand bike¹, that the Varsity was the best use of my money².

This review is focussed solely on my usage of the bike. I primarily use it for commuting (10 miles each way) in a relatively flat city. But I’ve also pushed it to go fast, far and high, so if the Varsity is on your radar this review will most definitely help you decide if it’s a good fit for you.

What I Like

The Varsity is lightweight, nimble and fast. It is responsive to my movements and I feel one with the bike, so much so that I find myself dancing gracefully with it as I ride (for the record: I’m the most terrible dancer outside cycling).

I love that it has a single gear ratio simply because every ride feels the same. I also think that the gear ratio is selected well: I can go fast enough without getting too fast (spinning out at ~ 25 mph), and the resistance doesn’t feel too much most of the time.

I chose the Classic Varsity over the Courier because of the adjustability of the stem. This is an excellent choice if it’s going to be your first bike, and a point overlooked online. You’ll likely need to adjust your fit multiple times so having the adjustability is a must. In my case, I started with the bike setup too aggressively so I developed some numbness in my wrists. But I went back to this position months after riding, since my body had become more flexible and comfortable in the position.

I love that my bike has a vintage feel to it, and that it doesn’t have complicated looking components like derailleurs. This is purely psychological but it adds to the feeling of being light and nimble.

I love the finish and colour of the bike (mine is a Cambridge model).

What I Don’t Like

I would like to preface this by saying that I really do love my bike, and I think it is perfect for what it is designed for: cycling around a flat city for fun. Most of the criticisms below are because I realized after months of cycling that I have greater ambitions for what I want to do with a bike, and that the Quella is not the ideal choice for those ambitions.

The Bike Itself

Firstly, the things I don’t like about the Varsity, irrespective of my ambitions.

My Varsity came with a few quality issues:

1. The pin on the break levers snapped
2. The tyres got busted very quickly (around 500 km of use)

I blame this on quality issues because I faced them very quickly without heavy use of my bike, and without usage in the rain.

In fairness, the customer support was really good, as they sent me replacement parts free of charge. My rear wheel was also out of true on arrival, so they reimbursed me for costs incurred to rectify it.

Further, the bike can be too communicative, in the sense that you feel all the cracks on the road. This is fine for the most part, but if your commute or usage involves regularly going over shitty roads then you’ll definitely feel it.

One thing I changed quite quickly were the handlebars… not because they were bad inherently but because I wanted to try more aggressive positions. I tried both the bullhorns (which is what you’d get if you buy the Courier Varsity) and the road handlebars. I prefer both much more than the flat handlebars that come with the classic, so I find it a shame that it isn’t possible to order a Varsity that has the Classic Saddle and adjustable stem, but with a bullhorn handlebar (or a road one).

Not Fit For Purpose?

Over time, because of how much I was enjoying cycling I put my Varsity to more and more tests… and it kept responding well! I took it through the rain, I took it to group rides, I took it to Brighton, I made it go fast… and there is much more I would like to do with it (Triathlon, Cycle to Paris and who knows… the Pamir Highway?), and I know that it WILL deliver, but I just wish for the following:

• More mounting points for bottle cages
• Max tyre width
• Eyelets on the front to allow for a front pannier
• Gears…?

On the first point, it starts to become an issue when you’re going on long rides or you want to do a triathlon: one bottle is simply not enough. I find it rather annoying that the designers didn’t think to add this given that new bikes have minimum two and usually three bottle cage mounts!

On the second, I do enjoy the feel of the 25mm wide tyres: they are responsible for making the bike feel nippy. However, given that the industry is moving towards wider and wider tyres I find it rather disappointing that I won’t be able to get much thicker tyres on the Varsity. This limits my cycling to paved roads, and makes winder rides a bit sketchier than I would like.

On the third, the Varsity doesn’t come with eyelets on the front, so it’s not possible to have a pannier or a basket there. To me having that is a no brainer, especially as I wish to use this cycle for touring.

And the last point: given my ambitions sometimes I wonder if single speed is the right choice. I have no doubt that I can cycle to Paris with the Varsity, but the fact that I don’t have gears adds more thinking to everything that I do. The point that I’m making here, and with the previous points, is that the bike is designed for a purpose, and you can only push it past so far. So if you are thinking of getting the Varsity, consider your use cases.

If you want it for city commuting and the occasional long rides, then it is a perfect bike given the price point.

But if you expect to use your bike for more, then my recommendation would be to stretch your budget to a grand or so, so you can invest in a bike that is fit for purpose.

Gallery

1. If you understand bikes and can assess if a bike is good or not then definitely prioritize the second hand market as you’ll be able to get a much better bang for your buck than buying new. ↩︎
2. Summary of my research: a brand new geared bike under 500 pounds will most definitely come with subpar components that you’ll suffer from. Single speeds can come as low as 300, but in that price range they are made as entry level bikes so not worth the price. Around the 500 price point you start getting frames made of quality materials, and better components. ↩︎