You may well recognise this bike – it's a production version of a bike that we featured last year. Back then it was known as the Guapa Urban One, but a recent rebrand means that it now holds the WIlliams brand name.
It's worth taking a look at our previous article to learn about the ins and outs of this frame and its construction (we apologise in advance for the wood puns). For those too lazy to switch tabs here's a quick recap. The Urban One is the brainchild of brotherly duo Harry and Tom Williams, it's a unique UK-made urban bike with a frame that's made from a combination of bamboo and flax.
Related: Guapa Cycles Urban One – just in
To be honest this bike still looks quite familiar to its pre-production predecessor, so what's new? Well, the frame itself has seen an overhaul with geometry revised for what the Williams bros describe as a better fit and ride.
Titanium inserts now feature at the headset, bottom bracket and seat tube, while neat alloy dropouts make for easy tension adjustment of the belt drive transmission. Yep, just like the version before it, Williams has stuck with a Gates CDX belt drive and that's paired to the unusual but interesting Nuvinci CVP hubgear, which instead of shifting in steps like most transmissions, will instead seamlessly glide across a 360 percent gear range via a gripshift style lever.
The unique frame is constructed from a combination of bamboo and flax
The frame and fork have now shifted to disc brakes and the bottom bracket area has now been reworked to accept an external bearing component. Each Urban One frame is made in the UK and, although only one frame size is produced, Williams is confident in saying it'll be good for anyone who is between 165 and 190cm (that's 5ft 4in–6ft 2in) in height. Customers can choose either a matt or gloss finish over the natural wood of the frame.
You can now purchase a complete build Urban One for £2,500 (about $3,780 / AU$5,165), it'll arrive with a build identical to the bike shown, including Hayes mechanical disc brakes, Nuvinci belt driven drivetrain, Schwalbe 32mm tyres and tidy finishing kit with highlights from Brooks. Alternatively, you can buy an Urban One frameset is available for £1,500.
The Urban One Black Edition still holds Guapa branding and commands a premium of £1,000 over the Williams Urban One
Williams has also made a one-off black edition bike that is up for grabs at £3,500. Starting off life as one of five of the original Urban Ones produced by Guapa, the black edition was then given a unique paint finish by a very well respected car bodyshop.
