Cinelli Zydeco Bootleg review: a stylish commuter bike that's £300 cheaper than a year ago

We last tested a Zydeco a decade ago when it was a cyclocross machine that would also work as a commuter bike. Since then the drop-bar Zydeco has morphed somewhat inevitably into a gravel bike, or what Cinelli calls "a beloved gravel icon".

Cinelli says it has transformed this Zydeco "into the ultimate flat-bar and front-rack go everywhere city bike… designed to withstand the demands of the most intense urban commuting".

It has an aluminium frame and a 1x drivetrain from Microshift.

Despite only having a single chainring, the gearing range should be able to cope with just about everything, while the wide tyres should take the edge off any harshness from the aluminium frame and oversized seatpost.

Interestingly – and impressively in these inflationary times – for 2025 the Zydeco gets a price cut to £1,499, down from £1,799.

And who doesn’t like a bike with a basket, or at least a porteur-style front rack?

Cinelli Zydeco Bootleg frame

It’s triple-butted aluminium for this Zydeco, in the form of Zonal alloy that inevitably comes from Cinelli’s partner company Columbus.

The welding is large and practical rather than smoothed down and neat, but it’s a good-looking frame with a lot going on – and a lot going for it.

The top tube is pretty much horizontal. The large-diameter down tube morphs from a square-ish profile at the top to a tube with a curved bottom and a near-triangular profile – albeit with a flattish top – where it meets the bottom bracket.

With the silver frame accompanied by a metallic copper-coloured seatpost collar and headset, and a large Cinelli logo, people are going to see you coming.

There are also large, reflective strips on the fork legs. I’m a big fan of reflectives on any bike, but especially on one designed for urban riding. If you’re waiting at a junction, car headlights are likely to pick you out.

And while the Zydeco comes with 35mm tyres, the frame and fork have a healthy clearance for 40mm rubber.

As befits a commuter bike, it has fittings for mudguards, with mudguard bridges between the chainstays and seatstays. It’s not wanting for rack fittings either.

The bike comes with an 8kg-capacity front rack, but you could fit more traditional front panniers or bikepacking bags thanks to the fork’s panoply of bosses.

The rear triangle has upper and lower fittings for a pannier rack, and in addition to the main triangle's two pairs of bottle bosses, the top tube gets bento box bosses for a full house of fittings.

Both the frame and fork have dropouts for thru-axles.

Cinelli Zydeco Bootleg geometry

In spite of being a flat-bar bike, the Zydeco’s geometry isn’t that far removed from that of the All-City Super Professional and Genesis Tour de Fer 20 it was tested alongside.

It’s not designed for all-out speed or break-neck handling, so the relatively long 1,025mm wheelbase shouldn’t come as any surprise, prioritising stability over speed.

All three bikes I tested have head angles of around 71.5 degrees and seat angles a couple of degrees steeper.

This makes the front-end handling slightly more relaxed than sharp.

The reach figures of all three bikes of a similar size are pretty similar – 380mm for the Zydeco, 378mm for a 52mm All-City and 390mm for the Genesis, although the more relaxed Genesis has a much higher stack figure of 603mm compared with the Zydeco’s 551mm.

Cinelli Zydeco Bootleg spec

Like many of the best commuter bikes, the Cinelli has a bell, and a front rack with a healthy 8kg capacity.

I’m a big fan of carrying kit and clothing on the bike rather than in a backpack or courier bag – and the Zydeco's front rack is a very handy way of doing so.

I tended to put my belongings in my backpack and strap it to the rack using a couple of bungees.

To keep it all clean and free of muck thrown up from the canal towpath, I fitted it with the cardboard bottom from a 24-pack of Diet Pepsi. It was a perfect fit.

A lot of the other kit is pretty unusual too, but I found it all well-chosen.

The Zydeco comes with drivetrain components from Microshift.

The Zydeco has a 1x setup with a 40-tooth FSA chainring, paired with a 10-speed 11-48 Microshift cassette, rear derailleur and shifters. It’s an effective system with a reasonably good 27-99in gear range.

It’s possible you might spin out at the top if you’re powering down a hill, but that isn’t this bike’s main territory.

More importantly, the bottom gear is low enough for even my steep local inclines.

The downside of having such a wide gear range with only one chainring is that there are inevitably some large jumps between gears, especially as you near the tea-plate sized 48T sprocket.

However, I think that’s a price worth paying to get the all-important knee-friendly bottom gear.

The cable-actuated disc brakes work well. They’re not as powerful as hydraulic setups and the action isn’t as light – I’d have certainly preferred hydraulics. But they’re consistent in all weather, work with wonky rims and are easy to fix.

The Flintridge gravel tyres have been in Kenda’s range for years and I think they’re a good choice.

We reviewed the 40c version a few years ago and while our tester noted they weren’t the lightest, the rolling resistance was good, they shrugged off punctures and were easy to set up tubeless.

The wide bar is accompanied by a riser stem, giving you an extra 20mm of height, which offers a good riding position in traffic.

The Selle San Marco saddle was fine by me.

Cinelli Zydeco Bootleg ride impressions

The Zydeco proved a very sound machine on my former commuting routes, taking in a rough and ready towpath, surfaced roads and bike paths.

Forget the age-old and unwarranted worries about harshness and discomfort from an alloy frame, especially from a bike with a 31.6mm seatpost.

I thought oversized posts were disappearing into history, but somehow they’re still hanging on in there.

However, thanks to the large-diameter tyres, there’s a big volume of air between you and the tarmac or trail.

And, with both the rims and tyres being tubeless-ready, you could drop the tyre pressure further for even more comfort.

The tyres are good. The more-or-less solid central blocks move reasonably slickly over tarmac, while the shoulder knobs come into their own on towpaths, and light grit and gravel, gripping well.

The riser bar contributes to an upright and comfortable riding position, which comes into its own in busy traffic, although the wide bar might limit your ability to filter through traffic.

It's also very effective when you’re riding off-road, offering loads of control.

The rubber grips are fine, but on a flat-bar bike, I’d always go for grips with a bar end – stubby or long – for the extra handhold, such as one of the options from the Ergon range.

The Zydeco’s front rack has an 8kg capacity, but if you carry anything like this amount, it will have an effect on the handling – you’re certainly not going to be riding it hands-free.

It makes the handling heavier and slower, and puts more pressure on your wrists and shoulders.

The same weight carried in rear panniers, with the weight lower down, would be much less noticeable. It’s not an issue on short rides, but if you're on a day-long ride or weekend away – which the bike is easily capable of – it’s worth bearing in mind.

Cinelli Zydeco Bootleg bottom line

The Cinelli Zydeco Bootleg is a nifty little commuter bike with tyres that’ll cope with light gravel riding.

The gearing is simple and effective, and the braking is consistently decent – if not inspiring.

While I found the basket handy, I’d have preferred a rear rack, because carrying weight high up at the front makes it a little harder to handle.

When you take into accout that the 2025 Zydeco is £300 cheaper than this time last year, it becomes a much more attractive proposition.

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