£399 Charge Plug

Charge Bicycles are a company that will be familiar to anybody who dabbles in MTBs, but with the launch of the first of three planned road bikes, you’ll be hearing a lot more from them on the hardtop.

The Plug is their first 700cc wheeled bike. It’s a street bike built around a Tange plain gauge frame, and at £399 is pretty good value for money if you’re looking for a commuter.

It comes with Charge’s own bullhorn style “Slice” bars with Brown Tape, Charge’s “Spoon” Saddle (also in Brown), Charge’s own design straight bladed “Whisk” forks and Sugino Messenger Cranks. A flip flop rear hub allows for singlespeed or fixed.

Cyclo cross style brake levers and caliper brakes are fitted as are removable stainless steel top tube cable clips so that, if you decide to run the bike fixie style with front brake only, the frame looks super-clean.

The Plug is the first of Charge’s forays into 700c wheeled bikes, and there are two other bikes to follow soon. The Tange Infinity steel framed “Tap” is equipped with flat bars, a Shimano Nexus Hub, mudguard and rack mounts and is more suited to commuting.

Topping the range will be the “Mixer”, equipped again with internal hub gears, but this time using Shimano’s new Alfine hub and also featuring Shimano hydraulic disk brakes. The Mixer frame is constructed from top-of-the-line Tange Prestige steel and boasts an eccentric bottom bracket to keep the bike looking neat.

The Charge Plug will be available in the UK from August. Check out www.chargebikes.com for more info.