Pinnacle Arkose One

Due to my company being in the "Ride to Work" scheme, I get a new bike every year. Well, I said I get a new bike every year, last year I got a bike for my wife on the scheme. If you've not looked into or your company already is in the scheme, check it out.

For some time I've been trying to bridge the road/off-road terrain. I've tried a full on cyclo cross bike, this proved a little bit to radical, the gearing, angles and even the clearance geared more towards 50 minutes racing, not an all day thrash in the Peak District.

Currently there is a craze for Adventure road bikes or Gravel Bikes, the bikes are basically beefed up road bikes with wider tyres and disc brakes. On the face of it, this would seem perfect.

I've purchased a Pinnacle Arkose One from Evans Cycles:

The bike as an aluminium frame with carbon forks. The group set on this bike is mostly Shimano Sora 9spd, I could have gone up to a Tiagra equipped bike for maybe another £60, but I felt I would be compromising on the quality of the frame. I believe I made the right decision, I only use about 4 gears at the back the back anyway. Alex rim wheel set with Kenda small block 42mm tyres. The finishing kit is by Pinnacle.

First impressions are very good, the ride is super comfy, all day riding is now less of an effort and riding on the local trails is a lot faster than on my MTB.

I do have a couple of niggles though. The disc brakes whilst I believe are perfect for this type of riding are cable actuate, comparing them to my hydraulic discs on my MTB I'd rate them 3/10! The front brake is perfect, stopping in an instant. The rear brake is the issue, even when I've spent a couple of hours dialling it in the brake just doesn't stop me, only just feeling like it's slowing me down. There is also an irritating chirpy, whining noise which comes intermittently. It can be stopped by slightly putting the brake on, which seems counter what would stop it. I'm going to have one more go at it and if it doesn't keep quiet then the bike will have go back. There are hydraulic brakes for road bikes, but the cost is over my budget.

I'm not going to let the back brake ruin the overall experience of the Arkose One and I would recommend people buy one. I'm looking forward to fitting lights and doing some serious winter training.