News | Pole Bicycles Present New School Slack Bikes

Pole Bicycles present their vision of a new school mountain bike. We already had the chance to take a closer look at the EVOLINK 140 29″ at the EWS in Finale. The bikes of their EVOLINK platform have an extremely slack geometry concept and some interesting features. Read more in the following press release of the manufacture.

If you want to design your own bikes and test ride them thoroughly then Finland might not be the best place to do it. Especially during the winter months as the weather is a mix of rain, snow, cats and dogs. So we decided to pack our bikes and head to Spain to test our prototype models. I met a bunch of French guys at the Switchbacks in Bubion village. They had started their mountain biking in the seventies by removing the motors from their mopeds, pushing them to the top of the hill and enjoying the ride down on steep alpine slopes. I was amazed by their commitment to the sport and technical skills on the bike. They called us, who are not boys anymore by any standards, as the “new school”. I was intrigued by their definition as I have never thought as classifying myself to any type of riding, just riding my bike the way I know and enjoy the most. Their definition of “New school” was going fast all the time, jumping over the technical stuff and dressing stylishly. I wasn’t too sure of the last point, but the description of riding was spot on.

The New School

“We wanted to connect the new school riding style with the right bike geometry and suspension. The new school bike has to perform well at high speeds, can handle the jumps and go uphill. Our bikes have a long wheelbase, which makes it stable when riding downhill and efficient to pedal back uphill. The rider weight has to be in between the axles so the cockpit is designed with extra room to compensate the long wheelbase. We think that the more versatile riding you can do with the same bike the better it is. The bikes are called Pole EVOLINK and they are designed with DH geometry and XC pedalability”. – Leo Kokkonen, founder.

Less is more

Pole’s design style is functional. Straight, triangle shaped tubes creates a stiff and light bike. In long bikes like these the stiffness in the front triangle is important because if the bike flexes too much the rider needs to use more energy. A tubes outer shape is important for the overall stiffness and all of our frames are made with same outer design from same concept to keep it simple with mechanical testing. Our DH bike however has thicker tubing and there’s an extra gusset in the swingarm to add lateral stiffness. The swingarms comes in either 142mm and BOOST 148 options. Pole uses high quality ball bearings and titanium axles in all links for better value.

Fold it to save space

Founder of Pole Bicycles, Leo Kokkonen got fed up with airline hassle, bike racks and people complaining that they don’t have space in their apartments to store bikes. EVOLINK can be folded by just taking off the front wheel and one bolt in the swingarm. The Patent pending linkage allows you to turn the swingarm over the front triangle.

When the rear wheel is removed and the handlebar taken out you can fit the bike into oversized standard luggage so you don’t have to pay extra for bike when traveling. Many bikes get stolen from bike racks but when you put the bike to the trunk of your car the bike their needs to learn new tricks to get to your bike.

Pole Evolink

The Pole EVOLINK is a patent pending dual short links BB concentric suspension platform. The IC (instant centre) is close to the BB and it gives the flex to the area where it’s needed the most. Degressive anti squat ratio gives the bike a firm pedalling platform without pedal kickback and bobbing feel. Pole’s insight is that if the bike has a stiff rear axle and front triangle but can flex from the middle the bike rides better. Evolink’s are built with oversize dropouts to make the hub/axle interface stiffer. To fine tune this system the suspension is specially designed for air shocks where the air volume can be fine tuned to support the riders needs. The overall chain growth is only 31mm which means that you can use a clutched derailleur with no worries that it would make a big difference in suspension dynamics.

Long wheelbase for better ride

Pole Bicycles geometry is longer than the average bikes out there. Long geometry means the chainstays are longer, head angles are slacker, reaches are longer and the seat tube angles are steeper. These features make bikes faster, safer and easier. Pole’s bikes are tested only with stopwatches. Test riding has taught three obvious things: longer, slacker and lower bikes are faster.

Virtual leverage ratio

Pole Evolink has a leverage curve designed specifically for modern air shocks. Air shocks have a naturally progressive spring rate, so the shock becomes harder to compress the deeper it gets in its stroke. Evolink has an increased leverage ratio at the end of the travel, allowing the bike to use all of its travel efficiently while still resisting bottoming out harshly.

More infos on the Pole Bicycles Website.

Words & Photos: Pole Bicycles

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