This evening I built my new Gravel/Adventure/CX/do it all bike and I like it.

I’ve been pondering a bike like this for over a year now. Finally took the plunge when I saw the Pinnacle Arkose in the flesh.

Brought the frame and forks and then finished it off with Ultegra, Hope Wheels, TRP Spyre brakes and a Ritchey finishing kit. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but I love it and can’t wait to take it out and just ride 🙂

That looks nice.
Very. Nice.

Nice looking bike that. Shame about the rims though!

+1 nice bike / wheel shame

Rip it and enjoy

that is lovely 😀

I know what you mean about the rims, I like the Open Pro’s though. Maybe when it comes round to it I’ll put something disc specific on them. Very happy with it though, nice little blast on it this morning which was quite grin inducing 🙂

it was decided yesterday, the term is ‘Gnarmac’.

Nice that, please report back after riding. With particular attention to the brakes…

(i quite like the wheels; the black-silver-black thing looks good to me)

I’m keen to hear how you get on with it. The Arkose range look fab VFM.

Will you be doing much roadie bashing and cafe runs on it? CX racing?

I was within a baw hair of getting the Arkose when I bought my Marin Lombard (which swung it because it had 35% off). They look like great bikes. The colour’s lovely, too.

The stem is more offensive to me than the rims.

Nice, I’m tempted to get that F+F to replace my tank like Spesh Tricross.

Any idea what the weight of the F+F are?

Yep, a proper gnarmac weapon that 🙂

I won’t be CX racing on it, although the local club do cx races quite near me so I may have a little pootle down and watch. Lot’s of road riding, bridleways, singletrack etc.

Lot’s of cake and tea will be involved whilst out on this. I’ll be taking up to Rutland in a couple of weeks time when I head up there so will take it round the water a few times I hope. Not sure on the weight but compared to my old Charge Cooker it’s stupidly light.

As I’ve said I haven’t had a proper ride out on it yet, just a few miles on the road this morning. Very comfortable and sprightly/playful. The brakes were fine in the dry on the road, even managed a rolling endo! It will be interesting to see how they handle in the wet and off road.

dragon – Member

Any idea what the weight of the F+F are?

i’ll tell you on Monday…

i’ll tell you on Monday…

Look forward to seeing yours 🙂

Looks lovely (think you mentioned this on the thread I posted earlier in the week about CX vs road) anyway, looks a top bike to me – enjoy 😀

Currently have my Arkose sitting at the desk next to me at work. It’s putting me off my work.

I just like looking at it 😳

EDIT: I’ll be interested to hear what you think about the tyres. I have Kenda SB8’s on mine, and they are a bit draggy.

i’ll tell you on Monday…

Please do, I have birthday coming up soon and a new ‘lightweight’ F & F of some kind, that can take mudguards and isn’t extortionate would be ideal.

ok, look.

i’ve got a few errands to run (i AM at work), i might be able to fit a quick ‘weigh-in’ by about 4…?

What gear range did you go with? (Still faffing over a adding a Gnarmacmobile to the collection)

No hurry just do it whenever fits best with you. Don’t mean to be a pain :oops:.

no problem dragon, i didn’t mean to sound ‘sensitive’ 🙂

(was aiming for ‘helpful, but realistic’)

now then,

according to my (inn)accurate £6 luggage scales:

XL frame: 1710g
fork: 570g
frame + fork: 2270g

i reckon that’s pretty good for an affordable frame that’s going to get knocked around a bit.

(what’s a top-end roadie alu frame weigh in at? 1300g maybe?)

the quick-of-brain will have spotted that there’s 10g ‘missing’ somewhere in the total. The scales only read to the nearest 10g, so some ‘noise’ is inevitable at that end of the measurement.

What gear range did you go with? (Still faffing over a adding a Gnarmacmobile to the collection)

I went with 11 or 12-28 and the front is a Ultegra CX chainset so from memory 46-36.

Thanks for that, as you say that sounds around good for the money and intended usage.

You must be reet tall.

Dave, I am massive.

Right here goes with my review. Be gentle with me, I’ve never done this before.

I get the train everyday from Colchester to London, that’s my commute. The bike comes with me, I don’t need it in London but I don’t like to leave it, it’s the other end I need want it. The train journey is an hour and this gives me a lot of time to ponder. Sometimes a good thing, sometimes bad.

I’ve been thinking about one of these style of bikes for a while now, I say a while – it’s actually been over a year. I like my mtb, I’ve tried road bikes and although I liked them never really got on with them. Anyway I digress – I was pondering on the train tonight and started thinking this was all a massive mistake and I’m going to miss the mtb (strictly 1 bike only at present are the orders from indoors) and I started having a quiet panic that I had brought the wrong bike. I tried to reason with my own mind but I just wouldn’t listen and by the time I got off the train tonight I had this lovely bike that I had no enthusiasm to ride home.

I gave myself a bit of a mind slap and got on with the long way home route, a nice mixture of roads, fire track and singletrack. The first road section was fine, gentle easy and the bike felt comfortable for me, both it and I felt good. I was still concerned about my choice of bike as I approached the first offroad section I was coming to, looking back though I think this was just the unknown. The first offroad section is a bit of an uphill, no real slog but an uphill all the same. On my old mtb I would normally just pootle along and take it easy but for some reason as soon as I hit the offroad uphill section I found myself out the saddle and having a mild sprint up the hill, at the top I’ll be honest I was glistening, after all it’s been a hot day and panting slightly but somewhat relieved. That actually felt good and I enjoyed it.

At this point I feel I should say the only bikes I’ve really spent time on are steel hardtails, that’s my thing and has been for the past 20 years. It’s where I’m comfortable at so a rigid aluminum frame on skinny tyres offroad felt, well I was I going to say different but actually it didn’t. I didn’t find the ride too harsh, the bike stayed comfortable at all times.

Hitting the first downhill, as I said it wasn’t gnarly but there are the odd few roots to throw you about it, I held back, stayed on the hoods. This was more me being hesitant getting to know the bike rahter than the bike holding me back. I felt confident if I had wanted too I could really push it. And that’s what I got from my first proper ride on it, that’s the one thing that really stood out for me, I had a lot of confidence in the bike. I can’t wait to take it out again and just explore. It was fun, sprightly and different all in a positive way.

My choice of tyre is the Schwalbe Sammmy Slick 35c. These handled great offroad and didn’t feel too sluggish on road and off road I found they held the grip well and accelerated nicely. The Ultegra groupset was faultless, super smooth and having come from Sram X9 this was a breath of fresh air, loved this and worth the extra money over the 105 I was considering. The Hope hoops were as to be expected brilliant. The brakes (TRP Spyre) never concerned me, even when going downhill but saying that I wasn’t really pushing it.

By the end of the ride I was happy and I’m glad to say my reservations from the train ride home were ill conceived. I really, really like this bike. It’s so different to my old Charge Cooker but the ride left me wanting more and I can’t wait for more hours in the saddle. Pics below from the ride.

Stooked for you chap! just building my own version at the moment cant wait to get out there.

Lovely – and thanks for the write up

Im currently looking at this kind of thing for my next commuter

The Arkose certainly looks the business and Im sorely tempted
My “problem” is that I can get a GT Grade on the ride to work but my employer wont deal with Evans

On the one hand a big tax break is good, on the other the Grade’s welds look agricultural compared to the Arkose

Hmmmmmm

That colour is ace.

Looks great. Always nice to see proper sized bikes that still look in proportion. Definitely need to sort out the rims though 🙂

teadrinker– thanks for the write-up. Been mulling over a Gravel bike/de-tuned CX/Gnarmac for a while and unfortunately the longer I cogitate, the more options appear – recent offerings from Felt, Mason & Cannondale. Hmmmmmm

I got the Arkose 2 recently and after a 2day bikepacking trip have similar positive things to say. Great bike or F&f for the money. Can’t see the need to spend more tbh.

Very nice.
I’ve just (couple o’ weekends ago) built up a Vaya (in blue) for much the same kinda ‘mixed’ riding. (I might even post some pictures of mine later).

Lovely machine. Great pics too. Hope to build something very similar soon. Couple of quick questions – what size frame is that in the pics? And how did you find installing the internal cabling – any tips on how to do this?

Lovely machine. Great pics too. Hope to build something very similar soon. Couple of quick questions – what size frame is that in the pics? And how did you find installing the internal cabling – any tips on how to do this?

That’s the xl in the pics, i’m just over 6ft 3. Internal cabling was a doddle. Rear disc was external all the way and the internal was just the gears. They fit nicely going in and the exit hole is easy to get out off just keep the frame the right way up and it will find it’s way out. Any other questions just ask 😀