Charge Bikes Goes Plus

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Issue 98 of Singletrack, out this week, has a feature about this new ‘Plus Size Revolution’ that appears to be coming our way – with bikes that feature 2.8in-3.25in tyres. There are pros and cons and evangelists and detractors on the topic. Some companies have launched a toe-dipping model or two, but not Charge. Charge Bikes’ Cooker Midi range is entirely 27+ wheeled and will be out in September.

See our lively debate on the topic on the Singletrack Forum, here.

Start here. The steel, singlespeed Cooker 0 is £699

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We’ve been talking to Ash from Charge, who’s been riding Plus tyres for a year now before launching this range and quizzing him with all the questions you’d want to quiz a bike designer. No, these bikes aren’t Boost 148, because that instantly adds complexity and price – the Cookers start at £699 for the singlespeed version. Why spec the WTB Trailblazer at 2.8in instead of a ‘true’ 3in tyre? Well, having tested everything from 2.8 up to 3.25, Charge felt that the Trailblazer gave more of the ride and steering of a ‘normal’ mountain bike without the cartoon looks and self-steering feel of a true fat bike (which Charge makes anyway).

The hot-looking Cooker 1 adds 1×11 gears, alloy frame and suspension corrected fork for £799

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The Cooker Midi is specced with Charge’s own 40mm internal rim, which is 5mm narrower than the WTB Scraper rim, to save weight and to keep the tyre from being overly squared off. There’s SRAM 1x gearing on all bikes bar the singlespeed as Charge reckons this is how mountain bikers run their bikes these days (and Ash admitted they’d not even thought of fitting a front mech)

As is contemporary, the head angles are slackened off slightly over last year’s 29ers, the front centre is slightly longer and the stems, slightly (10mm) shorter. With the WTB 27+ tyres being around 14mm shorter than 29ers, this isn’t a direct port of the 29er frame into a 27+. The chainstays have been shortened and the BB height adjusted to take into account the shorter tyre too.

The Charge Cooker 2 introduces suspension for £899

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With prices from £700 up to £3,000 there’s certainly plenty of choice for the chubby-curious rider and as bikes will be on sale in shops from September, they’ll be one of the first companies to have a full range of bikes for people to try and buy.

Is that brown? The Cooker 3 is £1199

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The top end of the alloy framed range is the Cooker 4 at £1499
The £2999.99 Cooker 5 has a Ti frame and 1×11 gears
Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 23 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

More posts from Chipps

Replies (4)

    • Dean June 8, 2015 at 6:27 pm

    I am liking these,,,

    TheGhost June 9, 2015 at 9:24 am

    So, basically we shouldn’t buy these until next year when they upgrade them all to boost because all the mags and websites will be saying that’s the way to go by then.
    They do look ace though 🙂

    Chipps June 9, 2015 at 1:39 pm

    Boost adds a considerable amount of cost to the frames, so I don’t reckon they’d be as affordable. Like anything technical these days: cameras, laptops, phones – if you want one now, buy one now and start enjoying it now, as there’ll always be a new version coming along.

    Gary Smith June 9, 2015 at 9:38 pm

    If they’re not using boost am I right in thinking you could just put ‘normal’ wheels in instead?

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