Eurobike 2015: Charge Bikes

Charge Bikes were showing a new range of Charge Cookers at the show, all 27.5+ ranging from basic rigid ones, to a fine looking titanium one with Rebas. All of them have some flavour of 1x, from single speed to 1×11; and all eschew droppers and internal cable routing. The stand was one of the more unusual and, while not quite as surreal as Knog’s, had a lot of paint spattered everywhere in a somewhat Pollock-ish manner (less structured though).

No one at the show seemed more committed to 27.5+ than Charge, whose entire range of bikes were on plus sized rubber.

Fully rigid, and notice that single speed setup? That’s down to the EBB.

The 0 is the only steel one in the range, RRP is 699.99

The Cooker 1 is aluminium, rigid, and has an RRP of £799.99

Very tidy around the headtube.

The Cooker 2 is the lowest model with suspension, with an RRP of £999.99

Suntour Radon plus SLX 1×10

For £1199.99, the Cooker 3 keeps the Suntour fork and steps up to SRAM GX 1×11 with a 10-42 cassette (leg: model’s own).

The Cooker 4 runs with all of that, but switches the fork up to a Rockshox Reba for £1499.99

It’s the stealthiest Cooker.

At the top of the range, £2999.99 gets you the titanium Cooker 5 with Rebas, SRAM X1 gearing and SRAM Guide R brakes.

WE’ve got one of these in to test. Squeee!

The paint cans were mysteriously immaculate compared to the rest of the stand.

David Hayward

David started mountain biking in the 90’s, by which he means “Ineptly jumping a Saracen Kili Racer off anything available in a nearby industrial estate”. After growing up and living in some extremely flat places, David moved to Yorkshire specifically for the mountain biking. This felt like a horrible mistake at first, because the hills are so steep, but you get used to them pretty quickly. Previously, David trifled with road and BMX, but mountain bikes always won. He’s most at peace battering down a rough trail, quietly fixing everything that does to a bike, or trying to figure out if that one click of compression damping has made things marginally better or worse. The inept jumping continues to this day.