When Pinnacle invited us to the launch of its Iroko hardtail, we were fearful that it would at the very least have something ‘Plus’ about it. However, we’re delighted to announce that the new Pinnacle Iroko is… a bike! Or a range of bikes at least.
The bikes do feature those new-fangled 27.5in wheels, but with quite understated 2.3in tyres on them. With prices starting at £800 and heading up to £1450, the Iroko is Pinnacle’s brand new 27.5in/650B trail hardtail platform. It has evolved from the original 26in model, featured in the range back in 2013 and Pinnacle reckons it has maintained the same ‘fun factor’ as the previous model.
The bikes all feature Rockshox forks (from a Recon up to a Pike) and alloy frames. There’s stealth routing for 31.6mm dropper posts, though interestingly, the bikes come stock with a shimmed 27.2mm post for comfort – just remove the shims and you can fit a bigger post. Why didn’t other companies think of that?
The bikes are ‘modern geometry’ and take a 40mm stem on a longer top tube, with 740mm bars for steering things around. The top two models get 1x transmissions (the Iroko Four) while the lower two get doubles. The Effective Top Tube lengths go from 600mm on the small(!) to 651mm on the XL.
James Olsen, Pinnacle Designer (and Singletrackworld.com user) comments “The Iroko originally featured in the Pinnacle range as a 26in bike back in 2013 and was replaced by the Ramin 29er. Until now we’ve not had any other wheel size in our MTB range simply because the Ramin did all we wanted it to. It was popular, and won awards. To justify a change in wheel size, the bike would have to do more than our 29er. We did not want to simply follow the trend and enter the 650B market just to have an offering in this category. Eventually, after riding numerous 650B samples, we decided we could go further with the geometry than was possible with the Ramin. Not having to make compromises for the size of the wheels has resulted in a more maneuverable and hard-hitting bike. I feel like we’ve made a genuine step forward from the 26in Iroko, while keeping the basic ‘fast and fun’ trail hardtail format of the original bike.”
The rest of the range is being launched later this week.
pinnacle-bikes.co.uk
Comments (6)
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They look well, nice one jameso.
No fat tyres, no splatter paint jobs, jameso I’m very dissapointed. ;-p
It’s hardly progressing the sport, is it Akira? 🙂
I know Jameso has a slight fetish for old skool chipps, last year’s ss cross bike had a lovely splatter finish plus I work for the company so occasionally bug him for fat bike but he’s yet to give in..
Ramin, iroko…what’s next? Spalted beech?
(Sorry I’m a woody type… 😉 )
They look nice. And £1400 for XT and Pike seems like it’s a deal, it’s a steal, it’s sale of the f***ing century!
That said, is it just me or does every other new bike out there seem to have WTB tyres? What’s going on, are they making a major push to get themselves specced everywhere*, or have all the manufacturers suddenly woken up to the quality of their offering..?
* – This is the likely answer