The Pinnacle Dolomite Five has arrived to see us through the rest of winter.
Billed as “an ideal British road bike” and based around a tough aluminium frame with the ability to take full mudguards, it looks well specced as a winter bike built to stand up to the vagaries of the UK climate.
Pinnacle is the house brand of Evans Cycles and falls under the remit of designer James Olsen, who also works with Sir Chris Hoy and the six-time Olympic champion’s range of bikes sold through the high street retailer. Olsen previously worked at Genesis Bikes and was the brains behind the Equilibrium, often considered the benchmark for a machine ready to tackle British conditions head on.
Five bikes make up the Dolomite line-up and this is the top-of-the-range model at £900, so it falls comfortably under the £1,000 Cycle to Work mark and remains an attainable machine for a rider seeking a second bike to see them through winter.
The Dolomite is based a double-butted, 6061-T6, heat-treated aluminium frame which has been updated for 2014 with the addition of a 1-1/8″ to 1-1/5″ tapered headtube housing a full carbon fork – impressive for the price tag. Otherwise it’s as you were, with round tube profiles on the downtube and seattube, an ovalised toptube and relatively skinny and sweeping seatstays.
Key to the Dolomite Five’s claim as a British road bike is its ability to take full-length mudguards and the chassis has eyelets on the fork and seatstays to provide protection from rain and road spray. The bike also comes specced with long-drop brake calipers and there’s also plenty of tyre clearance, with room for 28mm rubber, according to Pinnacle, though the Dolomite rolls out of Evans stores specced with 25mm Kenda tyres.
Despite it’s all-weather billing, Pinnacle say the Dolomite Five has been designed “with no compromises on speed and efficiency” and the geometry reflects that. The compact geometry, not least the tight rear triangle, combined with the oversized downtube promise plenty in the way of stiffness.
The Dolomite Five comes in just four sizes from small to extra-large. Our medium test bike has a 56cm effective toptube, 160mm headtube, and 73 and 72 degree seattube and headtube angles. The 50cm seattube leaves plenty of the 27.2mm seatpost exposed and that should help deal with road buzz – more exposed seatpost means there’s more to flex, thus soaking up vibrations before they reach the rider. We’ll find out on the road.
As for the spec, the groupset is a mix of Shimano, FSA and Tektro components. The shifters and front and rear derailleurs come from Shimano’s 105 groupset, while the Shimano Tiagra cassette is from the next step down on the Japanese component manufacturer’s groupset ladder. FSA provide the Gossamer chainset and the combination of compact chainrings and an 11-25t cassette should provide a good spread of gears, though we’re more used to seeing a cassette with a 28t ‘get out of jail’ sprocket on the back.
Otherwise, the R539 brakes come from Tektro. We were won over by the mechanical disc brakes specced on the recently reviewed Canyon Ultimate AL 8.0 S winter bike – they provided reliable stopping power whatever the weather – but rim brakes are here to stay for some time and the R539 long-drop calipers are a popular choice. While the frame has mudguard eyelets, they’re not fitted as standard.
Meanwhile, the entry-level Shimano wheels, which have a claimed weight of 1,848g, are wrapped in Kenda Kriterium wire bead tyres. Speccing the Dolomite Five with 25mm tyres is a sensible move, increasing the contact patch with the road, which should in turn improve comfort and grip, and it reflects the growing trend towards wider rubber
Finally, Pinnacle supply the own-brand aluminium handlebar, stem and seatpost, as well as the saddle. Claimed weight for the complete bike is 8.5kg, though our test bike is nearly half-a-kilo heavier than that at 8.95kg.
And that’s that. Pinnacle are pitching the Dolomite Five as “a winter trainer that won’t feel too far from your best bike”. Time for us to see see if that’s the case.
Price: £900
Sizes: S-XL
Website: Pinnacle
UK distributor: Evans Cycles
