New Pinnacle Arkose offers 'unparalleled versatility' to bridge road and gravel disciplines

The Pinnacle Arkose began its life as a cyclocross bike seven years ago, but made the leap to become a gravel specific machine later in its life.

For 2019, the Evans Cycles in-house brand has redesigned the model to offer what it calls "unparalleled versatility" which it says re-imagines "the benchmark for bikes in its class."

The frame has been designed to fit single or double chainring options, electronic or cable gears as well as being fully compatible with 650b x 52c and 700c x 45mm wheel/tyre combos as well as a range of rear axle types. 

There's internal routing for front and rear dynamo lights, though the front light will only work with full carbon fork models.

Other alterations to the platform include  custom-formed tubes, a sleek fully modular dropout and a bridgeless seat stay design targeted at smoothing the ride. 

The collection is now split into two parts: Arkose Road (£900-£1250) and Arkose Dirt (£825-£1300), with several build options and women's specific versions at each price point. The models all share the same frame and fork, so wheels and gearing can be swapped around whenever suits.

The Arkose Dirt models come with 45mm tyres and 48/32 chainsets with wide ratio cassettes, whilst the road models come with compact chainsets and 30c tyres.

There's also two special builds - the Arkose X (£1400) and Alfine 8 (£1000).

The Arkose X is a mega adventurer with 650b wheels and 47c WTB Byway tyres and a SRAM Rival 1 groupset plus flared bar. The Alfine is all about commuting, with an Alfine hub gear, and TRP Hydro brakes plus tubeless ready wheels.

Commenting on the new range, Scott Decker Product Manager for Own Brand Bikes at Evans Cycles said: “As riders demand more range of use from a drop-bar bike, we wanted to show the versatility that this frame can offer the rider by designing more adaptability into the frameset itself.

"With single and double chainring options as well as electronic or cable gears being a common decision, alongside axle type or wheel size or whether to fit guards and a rack or not, we saw an opportunity to design a solution that looked more complete or neat in any configuration.

"With the new Pinnacle Arkose, we’re proud to have created a range of bikes that help riders unearth new routes and discover new styles of riding.”