Pole's Evolink Undergoes Updates for Its Five Year Anniversary - Pond Beaver 2021
Five years ago, Pole were not nearly as well known as they are today. They started as a brand that wanted to challenge convention and push geometry forward. The Evolink was released and, it could well be said, the Finnish brand gave "considered thinking" something of a kick up the posterior. You might have heard of "long, low and slack," well this was of course being said before Pole. However, the Evolink was one of the first to also throw "steep seat tubes" into that maxim.
Due to the fact that the Evolink was so ahead of the curve in terms of its geometry, this update should be seen as more of a facelift than a page one re-write. A bit of nip and tuck to keep up with the Jones'. Better yet, Pole manage to do this and make the changes they want without isolating current Evolink owners.
The new Evolink 1.4 retains the same 64.5° head angle but sees the seat tube steepened to an effective angle of 79.9°. The chassis essentially remains unchanged so you'll be seeing very familiar numbers; the 497mm reach, 1301mm wheel base, in what was known as the medium size, and the 29 inch wheels front and back. A small difference you might notice is that the 1.4 moves away from internal routing completely.
The Evolink 1.4 sees Pole step away from S/M/L/XL sizes. No dodgy jokes, please.
There is a small shakeup in terms of how Pole size these bikes, with the conventional sizes replaced by K1, K2, K3 and K4. This is something you might have seen with other brands. It essentially tries to emphasize the subjective nature of bike fit and how it's a combination of stature and style.
As you can see, gone are the windows for internal routing to give a much cleaner look.
The bottom bracket height also increases from -20mm to -3mm but the overall stack height decreases across all sizes. As you can imagine, the two often work inversely to one another. Similarly, increasing BB height, much like changing stack height, will also have a small effect on reach, although often only slight. The consequence of the increase in BB height is a bike that is more responsive to rider input and will help ease the bike into bunny hops or manuals with less effort.
Pole feel that the biggest change with the revised Evolink is the increased progression in the leverage ratio.The mid-stroke, the point at which a rider spends most of their time riding, is now set at an average leverage ratio of 2.67 compared with the
Pole feel that the biggest change with the revised Evolink is the increased progression in the leverage ratio.The mid-stroke, the point at which a rider spends most of their time riding, is now set at an average leverage ratio of 2.67 compared with the
Along with a host of specification updates, the frames and complete bikes will feature metric shocks across the whole Evolink 1.4 range which will deliver 144mm travel to the rear end of the bike.
Pole admit to coming across the benefits of running a metric shock by happy coincidence. Leo Kokkenen of Pole said “We had a bit of luck with this one. With the simple addition of a 55mm metric shock, we’ve managed to update an already classic bike. Previously we didn't want to raise the BB too much without a proof of concept. During testing with another prototype, we discovered that the long and slack geo benefits from an even higher BB. The fundamental issue with the discussion around BB height is the same reason why bikes were so steep in the first place: engineers stuck to the old measurement from the ground to BB using 26" wheels.”
An increase in average progression, as well as a larger value of anti-squat, should ensure more support, both towards the end of the stroke, meaning you could run a lower spring rate, and as an increased pedalling platform.
The Evolink 1.4 will be available as either a frameset only option or a complete build. The frameset will have the choice of three shock options, and will be outfitted with a Cane Creek headset and a seat clamp starting from €1690.
A Super Limited Stock Custom build will also be available. It will feature a Rock Shox Lyrik Select RC fork and a SRAM GX Eagle drivetrain and will retail for €4450.
If you're a current Evolink 140 V1.3 owner and wish to upgrade your current setup to the 1.4 then Pole will be offering update kits. These kits will consist of headset cups, that will be manufactured in house in Finland, and your choice of a Cane Creek or RockShox metric shock, which will include any relevant hardware.
Due to ongoing industry shortages and backlogs with components, numbers of frames and complete bikes are strictly limited on the pre-sale shipment and may well indeed not be available for very long. Although, the estimated availability and shipping times for framesets and builds will be as early as June 2021.
Pre-orders for the new Evolink 1.4 framesets and Stock Custom builds are now open at polebicycles.com
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Insensitive...yes. Argumentative...yes. Criminal...possibly.
Entertaining...often.
-Sam Hill
Today, they're known for bad customer service and flimsy frames.
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According to Leigh, perfectly fine. That actual frame is also what he raced enduro on.
Funny how people make a big deal of Pole frames braking after the PB test and one other forum post, meanwhile Yetis develop cracks all the time with forum posts full of them, and nobody makes a deal out of it.
Really makes you think...
As for the image of the CEO, its really just PB commenters that love to shit on people to score some woke points, like they are some represetnatives of the sport. Same people shit on Emily Batty who wasn't "pure" enough because she is sponsored by Porsche.
People who care more about riding and can afford those bikes literally could give 2 shits less, because they realize that not buying something for personal enjoyment and instead grandstanding to some randoms on the internet about not supporting some company is the saddest thing one can possibly do.
Chris Porter has been pushing geometry boundaries for a while, and while local to his community he has opened peoples minds, he didn't move the needle. Its pretty clear that the Stumpjumper Evo experiment that Specialized did was in response to Pole, and after the success of that bike and geometry philosophy, all of Specialized entire lineup now has geometry that would have been considered ridiculous only 5 years ago. its mostly the same story with the other major brands.
So they literally just removed the internal routing and are calling it a new frame. Wow.
What I think is clear is that it's not clear.
Besides that, making even a small change on existing frames drawings and manufacturing process is a lot more involved process than many think.
In my view, it would have been perfectly OK to announce this candidly "we decided to adapt the Evolink to metric shocks which results in what we perceive as these positive changes and is a cost effective way to keep the "tried and true" frame current".
And many of us bashing on them are aware that most structural modifications to a frame require new tooling, prototyping, pre runs, new testing validation all that jazz. But that's not the point here. If, even for valid reasons, you didn't do that, do not imply you did in your communication
I disagree on the manufacturing front. Very few people, even riders who have been with the sport for a considerable time, have no idea how much work, effort and consideration goes into producing a bicycle or just making minor changes to an existing design. Couple that with the complications caused by the current global situation and it's quite an obstacle course to navigate.
DO NOT USE FOR LARGER JUMPS OR DROPS (> 120CM / 48”) or Warranty goes out of window. polebicycles.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Warranty-_-Product-Liability_before_892020.pdf
But, I thought, maybe, wasn't the purpose of internal routing, to um, you know, give bikes, like, much... cleaner... looks...?
Slight steeper seat angle, check.
Higher BB, check (no bike parks here, it's rocky and you gotta be able to pedal through it.....low BBs are dangerous).
Higher progression, check.
Delete internal routing, check.
It's just a shame they didn't retool to adjust the head angle properly.
The looks are subjective, I like them personally. Sure, there are prettier bikes, but if I cared about looks over performance I'd still be on my Evil Wreckoning. You get used to the look of seat angle. Anything with a conservative slack seat angle looks awkward to me these days. Like a recumbent!
Buying my second hand bikes is going to become a minefield.
"overall stack height decreases across all sizes"
Made up for with all the headset spacers they could find.
The post is slammed in as far as possible but it works fine.
I wonder why they did not place the damper a bit more to the front and actuated it with a yoke to get more length of the seattube?
I had a long discussion with pole when i was in the planning phase for my current race-sled, and we could not make it work for me. Pity. The seattube/dropper was the only factor that made me buy a geometron at the end. I know 2 guys who ride evolinks.... this thing just works. Very VERY good. And btw: i never have heard of a broken evolink.... I really wonder where what the guys did to destroy this thing. It is build like a tank....
And no, I'm not a Pole fanboy.
Both Sick and Pole suffer from Gigantic Ego. You just don’t go out with new stuff and throw crap on virtually everybody, saying your product is better in every possible way and most ethical on top of it. I may have a gigantic ego on Pinkbike but I keep it away from my clients as an architect. I make sure their hard earned money doesn’t go to shit. A bunch of folks online say Wakis house revolutionary organic concrete house has mould everywhere 2 werks after the first rain - they are all haters who cannot appreciate how visionary I am. Then in the midst of shitstorm post a selfie taken in my kitchen and write that I know that I am cool anyways
Because nobody would ever hire me again, save a couple of pretentious whackos with disposable income or some lost souls willing to stress their budget to make a dent in local peer group
Just go get a privateer instead.. near enough the same geo, same weight, but they’ll actually take care of you!
Could’ve even launched it on Easter for double entendre bonus points.
(Once they get the slo-mo camera working)
Pretty sure the last model was 480mm for a M and 510 for a large.
Sounds like you need a good kick up the posterior!