The word innovation is something I’ve always been interested in, but so many times it’s used to describe simple things that may not be that different from mainstream designs. the Pole Machine represents the true meaning of this word though. It starts with Two pieces of machined aluminium that are glued together and then fitted with bolts to make sure the flex is kept at bay – and that’s just the beginning. HERE’s our first look at this new design.
Words: Ieuan Williams Photos: Alex Hunter, Ieuan Williams
This Finnish company has not just come out of the woodwork. Its previous shorter travel 29er had some pretty wild sizing along with Pole’s own suspension system.
The Machine sticks with existing design cues such as the single sided shock and Pole’s suspension system and rolls on 29″ wheels. There’s more rear travel this time though, coming in at 160mm and the frame is designed around a 180mm fork. This bike was offered to ride while on holiday with Switchbacks over in Malaga and I jumped at the opportunity to swing my leg over, especially after recently spending plenty of time on long travel 29″ enduro bikes (for our Dirty Dozen test). I was keen to see how this bike compared to the best of this new breed as well as the recently launched YT Capra 29.
For more tech details on this new bike, keep on reading. We will have a full review to follow when we’ve spent more time on this bike on familiar UK tracks.
