Any reasons not to get a 2016 Pinnacle Dolomite 6?

johnmcl7
johnmcl7 Posts: 162
edited April 2016 in Road buying advice
I've got a 2013 Trek 1.5 road bike (bog standard 2x10 Tiagra bike) which I've recently added mud guards to but due to the very tight clearance at the front they're not working well so I'm back to looking at disc brake bikes. I'm wanting something with an aluminium frame, Shimano hydraulic disc brakes, mudguard mounts and internal routing. I normally prefer Trek from my LBS but Trek don't have anything suitable so I've been looking at the Pinnacle Dolomite 6 from Evans which is £60 off for the Easter break:

https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-do ... e-EV244122

I want to use the bike for riding on road for commuting and recreation, nothing fancier like racing or group riding. I'm thinking I should just go for it but thought it worth checking to make sure there was nothing I was missing first. There's no Evans near me unfortunately but I doubt I'd be able to appreciate differences in road bikes anyway.

Edit - the bike comes with an 11-28 cassette, would I need to change the derailleur to a longer cage to fit an 11-32?

Thanks,
John

Comments

  • Elfed
    Elfed Posts: 459
    The new Domane being released April 4th, might be worth waiting see what's available.
  • Its the next one down in the range, but the Pinnacle 5 gets a good review here:

    http://road.cc/content/review/172986-pi ... dolomite-5
  • johnmcl7
    johnmcl7 Posts: 162
    Its the next one down in the range, but the Pinnacle 5 gets a good review here:

    http://road.cc/content/review/172986-pi ... dolomite-5

    Thanks for the link, that's much more detailed than anything I've found plus it's useful to get information on running mudguards on the bike.

    John
  • Bobbinogs
    Bobbinogs Posts: 4,841
    That looks to be a very decent bike for the requirements. Good to see full 105 and the internal cabling makes things look very neat although I am still not convinced that the cons outweigh the benefits for the average Joe. A standard 27.2mm seatpost will provide a little flex and can easily be swapped for something carbon at some point if the fancy takes you. I would like to have seen a splash of colour to make the bike feel special but I suspect many will prefer the stealth look.

    Regarding the 32 tooth, yepp, you will probably have to fit the longer cage but if you are using the bike predominantly for commuting, etc., then a 34x28 combo should suffice for most hills so you might want to just run it as is and see if you really can be bother to splash on a new cassette/cage just for 1/2 extra gears which are very low. On the other hand, if you swap before riding then you could offset the purchase by flogging the cassette/short cage RD on Fleabay 'as new' which always adds a premium. Might even be worth asking Evans to see what deal they can come up with, including setup.
  • fenix
    fenix Posts: 5,437
    Don't see why you're ruling out rim brakes ? That way at least you'd be able to swap wheels between bikes - say if you come to your commute to work and you have a flat tyre or something.

    You must have a hell of a commute if you need a 32 sprocket.
  • johnmcl7
    johnmcl7 Posts: 162
    Fenix wrote:
    Don't see why you're ruling out rim brakes ? That way at least you'd be able to swap wheels between bikes - say if you come to your commute to work and you have a flat tyre or something.

    You must have a hell of a commute if you need a 32 sprocket.

    Rim brakes are the reason I want to get rid of the current bike, I much prefer the consistency of discs in any conditions and it makes mounting mudguards easier. Also this bike will be replacing the current one as my sole road bike so I won't be swapping wheels with anything.

    I normally stick to back roads here when cycling to avoid the faster traffic and that usually means steep hill climbs, I don't use the 32 tooth ring all the time but I do use it fairly regularly on long steep climbs.

    John
  • johnmcl7
    johnmcl7 Posts: 162
    Bobbinogs wrote:
    That looks to be a very decent bike for the requirements. Good to see full 105 and the internal cabling makes things look very neat although I am still not convinced that the cons outweigh the benefits for the average Joe. A standard 27.2mm seatpost will provide a little flex and can easily be swapped for something carbon at some point if the fancy takes you. I would like to have seen a splash of colour to make the bike feel special but I suspect many will prefer the stealth look.

    The reason I want the internal routing is to get more consistent shifting over winter, my current road bike doesn't have internally routed cables and always seems to need a fair bit of adjustment to keep it shifting cleanly over winter but the MTB's which have internally routed cables and are generally used in much worse conditions but keep pretty consistent shifting. That said there's no bike that's mostly suitable with external cable routing that I'm discounting purely because of cable routing.

    John