Make me look tanned
This is Pole's brand-new Stamina 140. Now, it looks a lot like their 180 but as you can tell from the name
140 millimeters of rear-wheel travel. Now, it's pretty interesting. There's lots to talk about but let's cover the basic stuff first
150 millimeter fork upfront weight is 30.6 lbs and that's with a set of our control tires.
Now, I know what you're thinking. That's a fair bit of money, but you're not even getting carbon this thing
It's aluminum from front to back but Pole is doing something pretty interesting here
The front triangle is machined in two halves and then glued together
they're special channels cut in the halves to get the gluing nice and strong and
I know some of you are freaking out about that out there, but there's a ton of airplane parts, car chassis
things like that that are glued together and I think it gives it a pretty unique look.
It's just a simple dual link design both links rotate clockwise
and they use a big clevis that wraps around the seat tube to drive the shock. Now, Pole also says that
they've got a little more anti squat on this thing than they did on the Machine, the previous version, so it should pedal quite
well, too. Now, since we're talking about suspension this bike
It's got a 150 millimeter Pike Ultimate up front. Wheels are from Mavic.
They're Deemax. You don't see them that often especially expect stock on a bike, but there you go
Drivetrain SRAM XO1 12 speed. This bike
two water bottles inside the front triangle, you know me
I love water bottles on a bike
So you can actually put three alltogether because there's another mount down here if you're using the supplied Fidlock bottles. Threaded bottom bracket
I know you guys all like that but there are no ISCG tabs around it. That's where the bottom link rotates
Instead Pole has gone for a direct mount system just bolts in right there a lot simpler a lot lighter than a full-on chain guide
It also doesn't have internal cable routing. I personally like that
I know it looks nice inside the frame. But this this is a whole lot easier to deal with you
Just put zip ties through it's done and that's it
As far as set up notes go, Levy and I are similar weights
so we ran similar tire pressures. 21 pounds in the front 23 in the rear and that's on the Maxxis control tires that were using
And those I'll have the EXO+ casing. As far as suspension setup 165 pounds right around 30% sag
and then 75 psi in the fork.
I'm 5 foot 10. Kazimer how tall are you? 5 foot 11. We're on a medium and now that's a little bit
different than our other test bikes which are all larges
But Pole sizing is a little bit different so mediums
Anybody whose 5 foot 11 and below so that's both Kazimer and I but they have very steep seat angles
It's almost 80 degrees and top tube 600 millimeters. Yep. Yeah, so don't be thrown off by the long reach number
It's kind of a whole package. They've thought up a geometry and what they recommend it to see how it works
So we've mentioned that steep seat tube angle
That's really the first thing you notice when it comes time to climb
You are nice and upright. Has a 470 millimeter reach which is pretty normal, but that top tube length
you're just right over the bars. Pedal up lots of things. One thing I did notice when climbing is the longer chain stay length
It's got 450 millimeter chains stays. Gives the bike a little bit of a longer wheelbase and when you're going into tighter,
More technical switchbacks and things. Yeah, it's when the speed drops
It's like when you're those kind of moments when you're going around a corner and you're like right at zero and you need to go
And it's super awkward. The bike feels long at those times but most of the other places it doesn't really feel that big
I mean, it's not really that big. Nowadays. Yeah exactly
Yeah, these numbers probably would have seemed extreme just even a couple years ago. Yeah quickly become more mainstream
Yeah, I think steep seat tube angles are good up to a point. I feel like this is probably close to that point. Yeah
So descending I think that's what most people are gonna be interested in with this thing
It's really where the bike comes alive. And it it dominated this test didn't it? Yes.
Yeah, it feels like the biggest bike and on the downhills that's a benefit.
You really carve this thing where we are in Pemberton there's a lot of
Longer steeper chutes where the trails well built and you can open it up have some speed and you're nice and centered
in the middle of the bike. You can go really fast.
I don't think I've ever felt more comfortable on a bike in loose corners
And again, you meant to mention that like centered feeling the fairly long rear end and the long-ish front end
Everything just kind of comes together
but I think one place it falls short compared to some of the other trail bikes is that it's not as
Energetic on the trail. You might say it's more likely to stay a little closer to the ground. Yeah. Yeah
There's some bikes it just every time you hop on them. You just feel like you're hopping off everything do little manuals wheelies
Whatever this you're just going straight and plowing. As far as how the suspension itself feels on the bike
It did a good job handling all the of rocks
We plowed it through but I never felt like the compression tune was quite wide enough.
The shock is the Cane Creek Inline shock
It's very adjustable you have high speed, low speed compression. High speed, low speed rebound
But even pretty open on the low speed compression it kind of felt like it had more damping than I would have preferred
Yeah, I think the bike would feel more lively with somebody else's shock
And that's not to say this is the wrong shock. It would be interesting to try it with something different
Yeah, sure something a little more active. Yeah heavy bottom outs: non-existent.
You know, you run really low pressure in the shock and you don't really sit into all that much sag
Like we're sitting into a little bit less than 30% sag I think
and I didn't feel a hard bottom on that thing once.
No, we definitely pushed the bike hard in the Bike Park. Hitting bigger jumps drops that type of thing.
Where you can usually bottom out. Especially trail bikes. No issues here.
I had my second fastest lap time on this bike, but it was raining that day so kinda one of those things.
For me it was the fastest bike by far and I think it could been even faster. So it was 6.2%
faster than the next fastest bike. No matter what the numbers say
Every time we went on the trail
Even if we didn't have stop watches or timers or anything going. You just feel like it's going fast
And it wants to go fast. Yeah easily the most capable when it comes to speed
The Pike Ultimate on the front
I mean it was invisible and I think that's
That's like the biggest compliment you can make of suspension. For me, the two standouts the Mavic Deemax wheels
We don't see those that often do it. Yeah, they're not a normal spec, you know, no especially coming in with a complete build
Yeah, exactly, but zero issues and then the Bike Yoke Revive dropper seat post. I like the remote.
Rock-solid. Code RSC brakes. Those are always nice to see you know
They're starting to make their way on trail bikes kind of originally designed for downhill bikes
They're the brakes this bike deserves. Oh, yeah, exactly
And then the final spec note is that this bike comes with Huck Norris tire inserts already installed.
We did remove them to make it a level playing field between all the bikes, but it's a nice little feature
Not that many bikes these days are coming with tire inserts
First of all, obviously this thing insanely capable
Basically everywhere it's easy to ride fast. It's easy to ride down the steep stuff
It's easy to ride a little bit out of control, you know this bike when it comes to seat angles
It's kind of right on the bleeding edge. It's it's almost eighty degrees and we used to think Leo was crazy
I've said that a few times. He's probably still a little bit crazy Leo from Pole, but he's also right
This is the best handling bike in the group. So the two other pluses of this bike
first of all the components spec, there's no real issues there. The stuff just works. Look at this thing like
The manufacturing, how it was made, aluminum halves glued together. Like that's cool as hell
Yeah, and I think that's just the fact that it is aluminium,
I think that's going to appeal to a lot of people that aren't really on the carbon wagon
As far as the cons go for this bike it might not be lively or energetic enough for some riders
Just kind of depends what flavor of trail bike you're searching for
And also might just be a little bit bigger or longer than some rider is looking for depends on your trails
You know, if you have super tight super technical things. There's bikes that can be easier to navigate on that type of terrain
Hold on a minute record scratch
Whoa, I broke the Pole.
That's my favorite one
Not good. You sickos. Love to watch that slo-mo huck to flat stuff
This is what happens Leo Kokkonen the main man at Pole
He's told us that apparently our test bike was sent out with a still in development
lighter weight cross-country rear end. Saves 98 grams
But it does not affect the bike's geo. Exact same pivot locations all that stuff
He also said that no customer bikes went out like that. So this brace on the cross country swing arms
It's around two and a half millimeters thick and on the production Stamina 140 swing arms
It's about three and a half millimeters thick
The good news is that the geometry of the bike is the same as if we'd have had a full production version
So all the ride impressions those still hold true
But on the same note
there's gonna be an asterisk next to this section of the Field Test just because we had a failure and we need to mention that
Who is the Pole Stamina 140 for?
I think it's for somebody who one
probably enjoys something a little bit different that isn't a Specialized, a Trek, or anything else
You know, you're not gonna see these things everywhere
Also, it's for somebody who enjoys going fast and will enjoy an extremely capable bike
You could take this thing anywhere. All your buddies have big enduro race bikes, whatever follow them with this
All right, so that's the Pole Stamina 140
There's a whole bunch more videos
Coming from the Field Test as well as a roundtable discussion talking about and comparing all these trail bikes
So keep an eye out for those