UK-based Charge Bikes has pretty much simplified their bikes into three clear lines for next season with a color-coded palette across the board that progresses from barebones grey singlespeeds up to kitted-out raw titanium bikes at the top. Charge built a set of paint booths at Eurobike to show the more unified range and how the Colour Lab concept ties the bikes together. In between greys things get more colorful, with the Plug fat tire road bikes getting the brightest colors, the Cooker mountain bikes getting pure colors, and the Grater urban bikes more subdued tones.
Roll past the break for a run down of the bikes with UK/EU/US pricing, and another amusing video of the 27+ bike in its supposed natural habitat…
The bike line-up starts with the Grey 0 singlespeeds and gradually moves up in spec as the colors change. The Plug 0 (£350/€540/$500) and Cooker 0 (£700/€1050/$1100) get steel frames and forks, while all Graters get aluminum frames from the Grater 0 (£350/€530/$450) up to the ti bike. The Red 1 bikes add an aluminum frame and fork for the Plug and Cooker, plus a rear derailleur for the Cooker and Grater. The next level 2 Blue bikes bring Promax discs and a Shimano Claris 2×8 to the Plug 2 (£650/€1000/$1000), a Suntour Raidon fork to the Cooker 2 (£1000/€1400/$1500), and disc brakes to the Grater 2 (£600/€900/$950). At the Brown 3 level the Plug goes to Tiagra 2×10 and gets a carbon fork, the Cooker takes a proper SRAM 1×11, and the Grater goes to an internally geared hub. The level 4 bikes go Black, with a 2×11 105 group for the Plug 4 (£950/€1400/$1550), a RockShox Reba SL for the Cooker 4 (£1500/€2200/$2400), and Rival 1×11 and a carbon fork for the Grater 4 (£1000/€1400/$1500).
At the top of the line the bikes all get raw finished titanium frames and some more spec boost up to the Rival 1 Hydro Plug 5 (£2500/€3600/$4000), the SRAM X1 Cooker 5 (£3000/€4200/$4500), and the Grater 5 (£2200/€3200/$3500).
One of Charge’s riders got a bit overexcited about his new Cooker 0 and made this video of him hunting it down. It’s worth a look for the sheer ludicrousness of it all, as well as a bit of fun rigid singlepeed trail riding about mid-way through. We had a first look at the new Cooker 27+ range a couple of months back, but have pulled out a bit more info on the new fat tire, trail riding hardtail.
All of the Cookers are built around lightweight tubeless-ready 2.8″ 27+ tires on Charge’s 40mm rims. With the WTB Trailblazers there is pretty decent mud clearance all around, and even room for some 3″ tires. The bike’s update gives it short chainstays, long toptubes, and mid-length color-matched stems for snappy handling. All but the 0 are built around 1x drivetrains with big range cassettes, the suspension forks get Boost front ends, and hydraulic brakes across the line.
Stepping up to the top, the 5 bikes all get raw finished 3:2.5 titanium frames with laser cut dropouts. The Plug 5 is the raciest looking of the bikes, but still comes with the rack and fender mounts (as do all of the other Plugs) for all year versatility and adventure. It is by design a to-it-all road bike and claims standard road riding geometry (although we haven’t yet seen the numbers.) With clearance for massive tires, the Plugs can handle any type of road surface, and will probably be a blast on smooth trails and a bit of cyclocrossing. The bikes get spec’ed with 42mm Kenda Kwick Tendril and Maxis Roamer tires, all with skinwalls for a classy look, and there was enough room all around for even slightly larger rubber or cross knobbies.
Charge has just put everything up on their website, so feel free to jump over there and get lost in the details. All of the new bikes will be available for delivery later this month.
