Pole’s take on mountain bikes is a bit unique in the industry. While the recent trends of contemporary trail-ready geometry has pushed most bikes out with longer toptubes and slack head angles, Pole still stands apart with some of the longest wheelbases of any bike maker out there. All of their bikes look almost exactly the same, whether for XC or DH and everything in between, and they all share in the same philosophy that longer is better.
We’d covered the Finnish 110mm cross-country bike and 140mm trail bike back when they were introduced at the start of 2016, but later in the year, we took the opportunity to hit some gravity-fueled, lift-assisted trails in the Austrian Alps on some of the more enduro-focused bikes. Back before the snow fell on some familiar trails, we took the 29er Evolink 14o EN and 27.5″ Evolink 150 LD into the woods to give them a proper thrashing and see how those long wheelbases would react through the berms, technical trails, and rooted switchbacks…
With two sizes of testers we decided to opt for the longer travel 27.5″ bike and the slightly shorter travel 29er that both get a Enduro riding target. Our smaller bike was this S-sized Evolink 150 27.5 LD. With a mix of enduro racing and a downhill feel at it core, it pairs a 160mm fork to the 150mm of short link 4-bar suspension in this Light Duty frame. The LD frame uses a slightly lighter tubing set to keep weight down for smaller riders and comes with a 85kg/187lb rider+gear weight limit (our 160cm tester adds up to 60kg packed down & wet) and only in the smaller sizes XS, S & M. The HD version in M-XL is better suited for heavier riders.
Last time we saw them we talked about the fact that the Evolink bikes fold down easily making them a good option for those who travel or are tight for space at home. They also get two proper bottle cage mounts if you want to leave the Camelbak at home, both benefits from small bikes to big and XC to DH.