Pole Bikes

animalman86

Likes Bikes
I know there has been some Pole discussion previously, however I wanted to start a dedicated thread for Pole bikes.

I have been looking for close to 8 months for a new trail/all-mountain steed to replace my current Canyon Spectral, however there has not been a lot of bikes that have really excited me. I started looking into some of the more extreme geometry and obscure brands to see what was on offer such as Nicolai and the build that Zaf had put together and in the process came across Pole bikes. I was initially blown away upon seeing the Evolink, as it looks like something from outer space. They have now made another bike called the ‘Stamina’ in a 180 and 140mm version, the 140mm version would be perfect for 95% of my riding. I have no animosity towards carbon, but would prefer an aluminium bike and the geometry in this model (slack head angle and steep seat tube) is hard to find in shorter travel bikes.

I am now in a position to purchase and have started to look at the build options. As they sell direct to customers I will be purchasing directly from Pole and have been weighing up frameset vs complete build. The complete build EN is perfect for my use, however once you start adding in the below, things really start to blow out of the water:
  • FX Conversion fees on credit card 3%
  • Bank FX rates which are typically average
  • GST/Import duties when it lands.
Based on this I have prepped a similar build based on choosing parts that are equivalent to the EN build or better and have quoted prices at full retail. The cost has come out almost exactly the same - about $10k if I use some existing Hope pro 4 Hubs. However I am hoping that in taking a few months to pick the parts I may be able to come across some deals that will save some cash.

I would love to hear any opinions on whether anyone else will be purchasing or if anyone else hates the SRAM Geoblock as much as I do. Also I have budgeted $400 to pay someone to put the bike together for me - is this reasonable? I do a lot of maintenance myself but will be outsourcing this as I don't have the skills or tools.

Link to EN build:
https://polebicycles.com/stamina/stamina-140/
 
Last edited:

Oddjob

Merry fucking Xmas to you assholes
I've got a 29er Evolink 150, see here:
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?ur...&share_tid=312898&share_fid=1708&share_type=t

I'll be the first to admit that it is a monstertruck. It hates tight single trail and just isn't interested at anything below 70%. Running 27.5+ tyres improves things a little but there's no getting around the weight and length of the thing.

If you want a high speed, rock swallowing sled the Pole is great. But I tend to break out my Focus SAM when I don't know what the trails are like.

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animalman86

Likes Bikes
I've got a 29er Evolink 150, see here:
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?ur...&share_tid=312898&share_fid=1708&share_type=t

I'll be the first to admit that it is a monstertruck. It hates tight single trail and just isn't interested at anything below 70%. Running 27.5+ tyres improves things a little but there's no getting around the weight and length of the thing.

If you want a high speed, rock swallowing sled the Pole is great. But I tend to break out my Focus SAM when I don't know what the trails are like.

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk
Thanks mate looks like I have some reading to do tonight

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animalman86

Likes Bikes
Yeah ok - should start to be something that'll work for you. Where would you ride it?
Mostly trail around Adelaide - rocky, technical single trail with lots of climbing. Will also do some enduro races as a Hubbard.

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Nambra

Definitely should have gone to specsavers
I’ll leave the Pole talk to others, but will suggest that if you’re looking to make OS purchases with FX, then get the Bankwest platinum MasterCard that has zero fees on foreign currency conversion and foreign transactions, and no account keeping fees. You can add it to your PayPal account like any other card, just be sure to choose “currency conversion by card provider” when completing purchases.

For SRAM stuff, you’d be surprised that locally sourced product works out close to OS pricing, even more so now that GST supposedly applies to all OS purchases. It is disappointing that we don’t get to take advantage of the great sales that the Germans sometimes have. Sign up for the Pushy’s email newsletter and wait for their sitewide “% off” sales and be prepared to pull the trigger on parts when they are discounted. Alternatively don’t buy SRAM!
 

kten

understands stuff moorey doesn't
I’ll leave the Pole talk to others, but will suggest that if you’re looking to make OS purchases with FX, then get the Bankwest platinum MasterCard that has zero fees on foreign currency conversion and foreign transactions, and no account keeping fees. You can add it to your PayPal account like any other card, just be sure to choose “currency conversion by card provider” when completing purchases.
I had a look on paypal but couldn't find this option for “currency conversion by card provider”. Can you assist?
 

animalman86

Likes Bikes
@animalman86 A friend of mine in Townesville recently pulled the trigger on a Pole Evolink 131. At the moment, there's a bit of a lead time on delivery, just be aware that they're probably going to take some time getting the Stamina's out as well. He ordered, probably mid-late March and they're still not any closer to dispatch, the Facebook group confirms this as well, lots of people in the same boat. I think the company has had an influx in interest on their bikes (understandably) and they're just having the clear more orders than expected. Although, fingers crossed, you might dodge import fees.

The Nicolai has had a bunch of issues with it (mainly around the belt drive), and plenty of reasons to hate it, but the areas it shines it's simply phenomenal. I'm in the process of building a G13 as well (waiting on wheels :( ) as more of an every day ride kind of bike, and when I was looking at that the only other bikes on the shortlist were the Pole 131 and the Bushmaster (now Stamina 140), so I can only approve of your decision.

If the Stamina's lead time is an issue...the Nicolai Saturn 14 would be next in the crosshairs, but the whole machining process on these new Pole's really blows the skirt up.

Handling wise, don't worry about the length, just lean it in further and trust it, you'll find these bikes go around corners really quickly and have a way of making it feel almost pedestrian in doing so. There's not a whole lot of trials type corners in Alice Springs, but I've yet to find anything I couldn't get the G15 around, and it's dealing with extra weight and travel, which should hurt that even more.
Thanks for the reply - I am not too fussed on the wait. I think that I have spent this long looking another 3 months would be ok! The import fees is a huge one but from some DEEP research it seems that if you send things via courier (TNT, DHL etc) then you are almost guaranteed to be picked up. Using the standard postage system however generally means you have a higher chance of slipping through the cracks.

Looking forward to seeing your new build!
 
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animalman86

Likes Bikes
I’ll leave the Pole talk to others, but will suggest that if you’re looking to make OS purchases with FX, then get the Bankwest platinum MasterCard that has zero fees on foreign currency conversion and foreign transactions, and no account keeping fees. You can add it to your PayPal account like any other card, just be sure to choose “currency conversion by card provider” when completing purchases.

For SRAM stuff, you’d be surprised that locally sourced product works out close to OS pricing, even more so now that GST supposedly applies to all OS purchases. It is disappointing that we don’t get to take advantage of the great sales that the Germans sometimes have. Sign up for the Pushy’s email newsletter and wait for their sitewide “% off” sales and be prepared to pull the trigger on parts when they are discounted. Alternatively don’t buy SRAM!
Will check it out- cheers
 

animalman86

Likes Bikes
I didn't get hit for GST or Duty on the G13 (sent via DHL), i'll let you know how my mate gets on with his Evolink 131 when that finally gets sent out.

You and me both on this wait. The wheels were supposed to be out this week, got an e-mail saying "end of the month".... /wrists
That gives me hope. If I snuck under then I going for the complete build would be the cheaper. In fact its probably worth taking the chance for that.

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Nambra

Definitely should have gone to specsavers
You'll might be ok with GST as I recall it was only foreign companies that had sales of more than $75k into Australia that had to register with the ATO, for purchases under $1k. Those like CRC/Wiggle/Bike24 (same owner) knew they'd be a bright blip on the ATO radar and got with the programme, but I'd imagine the smaller players might still be slipping in under the sales limit, or simply ignoring it altogether. Enforcement at this end is probably one of those things where you might get lucky depending on the individual customs officers on the day.

I had a look on paypal but couldn't find this option for “currency conversion by card provider”. Can you assist?
When you make a purchase in a foreign currency, you should get the option to adjust currency conversion options before you confirm the purchase - as shown in the following image I googled up:
352590


However, if PayPal does the conversion for you, it will look like this:
352591


I queried PayPal about this as I recall making a purchase where I was 99.9% sure I not given the choice to choose my credit card provider's exchange rate and ended up wearing the shitty PayPal conversion rate (which includes their 3.5% fee for USD/CAD, or 4% fee for all other currencies). They assured me that I should always be presented with the option to convert through my card provider, and that no, it was't possible to change the default conversion option from PayPal to my card provider.

However, as I was searching for the above images, I found someone had posted the following link, which takes you to the old classic PayPal site that I can't see how to invoke from their new website. At any rate, log in to your PayPal account via the new interface, then copy this link into your browser: https://www.paypal.com/il/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_profile-merchant-pull-funding&buyer_hub - from here you can set the default conversion options for any credit cards you have linked to your account. So it appears PayPal was bullshitting me when they told me I couldn't set the default to your card provider, although I'd still double check when you make purchases.

Hope that helps. Might be worthy of a sticky in the trusted online vendors thread?
 

tkdbboy

Likes Dirt
Slightly off topic but NEVER pay for foreign currency using Paypal as a converter .... The above method mentioned is a must if you can only use Paypal.

If you have the option, use a credit card with no international transaction fees that uses the Mastercard rate (I got the 28 Degrees card solely for the purpose of online international purchases). I've found this gives you the best exchange rate and can save you quite a bit of coin when your total spent over time reaches a couple thousand.
 
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