Pole Stamina 140 Review 2020 : The Fastest Trail Bike

Machined in two halves and then glued together, the Pole Stamina 140 was always going to be the most interesting bike at the Field Test. It was easily the most capable of all the bikes we tested in the Trail category. 

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