Pole Machine EN web

First ride reviews of Machine are out!

We have created quite a stir in the forums and media the past half years. Pole Machine has been the center of attention, and there have been rumors about our company just creating marketing fluff about the ethical points of carbon manufacturing. Oh boy, it would have been a lot easier to go for the carbon. The choice to do something different is always the hard thing. When you are different, you are the center of attention.

Let’s recap on what happened the past year. May 2016 Pole launched a convertible bonds fundraising to go carbon fiber frame based on the EVOLINK’s popularity. 2015-2016 we had made two masters studies about carbon manufacturing and one candidate study about carbon frame industrial design concept and Leo Kokkonen had made a complete 3D drawings of the carbon frame.  January 2017 Leo Kokkonen visited the Chinese carbon fiber factory, and when he returned home, he recommended that Pole would not go carbon. The board of Pole bikes thought the same and Pole cancelled the carbon project because of the ethical reasons.

After Pole decided to quit carbon project, Leo Kokkonen went to research mission again. We produced several studies about sheet metals and other manufacturing methods that could be used to make bicycles in Europe. We were studying to make the frame from sheet metal that would be welded to machined lugs. An engineer in a meeting with a subcontractor to the aerospace industry joked about machining the whole frame. Leo took that seriously and started to print 3D models with a concept that would make a shell with bonded parts. There were numerous 3D models and printed models and finally we found a mixture of joints, inner shapes, and adhesives that held up the frame as it should be. In November we launched the presale of the Machine and presold a significant enough amount of bikes to start building our factory.

Now that our factory is kickstarting we are pretty proud to get the bikes to the journalists to test. Here is the three first test that is out and there will be more to come.

Reviews

 

“The Pole Machine is a real superbike. Similar to a supercar, the faster you ride, the better it gets. It offers an unprecedented degree of stability and control. It takes the horror out of the scariest trails without feeling sedate or undefined on flat sections. Oh, and there’s the look and the manufacturing process: this bike is a one-of-kind masterpiece!”
-Christoph Bayer

“The harder the Machine was pushed the more I got out of it, even when things got out of hand. The Machine just hunkers down giving the confidence to keep the brakes off and the throttle open.”
-Ieuan Williams

“This is surely one of the most innovative bikes around. Made in Finland with techniques and materials more associated with aerospace than bicycle frames, and with proportions that take long and slack to the next level, Pole’s Machine is touted as a new way of thinking about high-end bikes.”
-Seb Stott