Mekk Pinerolo AL 2.0

The Mekk Pinerolo AL is a performance-minded road bike that's built around a very good aluminium frame. If you're after something for weekday blasts and longer weekend rideouts, this is a reasonably priced choice.

The Mekk Pinerolo AL 2.0 has the character of a race bike, albeit not a particularly light one. Our review model weighed in at 9.4kg (20.9lb), but it still felt racy.

How come? Well, that's largely down to the riding position, the Mekk putting you into 'attack' mode from the off. The seat tube on our review model is only 54cm but that's partly because the top tube slopes down along its length. That top tube is a lengthy 575mm and the head tube is a stocky 140mm. The upshot of all that is a riding position that has you poised for speed. Four centimetres of headset spacers mean you don't have to ride in a full-on Tour de France mode the whole time, but you can see the angle this bike is coming from.

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The Mekk might not fly off the mark but it doesn't hang about either, particularly for a bike at this price point, and good front end stiffness means it feels sharp when you chuck it about when sprinting or climbing out of the saddle.

Speaking of climbing, the Mekk – like most bikes with similar price tags these days – comes with a compact chainset (50/34-tooth chainrings), which helps take the strain out of the hills. Along with the 12-28t cassette, it'll keep you in the mix and out of a fix when the terrain gets lumpy. This isn't a bike that's going to set Strava KOMs while you just relax in the saddle whistling a happy tune, but it's a competent climber and certainly not out of line with most rivals in this respect.

It's also an able descender, feeling stable on the straights and holding its line well though the turns. Rough surfaces don't knock the Mekk off its stride either. Rather than skittering around, it stays firmly planted so you maintain maximum control.

Some people would have you believe that aluminium bikes feel harsh by their very nature, but that really isn't the case. I found this to be quite a smooth-riding bike, despite supersized seatstays that look like they're going to reward you with a kick in the arse every time you stray off the most glassy of road surfaces.

Tyres wider than the 23mm Continental Ultra Sports fitted here would add a bit more forgiveness, but you could say that of any bike with 23s.

As usual, whether or not you get along with the saddle comes down to the individual. The San Marco Era Power gets a resounding 'meh' from me. I like the shape but there's too much foamy padding for my taste. You might love it. That's the way with saddles.

Although most of my rides on the Mekk have been somewhere between an hour and a half and two hours, I still felt pretty comfortable when pushing the duration up to four hours, five hours and beyond. If anything about this bike is going to make you uncomfortable, it's more likely to be that you're not into that fairly aggressive riding position rather than anything to do with the frame material or components.

The frame is made from what Mekk calls 'Super Lite Aluminum Triple Butted Seamless Tubing T4/T6 Heat Treated'. That means the wall at one end of the tube is a different thickness to the wall at the other end, and different again from the wall in the central section of the tube.

Why go to all that trouble? The idea is to provide the strength where it's needed while keeping the weight down. Heat treatment hardens and increases the strength of the metal.

The Mekk philosophy is to prioritise the frame when putting its bikes together on the basis that components wear out and are upgradeable over time, but the frame is the heart of the bike and it's likely to remain constant. The company uses this frame for four bikes in the Pinerolo range, starting with the £799.99 AL 1.5 and going right through to the £1,459.99 Pinerolo AL 3.0.

>> Check out our guide to the best road bikes for under £1000 here

The head tube is bang on trend in that it's tapered (with a 1 1/2in lower headset bearing), the larger size adding front end stiffness, with a carbon-legged/alloy-steerer fork slotting in there. Internal cable routing keeps everything looking tidy. I did wonder whether water thrown up from the front wheel would get into the entry ports on the underside of the down tube because they don't look particularly well sealed, but that hasn't happened. Water would find it difficult to get at the cables anyway because they have outers along their full length.

All of the tube joints are super-tidy as well, the welds being hidden to the extent that you'd hardly know that most of them are there. You actually have to take a pretty close look to be sure this frame is made from aluminium rather than carbon fibre (though the AL in the model name is a bit of a giveaway).

As I said, Mekk is firmly of the belief that the frame takes precedence, but the AL 2.0's components aren't too shabby either. The shifters and mechs are from Shimano's fourth tier Tiagra groupset. It's a 10-speed system that works as crisply and efficiently as Shimano's more expensive options, and displays at the front of the levers tell you which gear you're in (although I have never once remembered to use them; old habits die hard). You don't get a full Tiagra groupset, though – the chainset is non-series R565 and the brakes are from the Sora range.

Those Sora brakes are dual pivot and they work okay, although the all-in-one pads (no separate cartridge shoe holder) lack bite. Still, they're exactly the same as those you'd get with Tiagra. To be honest, the biggest gripe you might have with the chainset and brakes is that they're black whereas the Tiagra components are silver/grey. That doesn't bother me a whole lot, but I know some people struggle with that kind of thing.

The wheels are from Shimano too: R500s. They're a no-frills option that we see on a lot of test bikes (along with the R501, which is a minor update) and I can't remember having any problems with them. They're not exactly light so maybe you'll want to upgrade to a lighter, faster wheelset over time.

Most of the other components are from Saturae, Mekk's in-house brand. The handlebar, stem and seatpost are all alloy with a black satin finish, the bar having a long rearward sweep that provides a comfortable handhold when you want to get down on the drops and turn up the power.

Verdict

A racy road bike with a very good aluminium frame and well-proven components