My mountain bike is a 2019 Pinnacle Iroko 2 which I bought from Evans Cycles, a large chain of bike shops in the UK. Pinnacle bikes are typically low to mid-range but they are often surprisingly well designed and because they are the house brand of a large cycling retailer they are usually good value too. Unfortunately the Iroko 2 is now discontinued which is a real shame because it has excellent geometry and was pretty well specced for the price. The more recent mountain bike offerings from Pinnacle seem to tend more towards the heavy, poorly-specced bikes often sold at department stores so I would no longer recommend them, but Pinnacle does still make some good bikes so if you are in the UK and on a budget I would definitely recommend checking them out.
This bike originally came with Sram Level and NX Eagle components, but in 2021 I rebuilt the bike with Shimano 12-speed components and my own custom DT Swiss / Shimano wheels. The current spec of the bike is:
Frame: 6066-T6 Aluminum Alloy, 12x148mm Boost Hub Spacing
Fork: Rockshox Recon RL 27.5″, 130mm Travel, 15x110mm Boost Hub Spacing*
Rear Derailleur: Shimano SLX M7100
Shifter: Shimano XT SL-M8100
Bottom Bracket: Shimano XT BB-MT800
Crankset: Shimano SLX FC-M7100-1 170mm
Cassette: Shimano SLX CS-M7100-12 10-51T
Brake Levers: Shimano Deore BL-M6100
Brake Calipers: Shimano BR-MT520 4-piston
Brake Discs: Shimano SLX SM-RT70 203mm Front / 180mm Rear
Handlebars: Pinnacle 6061 Aluminum, 9° Back Sweep, 760mm Width*
Stem: Pinnacle Aluminum 40mm, 7°*
Headset: FSA No.9M Taper, 44mm*
Grips: ODI Rogue Lock-On
Rims: DT Swiss EX511 27.5″ 32H
Rear Hub: Shimano XT FH-M8110-B
Front Hub: Shimano XT FH-M8010-B
Spokes: Sapim Race J-Bend 14/15/14g
Spoke Nipples: Sapim Polyax 14mm Brass
Rear Tire: WTB Trail Boss G2 TCS light/high grip 27.5 x 2.6*
Front Tire: WTB Vigilante TCS light/high grip 27.5 x 2.6*
Saddle: WTB Volt Comp 142mm*
Seatpost: KS E20i 125mm* (UPDATE: in 2023 I changed to a non-dropper Race Face Evolve seatpost to save weight because I never use the dropper feature)
Dropper Post Lever: Shimano SL-MT500 (since removed)
Other: Zefal Bottle Cage, Merida Top Cap Wahoo Mount
*denotes that this component is original to the bike
This bike is a typical modern hardtail mountain bike in many ways. It has progressive geometry with a slack headtube angle, 130mm of suspension travel and short chain stays, and the 27.5″ wheels with 2.6″ tires are a great compromise between snappiness and ability to roll over obstacles. There are also some nice finishing touches; I especially like the cable guides which mount to screw holes underneath the top tube making for a clean look and very direct routing to the rear derailleur while avoiding the pitfalls of internal cable routing.
The original spec was pretty good but the bottom bracket was a Truvativ Powerspline which was not particularly durable and limited the crankset options to the Powerspline version of the Sram NX Eagle. I also didn’t like the original Sram Level T brakes very much, the lever ergonomics were not particularly good in my opinion and I also felt that stopping power was lacking. But the original price of the bike was £935 ($1,215) and I think that that was very good value back in 2019.
The main things I upgraded were the wheels, brakes, and drivetrain. I hand-built the wheels which allowed me to use high-end DT Swiss EX511 rims at a reasonable price, while the hubs are pretty standard Shimano XT hubs with centerlock brake disc mounts and cup-and-cone bearings. I didn’t really have a problem with the stock WTB ST i29 wheelset but the new hubs have a much faster freehub engagement which is great for off-road bike control.
The new brakes are low-end Shimano MT520 calipers with Deore levers, but the calipers have four pistons and I increased the rotor size to 203mm in the front and 180mm in the back which has made a big difference to the stopping ability of the bike. They rotors are Shimano SLX which are compatible with sintered brake pads and also use an aluminum carrier for better heat dissipation. I felt that the original Sram Level T brakes were marginal, but now the feel and stopping power of the brakeset is excellent.
The drivetrain is a mix of Shimano SLX and XT components which I felt resulted in the best balance between cost, performance and weight. SLX is one step up from Shimano’s lowest-tier Deore groupset which is already a very good groupset but SLX offers fairly significant weight savings at a reasonable price. In particular the SLX cassette is a one-piece cassette with an aluminum spider for weight reduction, while the SLX crankset is the lowest level to offer hollow forged crank arms. The shifter is Shimano XT which has the neat ability to upshift two gears with one click.
One thing I struggled with on this bike was setting up the ergonomics of the brake and shft levers. The original bike used the Sram Matchmaker integrated system which I did not like because it did not hold the shifter securely, and I also couldn’t move the shifter into a comfortable position. The new Shimano brakes came with Shimano’s integrated I-Spec-EV system which I had high hopes for and although it did hold the shifter securely it also did not have enough adjustability to get the shifter into a position that felt natural to me. I ended up returning the I-Spec-EV shifter and buying the version with a separate bar clamp which works perfectly.
Overall I really like this bike a lot. It fits me very well, it handles great, and it is very nice to ride. Hardtail mountain bikes are kind of a dying breed these days as manufacturers continue to push the rear suspension envelope, but I still love them for their low cost, simplicity, and fun. The 2019 Pinnacle Iroko 2 was one of the best value bikes I found in this category when I was bike shopping back in 2019 and the upgrades I have done have pushed it to the next level really allowed me to make the bike my own.
