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TECH NEWS

Enigma launch Evoke Titanium road bike with disc brakes

British-made titanium road bike with disc brakes shown at Bespoked Bristol 2013

Two of our favourite things came together this weekend in one of our favourite places when Enigma launched their new Evoke Titanium disc-braked road bike at Bespoked Bristol.

The new model, which is handmade in the UK from tube manufactured in the UK to Enigma's own specification, will be available as either a complete bike (price to be confirmed) or as frame only option for £1,999.99… two grand, then.

The Evoke's tubeset is double-butted 3Al /2.5V titanium with a 44mm down tube and 35mm top tube. All the tube profiles are round. The seatstays are the same as those on Enigma's top end Excel race bike. Like the down tube, the head tube has an external diameter of 44mm with a 1 1/2in lower fork race and 1 1/8in at the top. As you'd expect, that head tube is designed to impart from end stiffness and, says designer Mark Reilly, opens up the possibilities for what Enigma can do with the Evoke in terms of the rest of the design.

Enigma have plenty of experience of working with discs on road frames because they've been making disc braked touring bikes for years and offering discs as a custom option on road bikes too. Dealing with the extra braking force of discs holds no fears when it comes to the Evoke. As Mark says, the frame is pretty stiff already - hopefully without sacrificing the ride quality that makes titanium so popular.

Extra security comes courtesy of the one non-British part of the frame, the rear dropouts. They're very neat affairs from Paragon Machineworks in the US. The added wrinkle here is that rather than bolt the disc brake to the seatstay, Enigma attach the brake to the dropout to reduce stress on the stay. Going by conversations with other bike companies, it's something we are likely to see more of on disc-braked road and touring bikes, and presumably on cyclocross bikes as well. It looks a lot neater too.

The complete bike at the show came built up with a Shimano Dura-Ace mechanical groupset. The fork was Enve's all-carbon CX disc-specific model although production versions will get Enve's road version. Enve also provided the stem. The saddle was from Ergon and the seat post from USE. Of course, as it's available as a frame-only option too, you're free to build up the Evoke Titanium any way you want, and one of the beauties of disc-braked bikes (especially as more road disc wheels come on the market) is the level of versatility they give in terms of tyre and wheel choice.

And the discs? The show bike came shod with Shimano's latest cable operated discs, but you could run hydraulic discs either from SRAM or something from either Shimano or Campagnolo. We're pretty sure something must be coming from one of them - or even both - because Bianchi are launching the disc version of their new Infinito CV with standard fittings for a 140mm rotor and they'll be offering an adaptor for those that want to fit SRAM's HRD with a 160 rotor. They wouldn't be doing that if there wasn't a 140mm road-going hydraulic disc brake lurking out there in the undergrowth.

No word on frame weight yet, but Mark promises that it will be light, which is good to hear. One of the disappointing things about the titanium version of the Genesis Equilibrium - not a disc equipped bike - is that it offers no real weight advantage over its steel sibling.

Weight info on Salsa's Colossal - the other Ti-framed, disc-shod road bike to get the juices flowing in these parts - is somewhat vague. A completely unscientific pick-it-up-and-see-how-it-feels test suggested it wasn't at the feathery end of the spectrum. Weight definitely isn't everything, but if you're splashing out on a titanium performance bike you'd like to think that it would at the very least have no trouble in dipping under the 20lb mark. Well under, I'd say.

One final thing to mention on the Evoke is the finish. Our pics (well, 'my pics') don't really do it justice. It's a lustrous satin that brings out the colour of the titanium - achieved by blasting the frame with stainless steel instead of the standard finishing medium.

Among all the titanium loveliness on the Enigma stand the other bike to snag our eye was this retro show special made from Columbus steel and fitted with parts sourced by Mark… Check those Campag Delta brakes. They might not stop you very well, but who cares when they look that good?

You can see more from Bespoked Bristol here, and find out more about Enigma at www.enigmabikes.com

road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.

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15 comments

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Ham-planet | 10 years ago
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It's amazing how little roadie journalists know about disc brakes. Nothing useful can be inferred from Bianchi's decision to make a 140 mm mount, since Sram offer a rotor in that size. It's standard practice to produce disc mounts in the smallest size (160 mm for the most part) and allow the user to use an adapter to fit to their chosen rotor size.

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WolfieSmith | 10 years ago
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- or you can go and buy British with the Condor Gran Fondo Ti tourer of course for £50 less. I have the Moda and it's worth every penny.

You get what you pay for. Going downhill at 45mph on a cut price frame is a false economy. As for looks...All sand etched - no nasty decals, misspellings (Litespeed... Tsk) or butch names.

Condor build frames in Italy. They rescued a subsidory of Dedaccai when the Chinese carbon disease took over. Their steel Super Accaio is a work of art.

No I'm not on a percentage. I'm going to call Grant now though....

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Mostyn | 10 years ago
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£2000 for a frame! Must be some nutters out there, if you'd pay that kind of money for a TIT - frame?

Would be too expensive at half the cost.

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aslongasicycle | 10 years ago
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Delta brakes are mind smashingly beautiful and deeply pants. Campag brakes back them were heavy and you had to have forearms like Popeye to use them. A fantastic ornament.

I saw the Enigma stand and that bike is an absolute killer. Having owned Enigmas I can vouch for fantastic service and beautiful bikery.

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WolfieSmith | 10 years ago
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Evoke. Colossal. Equilibrium. They all sound like Federation starship names. 'USS Evoke Star date 201.9'

They also remind me of those Git Panzer's you see. You know, those 'I can pretend I'm living in America as it's a pickup.' 'Animal.' 'Trojan.' 'BellEnd.' I may have imagined that last one..

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fbhidy | 10 years ago
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They should've held off a month a displayed with new SRAM RRD!

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dbb | 10 years ago
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no mudguard eyelets because there is no mudguard clearance, because it has race geometry.
looks good, but i'm happy with my effusion

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Lungsofa74yearold | 10 years ago
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Lovely machine - that rear dropout looks super neat too  1

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Some Fella | 10 years ago
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Those Campag Delta!
OH!
EM!
GEE!!!!

 13

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dodgy | 10 years ago
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Discs - check
Titanium - check
Beautiful - check
Mudguard eyelets - nope

Shame, this could be the ideal bike to eventually replace my Lynskey Sportive (which has the eyelets). It can still look beautiful with the eyelets, nice to have that versatility.

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Municipal Waste replied to dodgy | 10 years ago
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dodgy wrote:

Discs - check
Titanium - check
Beautiful - check
Mudguard eyelets - nope

Shame, this could be the ideal bike to eventually replace my Lynskey Sportive (which has the eyelets). It can still look beautiful with the eyelets, nice to have that versatility.

The Paragon dropouts can be ordered with eyelets and it's hand made so they could easily knock up a bridge for your mudguard and add a rack mount on the seat stay I'm sure.

Then you just have to figure out which fork will let you run discs and guards.There probably already is one.

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dodgy replied to Municipal Waste | 10 years ago
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dupe

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dodgy replied to Municipal Waste | 10 years ago
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Municipal Waste wrote:
dodgy wrote:

Discs - check
Titanium - check
Beautiful - check
Mudguard eyelets - nope

Shame, this could be the ideal bike to eventually replace my Lynskey Sportive (which has the eyelets). It can still look beautiful with the eyelets, nice to have that versatility.

The Paragon dropouts can be ordered with eyelets and it's hand made so they could easily knock up a bridge for your mudguard and add a rack mount on the seat stay I'm sure.

Then you just have to figure out which fork will let you run discs and guards.There probably already is one.

The beauty of dealing with Enigma, you get that flexibility. Good thinking!

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sidesaddle | 10 years ago
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Campag Delta. Never heard of them, now in love. Imagine with hydraulic innards  39

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Super Domestique | 10 years ago
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That evoke ti - seriously WANT!

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