You'll struggle to find any other titanium framed, carbon forked, SRAM Rival, disc brake equipped cyclocross bikes at close to the price of the On One Ti Pickenflick. The promise is that it's a lot more than 'just a cyclocross bike' too. We'll be putting it through its paces, both on and off road, over the next few weeks to find out.
Yorkshire based On One and parent company Planet X are marketing the Pickenflick as a 'limited edition' titanium framed cyclocross bike, but they won't say how limited it is. You can buy it as the frame alone for £999.99 or as the complete bike package we'll be testing. But by the time you add the cost of a carbon fork and a headset to the frame the full bike package - at £1499.99 - is looking like the better deal... by a long way.
It comes equipped with a SRAM Rival 10 x 2 drivetrain, but with a twist... the SRAM S350 chainset has 42/28 chainrings, much more suited to amateur off road riders than the bigger rings favoured by many pro cyclocross racers. An 11-32 cassette continues the wider, smaller ratios theme, essentially providing far more usable gears than those on many race-bred 'cross bikes. Inevitably, this won't necessarily suit those who plan to use the Pickenflick on road more than off but chainrings and/or chainsets can be upgraded easily. There's way too much machismo posturing about manhandling the gears pro riders use so it's good to see a bike with a range that's more manageable by regular riders.
There aren't that many titanium framed cyclocross bikes around. Of course, this is mainly to do with the fact that you'll regularly pay more than this for a Ti frame alone. The latent vibration absorption capacity of Ti tubes should theoretically be ideal for a fast off-road bike with blacktop aspirations so it'll be interesting to see how the On One deals with our regular trail and rough road test loops. The complete bike package comes with a good looking matt finished carbon fork with disc brake post mounts. Avid BB7 discs take care of stopping duties, with full outer cables to each calliper.
The frame geometry (72 degrees at the head, 73.5 degrees at the seat on the 56cm model) should lend itself well to both road and off-road outings. The top tube stretch is 10mm shorter than the seat tube. The tube profiles, ovalised at the junctures for bigger weld contact areas and lateral stiffness, are pleasing to the eye and left brushed bare... great for ease of cleaning, and there are no corrosion issues with titanium. There are two lots of bottle cage bosses but no mudguard or rack eyelets. The head tube is tapered 1.125in to 1.5in.
There's loads of room for bigger tyres than the Schwalbe CX Pro 30mm ones fitted: we'll experiment with this during the test period. The wheels on the test bike are Selcof WHT29s but On One lists their Reet'ard 29s. A finishing parts package includes a decent quality mix of Planet X and On One branded stuff, with a double bolted 31.6mm seatpost, a slim but comfy saddle and a shallow drop 44cm handlebar. Our test bike weighs 20.8lb/9.36kg without pedals.
While the On One/Planet X marketing focuses strongly on the Pickenflick's off-road potential, we'll certainly be mixing it with a lot of road miles over the next few weeks, simply because bikes like this have so much all-rounder capacity.