Bowman Cycles Pilgrims Disc frameset

The Pilgrims, an aluminium, disc brake-equipped road bike from British brand Bowman Cycles, offers a fast and characterful ride on the road but, provided you make use of the wide tyre clearance available, isn't restricted to the smooth stuff and will accommodate any desire to go exploring bridleways and countryside trails.

Find your nearest dealer here

Buy this online here

Ride

The aluminium frame, with its tapered head tube and enlarged profile main tubes, offers a crisp and alert ride. It's also very responsive, reacting instantly when you demand an increase in speed. It displays a noticeable get-up-and-go when you spin up the cranks, with definitely no lack of willing from the frameset.

The geometry, longer in the wheelbase and slacker angled than the company's Palace crit race bike, works a treat. It's great on the road, where it simply feels like a very good road bike, of a similar mould to the Cannondale Synapse or Giant Defy, but with space for wider tyres than either of those two bikes.

Take it away from the road and into the woods, and it pops and boosts along the trail. The quick steering and hydraulic disc brakes allow plenty of fine control, and the front end has plenty of stiffness for being aggressive behind the handlebar. You can ride it like a cyclo-cross bike, but it's noticeably more stable over rougher ground and deals with obstacles better. The Pilgrims crosses ground, whether road or dirt, with no shortage of speed or pace.

Wider tyres give the Pilgrims the grip and traction to push further into the unknown, away from the confines of the road network. Sizing up from 23 to 30mm tyres makes a considerable, and very noticeable, difference to the Pilgrims' capability in exploring the many bridleways around where I live. Running the 27mm tyres at about 60psi provides a bit of necessary cushioning, to overcome the occasional tendency for the stiffness of the frame to become annoying on chattering surfaces. It simply doesn't have the refinement of a carbon fibre bike.

Best of all, because the Pilgrims' speed and performance isn't compromised on the road, I can link up these bridleways with my regular roads and inject a bit of variety to my rides without dragging a slow bike along the road.

Disc brakes make perfect sense on a bike like this. I've seen first hand just how good bikes like the Synapse and Defy have become with the addition of disc brakes. Discs allow generous tyre clearance (up to 35mm on the Pilgrims, wider than both the Synapse and Defy) but the geometry hasn't been compromised as a result. The discs provide the benefits of extra control, confidence and durability. Wider tyres and disc brakes, it's a great combination for British riding.

Frame details

The Pilgrims frame follows the Palace, the company's debut model, in that it's also made from aluminium. This one gets a triple-butted 7005 frame, with stylish custom shaped tubes. The T-shaped top tube, curved and tapered head tube, profiled down tube and wide, flattened seatstays give the Pilgrims a muscular appearance.

Cable routing is internal on the main frame, with modular ports that will accept any current groupset configuration, including hydraulic disc brakes. The cables to the rear mech and rear brake pop out at the bottom of the down tube and route along the underside of the BB86 press-fit bottom bracket and along the chainstays. Here Bowman has invested great effort to ensure the cable/hoses are carefully pegged in place with a very neat cable routing device. Simple and does the job.

The rear dropouts are most generously described as looking very purposeful. The rear brake calliper is mounted on the chainstay, the now default location for disc brakes on road frames. The frame will take mudguards and Bowman has developed its own 3D printed mudguard attachments (we've just taken delivery of a set and will do a feature of these in a future article) which means the frame and fork can be fitted with traditional full-length mudguards. The frame takes 32mm tyres with mudguards fitted.

Bowman has developed its own carbon fibre fork, with a regular quick release and external cable/hose routing. The Genesis Datum I tested earlier this year had a very tall cyclo-cross-inspired fork, with generous tyre/mudguard clearance but creating a very high handlebar position. Bowman has gone for a shorter fork and less tyre clearance (but still takes a 35mm), but it does mean the position and fit is more akin to a road bike. The Datum benefited from thru-axles, and that's something I'd like to see Bowman look at for a future update.

The Pilgrims is offered in a painted or anodised finish. The frame tested here is a 56cm black anodised. On the scales the frame is 1,563g and the fork (uncut steerer tube) is 412g. The complete bike as pictured weighs 8.2kg (18.08lb). That's with a SRAM Rival 1 hydraulic disc drivetrain, new 3T Discuss wheels with 27mm Challenge Paris-Roubaix tyres and inner tubes, 140mm Shimano rotors, a 3T carbon handlebar and seatpost, USE stem and Fabric saddle. (I also ran it with Stan’s NoTubes wheels and Schwalbe tyres, as photographed.) It's reasonably spendy but not extravagant, and I reckon you could probably go sub-8kg if you made some careful component choices.

Conclusion

Bowman may be a small company but with the Pilgrims it outguns more expensive rivals from established bicycle companies pushing into the rapidly growing disc brake-equipped 'roadplus' market. It pushes the highly regarded Defy and Synapse very close, and bests them with wider tyre clearance. And at £750 for the frameset, it's one of the least expensive options, though it does mean you have to assemble the bike yourself, or pay for a bike shop to do it for you. That aside, the Pilgrims is a splendid example of the new breed of disc brake road bikes that really suit UK cyclists looking for an affordable, versatile and durable option.

Verdict

Latest Bowman aluminium frameset impresses with versatility and affordability