Just in: Pinnacle Dolomite One

Don't know what it's like round yours, but it's not much of a day for riding round here, more a day for kicking back and watching the Tour on telly. In fact the closest we've got to a real bike today is to sneak outside and snap a few pics of a bike that's just landed at road.cc towers - the Pinnacle Dolomite One.

Pinnacle is the bike brand of Evans Cycles, and the Dolomite range is their alloy sportive platform. The Dolomite One is at the foot of the range with a £600 price tag, although you can currently have it for £549; that makes it an option as a do-it-all bike for commuting duties too. Let's have a look at what you get.

The frame is an all-alloy affair, and it's mated with a carbon-legged fork. The whole kaboodle is finished in white with fairly minimal graphics, and looks pretty well put together; the welds are neat and tidy and the fork is pleasing on the eye, with a curved sculpted blade. Our large bike (5'9" to 6', according to the chart) has a 565mm effective top tube and a 190mm head tube and 73°/72° seat and head angles, which is pretty much what you'd expect from a more relaxed road bike.

Transmission duties are taken care of by Shimano 2300 running gear. 2300 is an eight-speed setup with a Sora-style lever with a sweep lever behind the brake for upshifts and a smaller button on the hood to go down. The Sora/2300 setup isn't our favourite in ergonomic terms but there's nothing wrong with it functionally. The compact 50/34 cassette teamed with a 12-25 cassette gives a good spread of gears for the hills and flats. Everything's 2300 apart from the brakes, which are Promax callipers.

On the wheel front you get Alex R500 rims - nothing wrong with them - laced to Joy alloy hubs with straight gauge stainless spokes. Like most bikes at this kind of money the wheels aren't the high point, but they look and feel well made. Similarly, Kenda Kwik Roller tyres aren't going to be the fastest but they should al least be pretty hardy.

Finishing kit is mostly dependable Kalloy bits and bobs, and a Velo saddle and bar tape for the contact points. Nothing outstanding just solid spec. All this builds up into a bike that weighs a touch over 10kg in large, which isn't at all shabby for the money, and it's a decent looking entry level bike to boot. Sensibly there are rack and mudguard mounts (you'll have to double up on the bolt at the rear dropout if you want to fit both) so that you can winterise the Dolomite One for all-year-round use.

We're getting four seasons in a week round here at the moment so we should be able to test the Pinnacle in all kinds of weather. Check back on road.cc soon for a review.