On-One Pompetamine Versa 11

Hamilton and Alonso, Mancini and Tevez, Kate Moss and pretty much any pretty popstar of the last decade. Great on their own, but a bit of a disaster together. That pretty much sums up On-One's Pompetamine. Dropping Shimano's hot new Alfine 11 speed hub into the classic Pompino singlespeed frame promises so much but ends up being a sluggish and disappointing hybrid.

When I first saw this bike in sneak preview pics last year I, like pretty much anyone else, hopped up and down making excited 'gimme' noises. The combination of Shimano's fab new Alfine hub, combined with custom STI levers from Versa and the well proven Pompino frame seemed like a recipe for a fantastically versatile bike. On-One clearly think so too, they brand it as a "fast, durable and reliable workhorse machine that's equally as happy on rough tracks and green lanes as it is on smooth city streets..." oh and it's also good as an "urban commuter, tourer, expedition or multi purpose cross bike". That's a lot of hats for one bike to be wearing. Sadly, none of them fit very well.

The heart of the bike is Shimano's Alfine 11 speed hub. Dave has covered the hub in some detail here, so I won't bore you with a whole load of cutting and pasting. Shifting was mostly smooth, although there were occasional disconcerting moments where the hub would drop into neutral mid-shift and the cranks would flip round half a rotation without feeling like they were connected to anything. It's odd, but you get used to it. The biggest advantages claimed for the Alfine hub are the lack of servicing (it just needs an oil change every 5000 miles) and the commensurate increase in reliability over a derailleur set-up. On a relatively short test it would be hard to argue with either of those points.

The Pompino frame has been around since the beginning of the off-the-peg fixie boom and it's a no-nonsense, bombproof piece of kit made out of good old 4130 cromo tubing. Sounds ideal but it's more usually built up into a flickable urban fixie with pin-sharp handling courtesy of the short wheelbase. These aren't characteristics that you would look for in a long distance bike. I found that even though our test bike was the right size (medium, and we measured it just to be sure) it felt far too small for me and the handling was twitchy at low speeds. There's also a generous amount of toe overlap, even without mudguards. Now, speaking of mudguards, Pompinos are usually seen with just a plastic mtb style guard fitted on the seatpost. There's a reason for that, toe overlap at the front and rear facing dropouts on the back, which make removing the wheel if not impossible, at least a major pain in the proverbial if you fit proper full length mudguards. Regular poster STATO suggested an elegant solution - drill some track-ends and screw the mudguard bolts into them. It's neat, but should you have to mess about buying extra bits and taking a drill to them in order to use a bike for its intended purpose? On a bike which is sold as being ideal for touring or commuting, that's really not good enough.

On-One have a comprehensive parts list for you to pick from and the bike came with some nice kit. The FSA Wing bars are lovely, flats on top give a nice resting place for your hands and the shallow drop is easy to reach. The flat bits do compromise bar space though, so if you like to salad up your bike with computer, lights, GPS and other modern clutter you might want a more traditional round profile. The one piece of kit that you can't swap out are the shifters, which are custom made to operate the Alfine hub. They operate very simply, with a variation on the standard STI theme. Behind the brake lever is a long lever for downshifts and a shorter lever for upshifts. It works well, shifts are crisp, there's a positive clicky action to the levers and they are easy to get used to. The hoods aren't the most comfortable, but they're good enough. I'll be interested to see how robust the shifters are, long term, because they do feel a little plasticky - although there was no sign of excessive wear and tear during the test period. The biggest criticism I have is that there is no gear indicator. It's a surprisingly useful feature even on a derailleur bike where you can just look down. On a hub gear bike I'd argue that it's even more valuable and it shouldn't be hard to fit an in-line indicator. Braking is taken care of by Avid BB7 discs, my personal favourite. They are superb, easy to set up, powerful and reliable in all conditions.

Our test bike came with a 45t chainset and an 18t sprocket on the back, which is ok for flatter terrain but wasn't low enough for serious hills or load hauling and I found myself constantly trying to click down to a lower gear that wasn't there. It got me up Cheddar Gorge on the Tasty Cheddar audax, but I would have died like a dog on the Dartmoor Devil. The build list has plenty of other options to give a better range and we didn't spec the test bike, so no marks lost there.

When considering a hub gear, one thing that usually gets raised is the delicate issue of how one copes with a rear p*nct*re. In the spirit of scientific enquiry I tested this on the Pomp. Removing the wheel is actually easier than you might expect, although slightly more fiddly than a derailleur set-up. All you have to do is push back a spring loaded tab on the side of the hub and remove the end of the cable. Oh and then release the cable from the arm on the hub. Getting it back in is another matter though and this is where I start to get a bit grumpy with the whole thing. Returning the cable is straight forward, getting the wheel in the dropouts is a bit fiddly (spacing is tight and the nuts have flat anti-rotation surfaces which have to be aligned in the drop-outs) but getting the chain tension correct, while keeping the brake discs aligned, is an absolute pig. The BB7 brakes can be dialled in, but there isn't enough adjustment to allow for a wheel that isn't properly centred. Ideally it's a two person job, one to pull the wheel back and maintain tension, the other to make the lateral adjustments and do the nuts up. Doing it in nice warm living room was awkward enough, I'd hate to be doing it in the dark on a wet winter evening.

Out on the road I found the Pompetamine to be hard work. For a start it's heavy, very heavy, at over 12.5kg -to be fair it's not like On-One don't warn you, claimed weight for the standard build is 12Kg. I took it on an evening ride with the chaps from the local bike shop and spent even more time than usual dangling off the back. I can usually hang on when riding my Dawes Century, which is no lightweight, but the Pompetamine makes you feel like you've had an extra helping of slow pudding. Once you add in the sluggish tyres (25mm Schwalbe Marathons, great for avoiding punctures but stiff and slow) and some lag from the hub it makes for a frustrating ride. It's harsh too, stiff tyres and a short steel frame don't give much cushioning.

I swapped out the tyres for some Gatorskins, which did improve things, but overall it's not much fun. That's the real deal killer for me. I put over 500 miles into the bike, audaxing, commuting and solo but in the end I rode it because I had to, not because I wanted to or because I enjoyed it. As a final hurrah I took it on a hundred mile cross country journey to the road.cc offices in Bath. I wondered if a long ride would change my mind about the bike. It didn't and I was glad to give it back, which is as damning as it gets.

Lots of people were excited about this bike, including me and it garnered plenty of attention when I took it out. The Versa shifters make the Alfine hub a viable proposition but it needs a better suited frame. Sadly, the Pompetamine seems like a missed opportunity.

Verdict

Frame and hub are both great individually, but not so great together.