Mekk’s 2016 Poggio 2.8 looks packed with value, featuring full Shimano 105 and Saturae’s 50mm deep full carbon clinchers for £2000Warren Rossiter/Immediate Media
The Poggio 2.8 is aimed at fast sportive/gran fondo ridersWarren Rossiter/Immediate Media
The Poggio 2.8 includes this £800 set of Saturae 50mm deep carbon clinchers in its £2000 price tagWarren Rossiter/Immediate Media
The 2.8’s rear end matches super deep chainstays with these slender seatstays, claimed to add stiffness through the drivetrain and comfort in the saddleWarren Rossiter/Immediate Media
The Poggio 2.8 is built using Toray T800 carbonWarren Rossiter/Immediate Media
The Poggio range now features disc models too, including this £1600 2.0 model with Shimano’s new Tiagra and TRP Spyre cable disc brakesWarren Rossiter/Immediate Media
TRP’s dual-action Spyre cable disc brakes are some of the best of their typeWarren Rossiter/Immediate Media
The Poggio mounts its rear caliper well within the rear triangle to alleviate heel clearance issuesWarren Rossiter/Immediate Media
The internal routing allows for a later hydraulic disc brake upgrade on the 2.0Warren Rossiter/Immediate Media
The Poggio’s chainstays look reassurringly stiff and sturdyWarren Rossiter/Immediate Media
The Special Edition Pinerolo SE 0.3 gets full Tiagra for £750Warren Rossiter/Immediate Media
The all-new Primo has got a new aero-optimised frameset. This is the £2200 Primo 6.2, equipped with Shimano 105 and Saturae C50 carbon clinchersWarren Rossiter/Immediate Media
The Primo’s oversized bottom bracket shell has benefited from a bit of aero-stylingWarren Rossiter/Immediate Media
The aero seat tube and seat mast combo, meanwhile, is suitably deep with minimal seat stays mounted at the mid-point between BB and postWarren Rossiter/Immediate Media
All of the Primo’s cabling is internal and enters the top tube behind the stemWarren Rossiter/Immediate Media
The rear brake is now a Shimano direct-mount situated underneath the chainstays behind the BB shellWarren Rossiter/Immediate Media
The skinny seatstays are bridgeless allowing for a wider rim/tyre combinationWarren Rossiter/Immediate Media
The Pinerolo SE 0.3 features this new retro-flavoured livery on an all-new double butted alloy frame with Saturae wheels and Tiagra for £750Warren Rossiter/Immediate Media
New tube profiles and an unmistakably patriotic paint scheme adorn the new Pinerolo SE 0.3Warren Rossiter/Immediate Media
The carbon Pista C1 manages to look fast standing still, the complete bike is £1500, and the frameset is available separately for £800Warren Rossiter/Immediate Media
Mekk’s original mantra of creating a range of well priced performance road bikes, in distinctive trim and with cleverly thought out components, shows no sign of changing anytime soon. For 2016 the range topping Primo race machine has had an aero makeover, with NACA profiled tube shapes, a direct-mount under chainstay rear brake, optimised cable routing and the addition of deep section Saturae carbon clinchers on key models.
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In 2015 we saw the special edition Primo 6.2, which for £2000 included the £800-retail Saturae 50 carbon clinchers. For 2016 Mekk has put together a similar package, but on the more sportive/fondo orientated Poggio. The 2.8 model gets a full 105 groupset, San Marco saddle, Continental rubber and those Saturae wheels for an impressive £2000.
The poggio range now features disc models too, including this £1600 2.0 model with shimano’s new tiagra and trp spyre cable disc brakes:Warren Rossiter/Immediate Media
The Poggio range now features disc models, including this 2.0 with Shimano’s new Tiagra and TRP Spyre cable disc brakes
The Poggio now also gets a disc option among four models in the series, all based around a new Toray T800 carbon frame. The range starts with the DS 1.6 with Sora, TRP Spyre brakes, and Shimano’s RX50 wheelset for £1400. The DS 2.0 has the same wheels and brakes but gets the new Tiagra groupset for an extra £200. The 2.6 model at £2000 gains 105 and 785 hydraulics, and the range is topped by the Ultegra/785 equipped DS 3.0 at £2200.
Sitting at the base of the Poggio range, meanwhile, are two mid-year launching SE models. The SE 0.3 features a carbon frame and fork (different to the new Poggio), Saturae alloy wheels and Tiagra for the bike-to-work scheme-meeting price of £1000, or you can opt for the upgraded 105 model for an extra £100.
The pinerolo se 0.3 features this new retro-flavoured livery on an all-new double butted alloy frame with saturae wheels and tiagra for £750:Warren Rossiter/Immediate Media
The Pinerolo SE 0.3 features this retro-styled livery on an all-new double butted alloy frame with Saturae wheels and Tiagra
The base-range Pinerolos get the SE treatment too, with a new double butted alloy frame priced from £500 for the Claris-equipped 0.1 up to the 0.4 bike with 105 and Shimano RS10 wheels at £900. The Pinerolo AL SE range also gets a new disc-equipped model with 105, TRP brakes and Shimano DB318 wheels for £1000.
Mekk co-founder Ken Knight is a long-time track rider and racer, so its no surprise to see a track bike included in the 2016 range. The revamped Pista C1 comes with Saturae Pista wheels and a super-aggressive carbon track frameset for £1500; Mekk also offers the C1 as a frameset for £800. A cheaper triple-butted alloy track bike is included in the range for £800.
The carbon pista c1 manages to look fast standing still, the complete bike is £1500, and the frameset is available separately for £800:Warren Rossiter/Immediate Media
The carbon Pista C1 manages to look fast standing still
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International pricing was TBC at the time of writing. For US readers we’ll have more information very soon – Mekk has announced tie-ins with some US shops so availability in the States should be on the up.
Warren Rossiter is BikeRadar and Cycling Plus magazine’s senior technical editor for road and gravel. Having been testing bikes for more than 20 years, Warren has an encyclopedic knowledge of road cycling and has been the mastermind behind our Road Bike of the Year test for more than a decade. He’s also a regular presenter on the BikeRadar Podcast and on BikeRadar’s YouTube channel. In his time as a cycling journalist, Warren has written for Mountain Biking UK, What Mountain Bike, Urban Cyclist, Procycling, Cyclingnews, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike and T3. Over the years, Warren has written about thousands of bikes and tested more than 2,500 – from budget road bikes to five-figure superbikes. He has covered all the major innovations in cycling this century, and reported from launches, trade shows and industry events in Europe, Asia, Australia, North American and Africa. While Warren loves fast road bikes and the latest gravel bikes, he also believes electric bikes are the future of transport. You’ll regularly find him commuting on an ebike and he longs for the day when everyone else follows suit. You will find snaps of Warren’s daily rides on the Instagram account of our sister publication, Cycling Plus (@cyclingplus).