The eye always travels with you: Contoura, a brand of Hermann Hartje KG from Hoya in Lower Saxony, has a heart for aesthetes. Under this label, Hartje builds dignified, high-quality everyday and touring bikes that stand out from the crowd thanks to their particularly careful design. Shiny powder coatings, tasteful colouring, smooth tube connections and clean, handcrafted workmanship are all included. There is also a kind of modular system that provides prospective customers with many options in terms of equipment and, above all, colour selection. In the Pollino alone, there are 12 different double powder-coated colours. Nevertheless, the Pollino is by no means a vain dazzler: this pretty thing is also technically impressive. Starting with pleasant ergonomics on the cockpit with curved handlebars, possible height adjustment via spacers and comfortable screw-in grips, through powerful Deore discs with easy-grip two-finger levers, the strong, everyday luggage rack with removable spring flap, light, fast tyres and powerful lighting, to the luxurious P1.18 gears.
Contoura Pollino - Sophisticated everyday bike with a high feel-good factor
On the test bike, the gear ratio of 1:1 is so high that you can start off in 10th gear - this gives away a lot of the huge gear range of the super gearbox. Hartje would like to use a primary ratio of 32:28 teeth in series production, as other manufacturers do. This is exactly in line with Pinion's recommendation of 0.875 as a ratio of the number of teeth at the rear to the front. This means that the rider has plenty of gears "at the bottom" for long or steep climbs, the working gear for a relaxed ride on flat terrain is around 12, and downhill you can pick up the pace again if you want to (and still can). The trapezoidal frame of the Pollino is sufficiently laterally stiff but, like any non-diamond frame, suffers from noticeable longitudinal torsion as soon as more than about 10 kilos of luggage are placed on the carrier. However, even after intensive kilometres of testing, this limitation remains the only necessary one. The compact bike is pleasantly lively, nimble, safe and comfortable to ride. The Gates drive makes it extremely low-maintenance and particularly quiet when travelling. If you play with the air pressure of the tyres, you can easily find your optimum speed and damping.
The complete article "Top bikes 2017" was published in Trekkingbike issue 1/2017.
