Charge Bikes

Cooker 0 Complete Mountain Bike - 2016

It's really easy to build an awesome bike for $10,000. Creating a killer whip for a price that won't blow up your beer budget, though, is a little more tricky. The good bike doctors at UK-based Charge set their minds to that task way back in 2005, and the bikes they came up with—the fun, durable, reliable, and affordable Cooker series—show that there's more than one way to approach rowdy trail shredding.

The simplest iteration, the Cooker 0, is a fully rigid cro-mo steel beauty that can pound down rocky trails, whip around berms, and cruise down the road to the pub when you're done getting dusty. Its straightforward geometry and low-maintenance singlespeed drivetrain are meant to be ridden, not framed and mounted on the wall, and Charge threw in some carefully chosen extras, like a chainguard and tubeless-ready WTB tires, to keep you on the trail and out of the shop.

Riding a singlespeed can require some burly leg muscles, but the corresponding lack of derailleurs, shifters, and cables endows the Cooker 0 with a clean look that has more in common with fixies than gadget-heavy trail bikes. The components the Cooker does have, like set of Tektro disc brakes, Race Face seatpost and handlebar, and custom Charge Spoon saddle provide killer all-condition stopping power, control, and comfort, respectively, and Charge's signature extra-wide 27.5in tires (27.5+) keep the ride cushy and the traction jacked up, so your body stays happy and your bike stays rubber-side down.