Reviews

Pinarello Dogma F10 road bike

Chris Froome's Tour de France-winning weapon of choice has been upgraded... so you bet it's worth shouting about

Bike porn alert: that’s the warning any bike that Pinarello launches should come with.

The F10 is the machine you’re likely to spot under Team Sky riders on practically any terrain this year, with the exception of the harshest cobbled Classics, where the K8 remains the extra-compliant bike of choice. The point we’re making is this: Pinarello (and Team Sky) seems to reject the current market trend of specialising bikes towards the mountains or the flat – instead opting for an all-in-one solution.

This means the F10 is the bike Chris Froome and his team Sky team mates will be seen on during the Tour de France this year (and probably for a couple more besides), so it’d better be good.

The numbers seem to support this. At launch, Pinarello claimed that the F10 is 6.3 per cent lighter and seven per cent stiffer than the existing F8, while featuring a concave downtube design which reduces aerodynamic drag in that area by 12.6 per cent, with the new fork also contributing a further ten per cent. But how have they achieved this?

Well, the new frame is made from Torayca T1100 1K carbon fibre, which Pinarello claim has the highest tensile strength in the world installed on a bike. The frame shapes have been updated, too, and, as we’ve already alluded to, the downtube is the most striking of these. The concave design has the dual purpose of allowing the bottle cage to sit inside the recess, smoothing airflow around it, as well as housing a Di2 junction box if electronic shifting is your thing.

The Onda F10 fork has also received an update, borrowing the dropout fin design from the Bolide time trial bike for extra aero gain, while keeping the same T1100 carbon fibre layup as the frame.

The rest of the bike is optimised for aero efficiency too, so you’ll spot a carbon bar-stem setup, while the seatpost is custom-made for the F10. The Italians have also kept the saddle in-house.

Despite the changes we’ve run through, at launch Pinarello called the F10 an evolution rather than a revolution. The race geometry remains the same, while it retains the smooth tapered rear triangle of the F8. This results in a particularly stiff rear end that Pinarello haven’t sought to mess around with too much. To be honest, if the best Grand Tour rider of his generation is able to produce results like he has on the F8, we probably wouldn’t, either.

Unlike some bikes, the seatstay junction is made using a single merged piece of carbon fibre, which only splits close to the rear wheel. You’ll subsequently find clearance for 28c tyres but not much more.

It’s just as well the frame can take 28c rubber though, because our RCUK 100 bike comes with the latest Dura-Ace R9100 mechanical groupset – complete with calipers that have been tweaked to accommodate that size rubber too.

Pinarello Dogma F10

It’s the latest and greatest mechanical groupset Shimano make, and it’s right at home on the F10, even though we know purists might argue it should be an Italian groupset for an Italian bike. Still, we’ve been hands-on with the R9100 groupset, and we’re big fans of its pro-level performance – the reason why it has an RCUK 100 entry of its own.

Elsewhere, rolling stock is taken care of via excellent Fulcrum Racing Zero hoops, which boast low weight and super-high-quality ceramic bearings. The shallow profile also leans towards the F10’s great climbing potential.

But, as ever with Pinarellos, it’s the frame that’ll stake centre stage. It’s going to take a lot to beat the combination of the F10 and Mr Froome this season.