Eurobike 2010: New Pinarello TT bike, sportive machine, road bike & urban singlespeed

Pinarello are showing of a slew of new models for 2011 at this year's Eurobike a new top end TT machine, the GRAAL, the Paris - a top end road bike that's like the Dogma, but a little bit different, a sportive bike - the KOBH, and a series of in yer face fixeds - the Lungallita.

The GRAAL first, now doutbt about it this bike's a looker, as you'd expect with Pinarello, however information about the performance benefits of the new machine were in short supply. Pinarello's show info instead dwelling on the fact that it was designed in the Pinarello Labs using their Simulation Optimise Evolution (SOE) system which we're guessing is a fancy way of saying they designed it on a computer and then stuck the results in a wind tunnel.

What we can tell you is that they have tweaked the geometry from the FM1 which it replaces is by making the seat tube in to a vertical section, very like the Giant Trinity. The front brake is housed behind the fork for greater aerodynamic effect, like the Trinity,  but unlike the Specialized Shiv or the Cervelo P4 – so the jury is still split on that one.

Unlike the other bikes just mentioned though the GRAALs is a far less radical looking affair – this baby shouldn't give UCI commissaires any palpitations – which is good news for Team Sky. Pinarello have eschewed the one piece fork and headtube approach for something that maintains a similar shape but achieves it in a more conventional looking way. Nothing wrong with that, why over complicate and it is a very nicely designed pice of kit. We particularly like the way the stem clamp bolt elongates at the rear to give a nice aero curve as it tucks in to the cutaway on the top tube. It certainly looks aero although we're sure it is like that for purely, er, safety reasons.

On first site the most striking thing about the GRAAL are the raised shark fin profile sections on the down tube - sadly road.cc isn't yet available in 3D, for you to get the full effect, but in the flesh as it were those coloured triangles on the downtube stand slightly proud. I could find no claims for performance enhancement for this feature in the Pinarello info available, but I'm sure there must be some… something to do with directing airflow perhaps, or maybe they just make the bike look faster, giving an important psychological edge to the pilot… might even have been Team Sky's idea. Maybe.

In keeping with Pinarello's love of assymetry, and current conventions, the headtube flares from 1in to 1 1/8. Pinarello are claiming an 1100g frame weight for a 54cm frame although interestingly their brochure doesn't list 54cm as one of the size options which are: 45, 49, 51, 53, 55, 57.5cm.

The whole lot is made from high modulus 60HM1K weave carbon fibre – so it should be plenty strong enough and frames are available in two option either configured to take Shimano Di2 electric shifting system or for mechanical cables. The GRAAL has it's own unique handlebars too but they can take either Di2 or cables of those for mechanical systems…

KOBH

Team Sky definitely had a hand in the KOBH which was developed in collaboration with them for the northern classics, like the GRAAL the KOBH is made from Torayca's 60HM1K carbon fibre so it' should be plenty strong enough for the Belgian cobbles. In many ways you could see it as a Dogma reconfigured to give extra comfort over long distances making it ideal as a sportive or century ride bike. To that end Pinarello have tweaked the geometry reducing the seat tube angle by an average 1 degree across the sizes and the steering angle by 0.5 through to 1.5 degrees on the larger sizes. That head tube also looks taller than the Dogma for a slightly more upright postion although it's still fairly racy and aggressive.

Tyre clearances have been increased to take wider diameter tyres, for harsher conditions and also extra comfort, although the bike is a much more classic looking piece of kit than the Dogma it still retains that wavy fork and various bits of asymmetrical tube profiling to take account of the different stresses the frame has to cope with at different points on the rider's pedal stroke.

Claimed weight for the frame is 1020g for the 53… but you guessed it Pinarello don't list that as a standard size instead you can have the KOBH in 45, 48, 51.5, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58. No news on prices yet, but you'll probably want to consult your bank manager before popping down to your local Pinarello dealer. Even so, we'd expect Pinarello to sell plenty of these because the KOBH is probably just what a lot of prospective Pinarello buyers have been looking for a race tested performance machine that makes it okay to buy a comfy bike AND has the important benefit of not looking like the love or loathe Dogma.

Paris 

The Paris is another new bike that shares much of the same technology as the Dogma but again matched up to more conventional looks. We're going to find out more about this one, because the Pinarello story on the info available boils down to ' it's like the Dogma, but different'. So you get a frame that shares the same design philosophy - total assymetry, with all the claimed performance benefits with all the same design and construction acronyms thrown at it SOE and EPS - that ensures that the carbon is wrinkle free. The only differences are that the rear fork doesn't narrow on the seat stay and what Pinarello describes as "the sensitive parts of the frame", and that the chainstays are straight rather than curved. Which all boils down to "like the Dogma, but not as wavy".

There is one other big difference too - it's made from 50HM1.5K carbon with Nanoalloy technology – I'll take a wild guess here and say that means they used tiny particles of alloy to fill in any voids in the spaces between the carbon fibres that would otherwise be taken up with resin… I'll nip over to the Pinarello stand in a mo where I'll doubtless be corrected. The upside of all this is that while still expensive the Paris is not likely to be as pricey as the Dogma.

Claimed weight for the Paris is 1040g for the 54 and it comes in 50, 51.5, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57.5 and 59.5 and is also available in two sizes with a sloping top tube 44 and 46.5cm.

Lungallita

Retro with a modern twist is what it's all about here… the modern twist on this urban singlespeed being that the Lungalittas are made from 6061 aluminium rather than steel. Pinarello say that making this bike was a dream come true for Giovani Pinarello, the colour schemes are a tribute to those originally of the first PInarello bikes built in the early 1950s. Wow! Well, if they were painting bikes like the Langallita Chelsea 513, though we suspect there probably talking about the very classy looking Black Sand and flat bar Red_White 423. The Lungallita range is completed by the Union Jack 489 in British Race Green with a Union Jack on the top tube and the Soho 512 – like the Chelsea but pinker and with flat bars.

Frame weight on these is a claimed 1510g for the 54.5cm, not bad, but really it's not about the weight with this sort of machine. Sizes available are: 48.5, 51.5, 54.5, 56.5, 59.5. They all come with brakes front and rear and Pinarello talk about them being 'strictly singlespeed' although we're guessing they mean in the geared sense of the word seeing as the bikes on display had flip flop hubs..

More pics to come