Eurobike – Pinarello Dogma 2 & Rokh, Ridley Noah, BMC and… magnesium

The paint isn't dry on many of the stands yet and the show is not yet open… yet, but we've still managed to grab you a sneak peek of some of the start bikes of this year's show including the new Pinarello Dogma 2 and Rokh, Ridley's boat rocking new Noah and the BMC Team Machine ridden to Tour de France victory in July.

There's no doubt that the Noah and BMC are both very fine machines… on our first close up look at the Ridley we'd say that it is a very interesting machine indeed but it's the new Pinarello Dogma 2 in all its asymmetrical glory that is sure to grab the lion's share of attention.

Even when they don't have anything new to show off Pinarello's stand is always the focus of a fair amount of attention anyway – they do a very good paint job, last year blasting the opposition with a fusillade of glittery bikes. This year though less is more at Pinarello, yes of course the new Dogma 2 is lighter and more aero… but Pinarello have also held back on the glittery paint… black with coloured accents is in (mind you, if you want glitter you can have it Pinarello offer a full custom paint job service).

Asymmetry is what it's all about with the new Dogma 2, it's even more asymmetrical than the original Dogma – not only are the rear stays asymmetrical, like Quintana Roo those other proponents of assymmetry the Dogma 2's top tube is slightly offset to the right – you'd have to get pretty close to notice and indeed that's the same for the whole left/righ asymmetrical gig on this bike - it's pretty subtle, up close you can see that the tube shapes on the left and right sides of the bike are slightly different.

In the interests of increased aerodynamic efficiency the Dogma 2 is a much smoother proposition than its predecessor the original Dogma's musculur ribbing around many of the tube junctions is gone and all cabling is internally routed – Pinarello are claiming a 6 per cent increase in aero efficiency "of the frontal impact surface area… in regards to the 2010 Best Bike in the World" (we'll assume they are talking about he Dogma here). Fans of muscly looking bikes will be pleased to know that the new Rokh does feature the muscly ribbed look around the head tube. The headtube is like the Dogma of the tapered variety and Pinarello has stuck with the 1 1/8 to 1 1/4 size – some manufacturers have rowed back to 1 1/14 at the bottom of the headtube citing impaired handling when running the wider headtube. Of course the angle of the tube is going to be a factor there too….

And that aero benefit at the headtube (our translation of "frontal impact surface area" isn't the only performance improvement Pinarello are claiming for the Dogma 2. They also claim 19 per cent increased braking stiffness (maybe I've had too much coffee already but I'm not exactly sure what that means – sounds impressive though and we'll seek clarification). We're on safer ground with a 14 per cent increse in lateral stiffness (sadly no mention of vertical compliance, but then it's not that kind of bike), and a 30g drop in frame weight over the Dogma… slightly at sea with the claimed 6 per cent claimed improvement in pedalling symmetry… don't suppose you'd want that to be asymmetrical. Claimed frame weight for a 54cm Dogma 2 is 920g - emphasising that this machine is all about aerodynamic efficiency rather than out and out lightness, just as well eh?

The new Dogma 2 is available in 12 frame sizes from 42 to 62cm so there should be one for every sized rider… if not every size of pocket.

Pinarello Rokh

Also new for 2012 from Pinarello is their new Rokh, essentially this is the Kobh (a slighly less full-on Dogma) but made in not so high modulus carbon, 30HM 12K to the Kobh's 60HM. Like the original Dogma, and the Kobh, the Rokh has that ribbed muscly look around the head tube junction. We're guessing the Rokh comes out of the same moulds as the Kobh, so it's perhaps no surprise that it looks like the Kobh has been dropped for 2012. That makes sense when you consider that this bike is aimed squarely at the sportive/century ride market who don't need all that extra strength and stiffness afforded by the higher grade of carbon, although it's also slightly surprising in that it was also the bike the Team Sky rode this year's Paris Roubaix on. Dropping the grade of carbon should tdrop the price – no bad thing when it comes to attracting customers.

Like the Kobh the Rokh boasts Pinarello's CenturyRide geometry, designed say Pinarello, to reduce rider fatigue on the Northern Classics, this is achieved with relaxed head and seat angles plus a taller head tube – fork rake is also increased allowing fatter 28mm tyres to be fitted for greater rider comfort… all sounds a bit like a sportive or possibly a century ride bike.

Pinarello are offering the Rokh in frame versions for either electronic or mechanical groupsets - the bikes on their stand at the show were built up with new Ultegra Di2 and its mechanical equivalent. Be interesting to see UK pricing on this one, I'm sure it will still be reassuringly expensive, but the Rokh looks like it could be a winner.
 

More to follow