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TECH NEWS
Pinarello available in Halfords stores from today
If you go down to your local Halfords today, you might see a fleet of Pinarellos taking pride of place on the shop floor. Last month we reported on the news that bicycle retailer Halfords would be selling Pinarellos, the choice of Bradley Wiggins and his Team Sky outfit, and today marks the day when a range of nine road and city bikes will be available in selected branches of Halfords.
Halfords have worked with the Italian manufacturer on a select range of nine models, six road bikes and three city bikes. As of today, the Pinarello nine bike range will be sold in Halfords’ new stores in Chingford, Nuneaton and Farnborough. These new stores feature newly designed displays in what is described as a ‘bright and open interior’. If you don’t live near these stores, you will be able to buy online for a home delivery.
So, let’s take a look at the nine bikes they’ll be selling then. The range features bikes priced from £799 up to £2,549 with the equally priced FPQUATTRO and Rokh. The Rokh is based on the Kobh, a bike favoured by Team Sky for the rough roads and cobbles of races like Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, but uses a lower modulus carbon fibre, 30-ton high modulus 12k. This is a bike aimed at the endurance/sportive market, as comfort is a key factor with the frame's design.
The FPQUATTRO is Pinarello’s mid-range bike, it sits beneath the Dogma and Paris in its lineup of models. It has the unique wavy forks that make Pinarello’s so distinctive, and has a frame made from 30-ton high modulus 12k weave carbon fibre with a tapered head tube and internal cable routing, two features that are found on the top-end Dogma. It’s a UCI approved model so it’s race-ready. Frame weight is a claimed 1,100g for a size 54cm.
The FPDUE (£2,349.99) has all the styling cues of the higher end models and includes a tapered head tube and wavy fork and seat stays. Cables are routed internally, and the carbon fibre used is of the 24-ton high modulus 12K weave variety. Frame weight is a little higher at 1,120g for a size 54.
The most affordable carbon Pinarello in the range is the FPUNO Carbon Veloce (£1,999.99). This frame is made from 24-ton high modulus uni-directional carbon fibre with a tapered head tube and the same wavy forks and seat stays as higher up the range, and the same sculpted head tube that gives the frame a muscular appearance.
Finally, the most affordable road bike in the range is the FPUNO Aluminium Tiagra. It’s made from 6061 T6 aluminium and the tubes are hydroformed to give the frame the Pinarello signature appearance, with carbon fibre seatstays and chainstays and fork. It even carries the similar asymmetric features on the frame and fork of the full carbon models higher up the range. It’s built with a full Shimano Tiagra 10-speed groupset.
For hitting the city streets the Catena Vintage is a chromoly framed fixed-wheel bike costing £799.99, with a very retro look.
Costing the same is the ‘Only the Brave’ a single speed that has a distinctive stepped top tube and kinked seat stays, owing something to the wavy forks and stays of the road bikes. It’s fitted with a flat handlebar and deep-section aluminium rims.
Head over to www.halfords.com/Pinarello for more info.
David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes.
Latest Comments
- ktache 7 min 22 sec ago
Obviously can't be trusted, antisocial, ban motor vehicles...
- ktache 12 min 8 sec ago
But getting paid for it is the very definition of professional....
- ktache 20 min 44 sec ago
Never had a Shimano QR fail on me. They just work. And the top end ones look good too....
- Backladder 1 hour 6 min ago
If you're only looking at the guy in front of you then you're going to crash whatever brakes you have, you need to look beyond them to anticipate...
- jaysa 1 hour 32 min ago
As a woman, this works great for me! My chain broke once, and a kind guy stopped with a chain breaker and sorted it all out for me. We stopped at a...
- andystow 2 hours 23 min ago
Same. I also have gone through a bunch of their tyres, and only the extralight disappointed (torn sidewall) but the standards are fantastic....
- chrisonabike 4 hours 21 min ago
Indeed - but it's no more inconsistent than our current road design - very often UK high streets are "for shopping" and also a busy through route....
- mike the bike 5 hours 51 min ago
If you ask the world's leading economic commentators how many people have been rescued from abject poverty by capitalism the average answer would...
- The Larger Cyclist 6 hours 15 min ago
loads of parking
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44 comments
Some observations..
1) Halfords have sold entry level to mid range road bikes for years now and rarely have any issues.
2) The Boardman brand has grown every year since they started distributing with Halfords.
3) They also keep their 1.8k+ models in IBD's and their brand hasn't suffered at all (read the reviews, look at the numbers)
4) Although the vast majority of Halfords mechanics would easily be able to fit and set up a Pinner professionally and to a high standard (come meet us on the Ride Across Britain 2013 and you'll see first-hand), too many people are impatient and will often put the shop in a spot where a part timer will have to put the bike together NOW or go elsewhere as they don't want to wait it come back.
5) You have to remember a 2k Pinarello is still representing the entry to middle range of the road bike price range and they're not really hitting the high end market with any real effect. IBD's will lose very few high end sales over this move.
6) The 3 stores in question are more than equipped to sell Pinarello's.
7) Anyone who impulse buys a 2 grand bike is an idiot or has more money than sense. These people would quite possibly buy a Pinner from Tesco's if they had them.
8) If your local store isn't that knowledgeable or helpful, you're probably just unlucky but there are 500+ stores and to say all the rest are the same without having visited them would be a huge and unjustified generalisation.
Some good points as the share price suggests they are doing something right and I admire your loyalty.
But a couple of your comments are laughable, "The vast majority of halfords mechanics" etc, plus "if your local store isn't that knowledgeable or helpful, you're probably just unlucky", you are joking aren't you?
Ok maybe not the vast majority but there are quite a large percentage of stores including mine where you could bring in a 10k Di2 equipped Cervelo etc and not have to worry about a single thing. The sad thing is that there is a minority of stores where the guys just don't have the passion and the knowledge to deal with such things and it gives the rest a bad name.
I wasn't joking either I'm afraid. It sounds bad but because management and staff knowledge and passion in each store is so varied, you could have consistently awful service in one store but a trip to the next town could prove completely the opposite is true. I provide mechanical support for a lot of our corporate events and get to work with mechanics and sales managers from up and down the country and they all live and breathe cycling and are more than happy to share their knowledge and expertise. They are out there if you search around a bit, just sadly not in every store.
Obviously this isn't great and every store should be consistent but if these pilot stores work then every store will eventually get the same investment and it'll start to become more of a reality.
Like you(some years ago)I worked at halfords and saw the various grand projects and new dawns come and go. The product is getting better, and there are some excellent cycle people, but your own words prove my point, "they are out there if you search around a bit".
Look I'm not looking for a row and I'm glad you are happy but I consider myself lucky to have been offered a good redundancy and escaped back to the independents. The guy who took over from me had no supervisory skills, never owned a bike in his adult life but was willing to fit wiper blades, accept almost half my wage and poorer conditions. Good luck!
I beg the pardon of all here, but referring to £2k as 'entry level' is just laughable. For us relatively low earners, entry level is £300 for a racing BSO, then you upgrade to something decent in the £500 - £1,000 bracket and then maybe if you're really good and really dedicated (and also have a fair amount of spare cash which most of us just don't) *then* you get to £2k. Or am I totally in the wrong company? I love good bikes but there is no way I would ever be able to afford a £2k bike and to refer to it as 'entry level' is incredibly demeaning for those of us that don't have that kind of money but who nevertheless do like to cycle.
My point on 2k price point was never meant to be demeaning in any way. Just looking at the broad range of price points available on road bikes (anywhere between £300-£8k+) it is a fairly low price point if you consider what's available in the market as a whole. As I said. it was just an observation. 2k WILL get you a great bike and it is a lot of money to spend for most people but I didn't dispute any of these points. I merely pointed out that compared to say, your 8.5k Dogma's, 8k+ Venge's, 6k R5's and such like, they are a world away in terms of price. I love to ride and would love to have a top end bike but I will shortly be getting a 1k road bike because its the highest price point I can currently afford. It ticks all the right boxes and its a beast to ride so I've no objection to riding entry level bikes and enjoying yourself doing it.
Make hay... (whilst the SKY boys are still riding the bikes)
What are the components like? Its all well and good spending 2.5k on a bike if you are getting decent components. But your better spending your money on a bike that doesn't have fancy front forks and a brand name that can get away with charging so much.
As has been said, this will inevitably drop the interest in those who want a Pinarello and can afford one. It's snobby to say, but people will look at them and rather than go WOW a Dogma, they will go ah is that from Halfords.
Why buy a bike of that standard from a car shop. I also cant see anyone popping in to buy £5 spark plugs, just impulse buying a £2k bike.
personally I think its a stupid move by pinnarello, short term gains for long term loss ! the type of person that was buying the high end pinnarello bikes will now look at the brand in a different way it will lose a lot of loyal followers in this country and depreciate the value of the brand. just my opinion of course
But that's the thing, they're not selling the top-of-the-range Pinarello's in Halfords, just the entry-level to mid-range models. You can't get the Dogma 2 and such like in Halfords. And they're only selling them in three stores. You still have to go to shops like Bespoke and Sigma Sport to get this top-end bikes
Be interested to see this new presentation display of the bikes, anyone live near one of the branches care to pop in and take a look for us and report back?
In a way, to me at least, that makes it even worse. You can stock our brand but just cheaper stuff.
Lack of trust?
Devaluing your lower and mid price bikes?
Either way it seems like a shot in the foot.
It just seems like a smart business move to me, and I can't see how it will devalue their brand image. But then, I'm not a Halfords Hater like most people here seem to be. Fact is, Halfords have a huge reach and sell a lot of bicycles in the UK, so works well for both parties. Give them a chance I reckon.
Makes perfect sense: people dropping in to buy spark plugs will see the very same equipment that Bradley Wiggins used to win the Tour and the Olympics, and will make an impulse purchase. Like when they started selling high-end Wilson tennis rackets by the checkouts at Tesco when Tim Henman started being semi-successful.
Brave move by Pinarello. One can only think about Gucci and Pierre Cardin in the 70's. I hope they know what they're doing . . . surely they should have opened a Pinarello shop in the middle of London first - as per the Apple game plan and then let the lower end stuff leak into the high street?
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