Pinarello enters gravel bike market with GAN GR and GAN GRS for 2017

Pinarello, the Italian brand best known for supplying Team Sky with its Dogma F8 race bike, has thrown its hat into the gravel bike market with the launch of a new disc-equipped gravel bike. You didn’t see that coming did you?

Gravel bikes stem from the hugely popular gravel racing scene in the US and they’ve captured the imagination of most bicycle manufacturers, as we’ve seen a flurry of gravel bikes launched in the past 12 months. 

They all have a few things in common, namely clearance for big tyres, disc brakes, eyelets for mudguards and often racks, and geometry designed to provide a comfortable riding position as well as stability over rough ground. And it looks like the new GAN GR and GAN GRS bikes tick these boxes. 

The difference between the two models is that the GAN GRS features the same rear damper unit first seen on the Dogma K8-S. It's located at the top of the seatstays and is designed to provide 1cm of travel, relying not on pivots but flex in the carbon chainstays. It was originally developed to help Team Sky get an advantage on the brutal cobbles of Paris-Roubaix, but it’s not a new concept in cycling, with other brands first doing something similar way back in the 1990s.

- First Ride: Pinarello Dogma K8-S

The GAN GR does without the rear suspension, and also uses a cheaper grade of carbon fibre (T600) compared to the GAN GRS and its T900 high-modulus carbon layup. Each frame features internal cable and brake hose routeing to keep the lines very clean. There are mudguard eyelets, and it takes mudguards as the photo above shows.

Both models appear to inherit the aero frame design of the Dogma F8 and that brings about obvious comparisons with the recently launched 3T Exploro. There’s space for up to 38mm tyres and Pinarello has embraced thru-axles, with 12mm axles at both wheels. It has also embraced flat mount, so the bike is certainly ticking all the right boxes.

- 3T launches Exploro - the world's first aero gravel/adventure frameset

Like its road bikes, it’s sticking with a conventional threaded bottom bracket, which will get a round of applause from some parts of the cycling community.

The geometry is the same for both models, and there will be six sizes to choose from. A medium has a 555mm top tube, 150mm head tube, 72-degree head angle, 1,024mm wheelbase and 425mm chainstays, 67mm bottom bracket drop, 50mm fork rake and 381mm reach and 565mm stack. The fork axle to crown measurement is 390mm.

We don’t have any prices yet but it does appear Pinarello will offer a number of builes, including Shimano 105 and Ultegra and SRAM Rival and Force options, with Fulcrum wheels and Vittoria tyres and Pinarello’s own MOST brand for the finishing kit.

- Buyer’s guide to gravel and adventure bikes plus 16 of the best

More (well, not much more) at www.pinarello.com/en/bikes-2017/road/gan-gr-s-disk