Pinarello has today unveiled the successor to the Dogma F8, the new F10, and you guessed it, it’s lighter, stiffer and more aerodynamic than the old bike.
Despite the naming leap from F8 to F10, visually, it doesn’t look to be a big departure from the previous bike. Pinarello claims it’s 6.3% lighter, 7% stiffer and aerodynamic drag as been reduced by up to 20%, though, numbers that suggest a lot more change than the similarities would suggest.
Why no F9? We've no idea. We can only guess they've taken a leaf out of Cannondale's book in going from the CAAD10 to CAAD12, claiming there was so much technology advancement they felt a bigger number leap was necessary, but maybe there's another reason. Maybe they're saving F9 for another new bike? Or maybe they felt the F8 XLight was a sort of F9 in all but name? We'll try and find out.
The new Dogma F10 has been unveiled at the team’s training camp in Majorca (we’re not there, in case you wondering) and one of the riders has been filmed riding it. Team Sky says it’ll be phasing in the new bike throughout the season, but Chris Froome has been riding the bike loads in training to get familiar with it.
Froome said: "I’ve always valued the way Pinarello work so closely with the team and the riders. It’s a true partnership. They make sure they are providing us with the best possible equipment for all types of racing. They are always seeking to go one better and that’s what they’ve done with the F10.
“I’ve been working on the new F10 with Pinarello for a long time now and so I’m really looking forward to starting my season on it. It’s a natural born winner.”
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It’s three years since Italian brand Pinarello launched the Dogma F8, which heralded in the company’s first attempt at integrating aerodynamics into a road frame, along with weight and stiffness improvements.
Those aerodynamic design features have had a slight overhaul, with lessons learned from the Bolide TT bike. A new down tube reduces drag bby 12.6% and new fork dropouts, which it calls the ForkFlap, knock another 10% off.
While retaining the “Flatback” down tube profile of the F8, the new bike takes a few more lessons from the Bolide TT, and the down tube has a shape that is designed to smooth the airflow around the water bottle, which is placed lower in the frame than before. Pinarello reckons that the down tube contributes to 15% of the overall drag produced by the frame. It claims to have made this change with no detriment to the lateral stiffness of the frame.
The changes add up to a claimed 20% drag improvement over the Dogma F8. In testing, Pinarello claims the new Dogma F10 saves 0.8 seconds per kilometre, which would save 2 minutes over 150km (though it doesn’t state what speed this result was achieved at).
Weight has been shed as well, and a frame comes in at a claimed 820g for a size 53cm. The Dogma has never been the lightest bike in the peloton, so this is a saving that will be appreciated by Chris Froome.
The Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 control junction box is now hidden inside a compartment in the down tube, so it doesn’t hang below the stem. Another change is the switch from dual pivot to direct mount brake calipers.
Pinarello has retained other key features of the Dogma F8, including the area seat post and integrated seat clamp and one detail that had many fans previously, the externally threaded bottom bracket.
“We’ve been working in partnership with Pinarello on this new model for a while now and so the whole team are really excited about the new F10,” says Sir David Brailsford.
“Pinarello have been a big contributor to our success and we have worked closely with them since our inception. We were delighted to renew our partnership with Pinarello last year. They are committed to innovation and constant improvement, so they are the perfect partner for Team Sky.”
Pinarello President Fausto Pinarello added: “Our new Dogma F10 is the eighth bike we’ve provided for Team Sky in seven years, and as usual, the last one is always the best one… Good luck guys!”
Will the new Dogma F10 provide a much better ride than the Dogma F8, which I was highly impressed with when I reviewed it last year? Hopefully, I'll get the chance to test it this year and find out. For now, watch out for the new bike in the WorldTour.
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15 comments
I had a similar patent (in a different industry) challenged and it was invalidated for being obvious to an expert (hell it was obvious to me too but the company I worked for filed patents for absolutely everything). I don't think Pinarello have anything to worry about and what they have been doing so far seems by the book.
Looks absolutely stunning, weight was the only place the F8 looked out of place with the competition. Plus a threaded bb, thumbs up
I didn't work too hard and got myself a nicely paid job and a sense of humour too !
You should try it sometime bigringrider, it makes life a little more fun.
https://cyclingindustry.news/velocite-challenges-pinarello-on-concave-downtube-patent-suggests-legal-proceedings/
Warned last year about infringement but still go ahead with new model!
Poor behaviour. Very poor.
Seriously!
I doubt that Pinerello as a reasonable size manufacturer with decades of experiance in cycling simply ignored it. There are many defences against the charge of patent infringement.
1: Prior art, Pinerello could show that the claims made in the patent have already been used or exist in another patent.
2: Inventive step, they could demonstrate that some of the claims would be obvious to a bycyle designer given existing know features, my Cervelo S5 has a flatened area on the down tube where the water bottle is integrated.
3: Preexisting use, Pinerello could have a design or prototype with predates Velocitie's patent in which case they would be able to continue to use this design even if there is a patent on it.
4: Domain, they filed in China and Tiawan these patents don't cover anywhere else. They had one year from initial filling to file elsewhere, they appear not to have bothered in time hence they can't prevent Pinarello from selling bikes with this feature in the majority of their markets, Tiawan and China patents would stop most brands because that is where they manufacture but it won't stop high end manufacturers who build frames in USA/Europe.
Why didn't they file in Europe, possibly because they were worried if they did so it would appear on the radar of some of the more estabilished cycle manufacturers and their patent would be contested before it was granted.
You can most probably get virtually any minor design feature on a bike patented as the patent examiners will check only patents and a limited number of academic journals, they won't go browsing the back catalouges of the top 30 bike manufacturers.
Patents are only as enforcable as you are capable of enforcing them in court, Pinarello are now part of LVMH and will have some of the hottest IP lawyers on retainer, you'd have to be pretty certain to take them on and I doubt very many cycling manufacturers have the resources to seriously contest an IP case.
They may be assembled in Italy but all Pinarello frames are manufacutered in Taiwan
Will be interesting to see if anything happens with this, i cant see a company like Pinarello with such a high public profile copying a patented design
Well that would tend to indicate that Pinarello don't think that the patent is worth the paper it is written on, the publicising of the letter by Velocitie would indicate that they don't have a high degree of confidence either.
If the frames are manufactured in Taiwan and I thought I had a case I'd go after the frame manufacturer anyway.p
I look forward to seeing them weave their way up box hill in the not too distant future
...complete with 80cm stems and a huge stack of spacers.
Hopefully the 67kg Froome won't crack this one while descending on the top tube!
Oh you poor souls. You should have worked harder at school and got yourselves a nice well paid job.
i did and I do, but what's that got to do with the stereotypical Dogma owner? It's as clichéd as the Jag owner who always forgets his wallet at lunch, or the BMW driver in a short sleeved shirt, wraparound shades and a Bluetooth earpiece with a boot full of cement samples. Let's not get too precious, eh?
80cm stems??
Ahem, that'd be mm then. Obviously I never got the hang of the metric system.
I was not that struck on the dots and dashes on the new kit but on the bike that looks awesome- looks like it's moving quickly even when stationary.