Pinarello Preps All

Mar 17, 2023

Yes, this Pinarello Dogma is a full-suspension XC-racing mountain bike!

This weekend, look for a prototype sticker-free Pinarello Dogma XC bike under INEOS Grenadiers riders Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Tom Pidcock. The INEOS mountain bike power duo will be racing the UCI Cross-country World Cup opening round in Nové Město, Czech Republic, from the 11th to 14th of May.

(You can watch the racing here!)

When INEOS signed on Tom Pidcock and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, we knew Pinarello would have a new XC mountain bike coming. The brand quickly developed a cyclocross bike for Tom Pidcock to win a World Championship in Fayetteville, USA. The new Pinarello Dogma XC came just as timely, with the Olympics of Paris 2024 quickly approaching and the opening round of the UCI Cross-country Olympic World Cup this weekend.

Pinarello apparently only began developing the bike in the fall of 2022, with Ferrand-Prévot and Pidcock providing feedback in what Pinarello describes as "a very intense period of testing" with the INEOS Grenadiers’ technical team.

The turnaround time from testing to creation is astonishing, but the team at Pinarello knew who they were designed for; an Olympic champion and a multi-time World Champion. The result of an abundance of world-champion feedback and Pinarello design is a beautiful ultra-race-focused bike.

Pinarello created the Dogma XC to support the teams’ best performances during UCI Cross-country World Cups and UCI Mountain Bike World Championships. Ultimately working towards gold medals at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris next summer.

Though the bike is still technically under development, it has amassed a few victories already this season. Ridden by Ferrand-Prévot in the bike's debut in the recent French Cup and Pidcock claimed victory in last weekend's Swiss Cup against current World Champion Nino Schurter.

The big question — when will it be available? Pinarello says the new Dogma XC will be available commercially in March 2024. This design will be available after further testing and feedback from the riders and tech team to finalize a design.

The new Pinarello MTB R&D team analyzed Pidcock's feedback and data from his two previous years of mountain bike testing and competition. The study highlighted the requirements Pidcock felt were needed to produce a race bike capable of competing at the highest level and accentuating the powerful riding styles both he and Ferrand-Prévot deploy.

What were those qualities?

Pinarello is well known for a unique design…or two. The same goes for the Pinarello Dogma XC. The unique bottom bracket area on the Dogma XC optimizes stiffness and accommodates an oversized bearing and main pivot point for the rear triangle.

The Dogma XC's unique shaping and integration of flex stays are said to combine to enable travel more directly. Pinarello claims the design saves weight, improves stiffness, and improves the rider and rear wheel connection.

While the profile of the Dogma XC is unique, this flex-stay single-pivot layout with a linkage-driven shock has become the universal standard for modern lightweight cross-country mountain bike design – see, for example, today's earlier Cervélo reveal for another example.

Pinarellos’ Dogma XC uses a rear triangle of two distinct semi-triangles fitted to a main rotation point. It's a unique design with two pins molded to the carbon frame (patent pending).

Pinarello explains: "This design results in the elimination of a classic external ‘bridge’ allows for a reduced chain stay length and delivers improved handling and reactivity. The elimination of critical mud accumulation areas and the ability to adopt wider tires, providing riders with a greater range of options."

The rear triangle utilizes a patented asymmetric design with a reinforced left-hand side. This asymmetry allows the bike to counterbalance the higher forces applied to it on the opposite side of the drivetrain. Resulting in balancing energy transfer, improved speed, and traction when it counts.

The rear suspension kinematics take Pinarellos’ flex stays into account. The idea is to maximize energy transfer while pedaling and delivering optimal compression/rebound on World Class technical descents and enabling maximal rider control.

Pinarello uses a hybrid bearings/bushing system on the new Dogma XC to minimize friction at each pivot point. Bushings have been incorporated at point ‘A’* as they are durable enough to absorb the high impact and low rotational forces placed upon them (*presumably the lower main pivot). As for point ‘B’**, bearings have been integrated where the opposite forces apply – low impact/high rotation (**presumably the upper pivots at the short linkage). This design results in reduced energy dispersion, increased reactivity of the rear end, and increased linkage durability.

Pinarello connects the front shock mount to the frame with a modular bracket under the top tube, allowing for rear suspension adjustability. For the INEOS Grenadiers crew, this means different mount designs, and different rear travel lengths between 90-100mm (or more?) paired with 100-120mm travel-adjust forks, allowing the riders to match their bike to the unique demands of each track.

INEOS Grenadiers rides Pinarellos’ in-house component brand – MOST. The MOST XC custom-designed, fully integrated cockpit saves weight and offers precision compared with a two-piece alternative. Fully integrated cable routing is also incorporated, as is a specific headset bearing that features an internal stopper at 60° to prevent the handlebar from over-twisting and damaging the frame… and that flashy paint job.

Look for this new Pinarello Dogma XC and the INEOS mountain bike power duo this weekend in the World Cup XCO opening round in Nové Město in the Czech Republic.

Pinarello.com