Fausto Pinarello, son of the Italian brand’s founder Giovanni Pinarello, joined Team Ineos for a recovery ride on the second rest day of the Giro d’Italia aboard what looks to be an unreleased update of the iconic Pinarello Dogma F12.
The photos taken by BiciSport, expose some telling differences which reveal Fausto Pinarello’s bike as something entirely new.
(Image credit: Bicisport)
The first noticeable change is that below the downtube bottle cage, the tubing takes a step up as it leads to the overbuilt bottom bracket area. On the current Dogma F12, the tubing instead takes a second step down after the bottle cage, with the result being a slightly more slender profile.
We can only speculate whether this has been done to improve the aerodynamic efficiency or the torsional stiffness of the frame. The safest bet is likely that it’s a bit of both.
(Image credit: Pinarello)
The second difference that gives this away as a new frame is the flattened tops of the seatstay junction, where they meet the seatpost. The Dogma F12, in contrast, has a much more slender meeting of the seatstays and seatpost.
Again, this could have been done to make a stronger shape – which would allow less material to be used for the same stiffness, thereby dropping the weight a bit. Otherwise, the redesign could be to increase the tyre clearance for the rear wheel.
(Image credit: Pinarello)
The fact that this frame is designed for disc brakes isn’t necessarily a sign that Team Ineos are going to move away from their use of rim brakes. After all, the current F12 does come in both rim and disc versions.
(Image credit: Pinarello)
However, it is rumoured that the reason Team Ineos has stuck with rim brakes is due to the weight penalty of the disc brake version. So, if this new frame has managed to shed a significant number of grams, that might be all the British team needed to make the switch to discs.
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