Pinarello F vs X: What’s the best Pinarello road bike for you?

Cyclist
Pinarello F vs X: What’s the best Pinarello road bike for you?

Pinarello is one of the most storied brands in cycling. It was founded in 1952 by former professional cyclist Giovanni Pinarello, who used his severance payment from his team after he came last in the 1951 Giro d’Italia to start his framebuilding business. 

Things really took off for Pinarello when its bikes were ridden to five Tour de France victories in the 1990s by Miguel Indurain. Another seven Tour wins came from the brand’s long-term association with Team Sky/Ineos, making Pinarello’s total of 16 Tours de France the largest tally of any bike brand. 

It’s produced a peloton’s worth of classic bikes along the way too, such as the Espada time-trial bike that’s still the top bike you can purchase on Zwift if you have enough Drops.

Pinarello’s current apex model is the Dogma F, ridden by the Netcompany Ineos pros and carrying a pro-level pricetag. There’s a range of more affordable F-series bikes below the Dogma F though, which share many of its design features, including Pinarello’s unique highly asymmetric frame shape.

Sitting alongside the Dogma F is the Dogma X. Designed for endurance riders, its unique feature is the X stays found on higher spec frames, which are designed to brace the seat stays while adding ride compliance. Again, Pinarello sells more affordable X-series alternatives.

Here, we’ll run through the range of Pinarello road bikes and their features and suggest how to choose the Pinarello that’s right for you.

Pinarello road bike range key features

F-series bikes

• Dogma F and F7, F3 and F1 models sold in UK
• Racing geometry 
• Keel ahead of bottom bracket to improve aerodynamics 
• 32mm tyre clearance

X-series bikes

• Dogma X and X7, X5, X3 and X1 models sold in UK
• Endurance geometry
• X-Stays on higher spec framesets for added rear compliance
• 35mm tyre clearance

Pinarello road bike range: Framesets

Pinarello’s bikes are instantly recognisable by their curvy profiles, with a design language carried through right from the Dogma F8, launched in 2014, and distinguished too by the frame’s asymmetry. The frame is offset slightly to the right, seatstay shapes are different and the driveside chainstay is overbuilt relative to the left chainstay. This, Pinarello says, helps to compensate for the differential forces acting on the frame due to the drivetrain on its right side, leading to improved power transfer and lower overall frame weight.

It’s a feature that Pinarello carries through its entire range, not just its road bikes. 

Another feature of all Pinarello’s frames is the use of the Italian bottom bracket standard. As with the more typical BSA bottom bracket, this is threaded. Its dimensions are subtly different from a BSA bottom bracket though and the left-side bearing is right threaded, while in BSA it is reverse threaded.

Dogma F

For its Dogma F, Pinarello uses a mix of carbon fibre that includes the latest high-strength M40X, which it says has allowed it to reach high levels of lateral stiffness. That in turn has allowed it to reduce the breadth of key frame members including the down tube, reducing frontal area and thus improving aerodynamics. The down tube expands lower down, shielding the bottles and cages from the air.

The narrow head tube has a ‘nose’ which protrudes forward to improve airflow and there’s a keel shape to the bottom bracket area ahead of the bearing, which Pinarello claims improves its aerodynamics. 

Other aero features include thru-axle right ends that are enclosed under the carbon fibre of the fork and frame to reduce turbulence, while Pinarello has narrowed the fork legs for better aerodynamics and increased the fork rake for improved high speed stability.

Pinarello’s tyre clearance has gradually increased, with the current generation Dogma F offering 32mm.

F-Series bikes

While the F-series bikes retain the looks of the Dogma F and inherit many of its features, such as the aero keel and the fork geometry, there are differences in the framesets between bikes.

The main difference is in the carbon grades used, with the F7 made of T900, the F5 made of T700 and F1 made of T600 carbon fibre. Using these lower grades of fibre decreases the price of the frame, but requires more material, hence increasing the frame weight.

As with the Dogma F, the F-Series bikes also have clearance for 32mm tyres. 

Dogma X

The Dogma X uses T1100 1K fibre, which helps Pinarello engineer compliance into the frame, without compromising pedalling efficiency. The seatstays include a set of X-shaped cross-braces that lend the bike its name. Pinarello says that this feature has allowed it to engineer compliance into the frame while maintaining its low weight, lateral stiffness and pedalling efficiency.

X-Series bikes

As with the F-series, there’s a cascade of carbon grades in the X-series bikes. The X7 is made of T900, the X5 and X3 of T700 and the X1 of T600 carbon fibre. The X3 and X1 also forgo the seatstay cross-braces of the higher spec frames.

Pinarello road bike range: Geometry

	Dogma F	Dogma X
Frame size	525	525
Seat tube length	560	560
Seat tube angle	73.0°	73.0°
Head tube length	154.5	165
Head tube angle	73.2°	72.5°
Effective top tube length	565	565
Bottom bracket drop	72	77
Chainstay length	409	422
Frame reach	390.8	384.6
Frame stack	570.1	588.4
Wheelbase	Not provided	1003.9

All dimensions in mm, except frame angles in degrees

Pinarello offers an unusually wide range of frame sizes, with both the Dogma F and Dogma X sold in 11 sizes. That drops to nine sizes for the F-series and X-series frames, although that’s still more than offered by most brands.

Pinarello follows its own size naming convention, with frame sizes designated by effective seat tube length.

As you’d expect, the race-oriented Dogma F has a longer reach and lower stack than the endurance Dogma X. Its chainstays are shorter and its headset steeper too, which should result in a shorter wheelbase, although Pinarello doesn’t provide figures, and hence faster handling. A 5mm smaller figure for bottom bracket dro…