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Pinarello Springs into the Classics with new Dogma K8-S Suspension Road Bike

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Pinarello k8-s suspension road bike team skye (2)

With Paris-Roubaix just around the corner, it’s a good time to introduce Sir Bradley Wiggins’ latest bike. Especially if that bike is a suspension equipped road bike like the new Pinarello K8-S. Known for its punishing cobble stones, riders have historically looked for a way, any way to make the grueling race even a little more bearable. This isn’t the first time the race will have seen suspension on a road bike either. Over the race’s history there have been suspension forks from RockShox, road frames with coil shocks from Bianchi, and maybe most similar to the K8-S, the Trek S.P.A. system. All of which had one thing in common, they didn’t stick around that long. To be fair, Trek’s Suspension Performance Advantage system found its way onto a number of Trek and Klein models for consumers and could be considered early R&D for the Domane’s IsoSpeed Decoupler which has found success under Fabian Cancellara.

If you ask Pinarello (and Sir Bradley Wiggins apparently) the bike is a “game changer.” So much so, that you could make a drinking game out of how many times that phrase is used in the presentation of the new bike. Their reasoning? Their partnership with Jaguar resulted in a bike with the front end and handling of an F8, but with 50% better comfort…

Pinarello k8-s suspension road bike team skye (1)

 

DSS 1

Called the DSS 1.0, or Dogmas suspension system, the shock absorber appears to have quite a few pieces to the construction as illustrated by the video on Pinarello’s site. Ultimately the system adds vertical compliance to the frame by allowing the flat chainstays to flex with the elastomer insert compressing on impacts. The design was created with the help of Jaguar’s vibration analysis using acclerometers, powermeters, and GPS instrumentation to compare the bike with the previous Dogma K. It was this testing between the Dogma K and the Dogma K8-S that Pinarello is using to say that the K8-S is 8% faster, with 10% less energy.

Claiming to add only 95g to the total weight of the frame and supporting riders up to 100kg (220.5 lbs), the bike’s “shock” bolts in between the seatstay and the seat tube. The complete weight of the Torayca T1100 1K Dream Carbon fiber with Nanoalloy technology frame is said to be 990g for a 53cm before painting. The Onda F8 Fork with a 1 1/8″ – 1 1/2″ tapered steerer comes in at 360g. Elsewhere, the K8-S uses many of the frame feature you would expect from Pinarello including their Asymmetric design, Think2 internal cabling system, SOE system, and a proprietary seat post with TripleForce clamp (3 bolts on the seat tube).

Pinarello k8-s suspension road bike team skye (4)

Pinarello k8-s suspension road bike team skye (6) Pinarello k8-s suspension road bike team skye (5)

Available in four colors including the Team Sky option, K8-S frames will be offered in 10 sizes each with size specific construction.

K8-s geometry

 

pinarello.com

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39 Comments
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Von.Kruiser
Von.Kruiser
8 years ago

Geez, put some disc brakes on that mountain bike.

David
David
8 years ago

That thing cries out for a Lauf fork.

tw
tw
8 years ago

“YBB” for the road. Right on. Make it for 230 lbs and I’m in.

ATBScott
ATBScott
8 years ago

Geee… too bad Salsa and Moots haven’t built bikes like this… oh wait, they have! Looks like a Pinarello engineer demo’d a YBB.

'Merika
'Merika
8 years ago

@ATBScott

That’s like saying every engineer of every car on the road today with a MacPherson strut demo’d a Chevy Cadet.

Scentofreason
Scentofreason
8 years ago

50% more comfort? Call me back when you dial it up to 57.3% (which of course everyone knows is the minimum for comfort improvement).

Scentofreason
Scentofreason
8 years ago

(Almost forgot) What no headshock?

KL
KL
8 years ago

Scentofreason, hahahaha!! Thumbs up!

jeffrey
jeffrey
8 years ago

Seriously? How can they even write things like “a proprietary seat post with TripleForce clamp (3 bolts on the seat tube)” with a straight face? All for a bike with a 100kg rider weight. .. is it still April Fools (or does Pinarello take us for fools?).

craigsj
craigsj
8 years ago

Why can’t any soft tail manufacturer realize that the pivot point needs to be higher?

Peter
Peter
8 years ago

We can all scoff and pretend that suspension hasn’t ever helped win P-R, but we should all remember that it has done so repeatedly in the past (Rock Shox 1992, 94). If anything, this seems like a re-tread of Trek’s 2005 “SPA” concept: an elastomer shock at the seating cluster.

ascar larkinyar
ascar larkinyar
8 years ago

with the latest trend to bigger tires this “innovation”(not!!!!) is redundant….

Menos
Menos
8 years ago

How many of you, my dear experts, will I see riding P-R next weekend?

Alb
Alb
8 years ago

Gotta love the euro’s for listing stack and reach but not understanding how it works… 530 has same reach as 540 and 575 is 3mm longer than 595. Could’ve had the same size spread with x6 sizes and saved themselves a fortune on mould costs

Taste
Taste
8 years ago

@Peter already mentioned how “innovative” this actually is. It really is more or less the same design as the old Trek SPA system. The one thing i just can’t get over is how Pinarello just can’t seem to make a good looking bike. It really baffles my mind, ever since they stopped making bikes out of steel nothing has looked even close to good. I don’t understand how Specialized, Trek, Parlee, Colnago, Cannondale (besides the Synapse), and even Bianchi have managed to make sexy carbon bikes, but the Pinarellos just look like they all come out of ugly ameba molds. It just makes no sense.

TheKaiser
8 years ago

Here is a great pic of the Bianchi full suss used in PR in 94′: http://www.velominati.com/guest-article/guest-article-anatomy-of-a-photo-1994-paris-roubaix/

And here is a decent article on the Trek SPA Hincapie used in 2005: http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/road/2005/apr05/roubaix05/tech/?id=/tech/2005/features/hincapie_bike

The funny thing about the Trek SPA is that it was very similar to this Pinarello in that it was based off of their regular racing bike, with a super short travel elastomer shock stuck into the monostay and a pivotless chainstay.

The Trek had 13mm travel, which is close the Pin’s 10mm, and Trek worked with partner BASF to develop some super awesome proprietary elastomer shock, vs. the Pin using something similarly awesome developed with Jaguar.

And here is a quote from a 2005 Cyclingnews article regarding the Trek SPA: “I don’t notice it on the road but it glides on the cobbles” – George Hincapie’s reaction after his first outing on rev.2 of the TREK SPA prototype a few days before Paris-Roubaix.”

Contrast that with the statement by a SKY spokesman in the CN article on the Pinarello “Firstly, the riders have told us that on flat sections of road they can’t feel the suspension. It’s like it doesn’t exist on smooth roads…we’ve found that there’s an eight percent increase in speed over cobbles when the power remains constant between the current bike and the K8-S.”

Basically, it is like 2005 all over again, which was a little like 1994 all over again! I’m not saying that suspension isn’t smart for P-R, I’m just saying that it always strikes me as weird how non-linear tech developments are, even amongst teams that are supposedly all looking for “marginal gains”. I mean, an “8% increase in speed on the cobbles at constant power”? That’s just crazy! If suspension can do that, how come Trek isn’t on v11.0 of the SPA by now?

anonymous
anonymous
8 years ago

@alb
They know how it works. Pinarello has a couple of sizes meant for specific racers like their 470mm dogma.

KC
KC
8 years ago

There was no mention of different elastomer densities for rider weights either.

Nairo Quintana, for example, is 58 kg. Are we supposed to believe that a single elastomer will provide proper dampening for riders from 58 to 100 kg?

Frippolini
Frippolini
8 years ago

It looks like a really primitive version of the Moots YBB.
Also, why not use front suspension? If you are going for rear suspension you might as well go for full suspension. Looks like a 1:st of April joke to me.
Also, if I remember correctly, the last time I rode elastomer suspension in cold weather, the elastomer material turned hard as wood. Good luck with that. Lol.

Sardinien
Sardinien
8 years ago

April fool to the next level…

Archer Swift
Archer Swift
8 years ago

IS THE SKY FALLING ??????
Wow a game changer (NOT!!!!!) Nice design work from Pina and Jag. great job Looks cool although no front end attention to the issues of frequency vibration our shock absorption except 4 layers of bar tape for Sir BW and more fork rake / trial. Oh OK and
28c tires. Now that’s PINARELLO innovation.
Old ideas with the revolutionary Pina spin on it. If SKY wins the TOF on this NEW K8-S it will be a massive pr media success for Pina which will probably sell more way over priced $7000.00 frames for Pina. I didn’t see fender mounts on the new K8-S? I guess that’s a $1000.00 option.
Did team SKY forget about all the great teams and riders in the pro tour that are not using 10mm of rear suspension with a claimed 4.6% gain in performance and 50% more comfort bla bla bla… at the TOF. All the other teams are relying on team work, determination, strength and skill to win. That’s the game changer. I am all for cool tech but really this frame should not even be legal.
I really wish team SKY all the best however I would be very happy to see another team rider win it on a regular modified cobble bike.
Good luck team SKY.
Oh yea I heard team Cannondale Garmin is going to be using that lefty cross monster bike for the TOF……and Nino Schurter from SCOTT is trading in his SCOTT SPARK 650 B suspension MTN bike for a full on cross bike to race XC.

Thanks to BIKERUMOR for allowing such a fantastic venue to speak our minds. Keep up the good work.

Dave
Dave
8 years ago

@alb Spot on. Too many companies crap the bed on their largest sizes basically making it more of a comfort bike. The geo on that 595 is wonky times.

Dave
Dave
8 years ago

I can’t look at that first photo and not think of the corn dog video.

Frippolini
Frippolini
8 years ago

I was just reading on Pinarellos website that “As with the Dogma F8, we assembled our team of Italian and British engineers” … With all respect, but I’m not really convinced that’s a good thing to do if you want to engineer a “game changer”, except perhaps for the favor to Pinarello’s competition? 😉

Archer Swift
Archer Swift
8 years ago

I’m sorry I cant leave it alone.
News flash…… team TINKOFF SAXO just announced the team will be ridding the all new top secret, 29er EPIC with 11mm of rear travel and a solid carbon front fork from the CRUX, 33 cyclocross file pattern tires and the new FSA hemp fiber dropper seat post. 🙂
That’s right theirs goes to 11mm.

Psi Squared
Psi Squared
8 years ago

It’s amazing that no one who’s commented above hasn’t been hired by some big bike manufacturer or some big pro team as a technical adviser. What with everyone knowing better and all.

chuckster
chuckster
8 years ago

So many bashers!! P-R is the ultimate test site for new stuff and also proven old stuff too (Ambrosio rims till just recently (IIRC) and straight-up CX bikes w/ cantis… guys who use electronic switching to cable shifting, etc). It’s like nothing else in the world. I think it’s pretty cool to see the tech, even if it’s been done in one form or another already. Spesh R-Baix is sort of purpose built for P-R and it’s found itself a big following… gimmick or not, the “give” in that frame hasn’t prevented it from winning P-R.

Ascar – big tires alone and guys still get flats…
KC – not many 100kg pros out there lol and prob not a suspension that needs a ton of tuning!

Can’t wait to watch the race!

Mike A
Mike A
8 years ago

Meh, it looks bad. Compared to the rest of the bike, the suspension looks hacked in. If it works, cool, but so much for Italian design.

ginsu
ginsu
8 years ago

Considering the way a damper or elastomer works (buy absorbing energy and transforming it to heat) there can’t be any reasonable way for the bike alone to be ‘faster’ over cobblestones than a rigid bike. In fact, the situation would be quite the opposite, in principle.

The only thing it can really do is absorb the energy from the road, thereby reducing stress and fatigue on the rider.

Psi Squared
Psi Squared
8 years ago

@Ginsu: an elastomer might allow a tire to remain in contact with the cobblestones more, thus allowing power to be applied to the cobble surface over a longer period of time.

Eric Hansen
Eric Hansen
8 years ago

If a Specialized bike wins the P-R again over this, the smug factor could possibly break the universe.

saddlesniffer
saddlesniffer
8 years ago

so whats the travel on that thing? 150 or bust!

Phred
Phred
8 years ago

so weather or not it looks good doesn’t matter anymore?

Pistolero
Pistolero
8 years ago

Pinaello frame are overpriced, and overated, and the still sell tons of them, due to good marketing, good gimmicks. This is the same, another gimmick. Gimmicks are for selling stuff, the purpose of this frame is not to be better in cobbles, the purpose it to earn more money and it will achieve it purpose quite well. It’s an awesome product therefore. It’s a shit of a frame, but they did not want to make a better frame.

You guys seem to know a lot of cycling but very little about business. No april fools, these pinarello guys are getting dentist’s money day in and day out. I´m sure you would love to do the same, but you can’t.

Marcassin
Marcassin
8 years ago

@Pistolero

With all due respect, Pinarello are not overrated. They are overpriced for an Asian made product but they are not overrated. I work for one of the biggest Pinarello selling shop in the world and I’m so happy I don’t have to work again on crappy S or G or T bikes. Pinarello are reliable, ride well and they don’t have a weight limit on standard frame …

Tough it’s a good idea, proven to work on certain occasion, I do think a company like Time gives you at least as much comfort without an elastomer shock.

Azrul
Azrul
8 years ago

I own a Calfee Manta Pro with a rear suspension, also 1 cm travel. So what’s new?

OiFatty
OiFatty
8 years ago

Can’t be that good if Geraint Thomas needs to keep getting off the bike mid ride and adjust it. Still he doesn’t look to perturbed. Maybe he finds it therapeutic.

Zanetti
Zanetti
8 years ago

Gary Fisher had a similar mtb for Paola Pezzo years ago, we need bikes for post 2020 design , this actual designs are dead …

ylvis
ylvis
8 years ago

this is a late April fool’s joke right?

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