Pinarello’s new F Series is closer to the Dogma F than ever

Standing astride a brand new F Series in the garage of a hotel near Pinarello’s headquarters among the assembled press for the launch this past summer,  I can’t help but feel a sense of deja vu.

It was almost exactly a year ago that I was rolling out of a similar parking garage, about to test out Pinarello’s flagship Dogma F. Yet when I looked down at the new F Series, I’d be hard pressed to tell them apart. The test ride only deepened the feeling. Pinarello’s new F Series does an uncanny impression of the range topping Dogma F, and is probably the Pinarello that anyone not on Team Ineos Grenadier should be on.

While the Dogma range represents the pinnacle of Pinarello’s offerings, those bikes also come with stratospheric prices. Pinarello’s latest F Series delivers virtually all of the Dogma F’s performance at (slightly) more palatable prices.

Inspired by Dogma

Instead of using the same moulds with lower-grade carbon and less-complex layups like many brands do with lower tier models, Pinarello chose to make the F its own distinct model, which requires separate moulds and its own production processes. Despite this, the new F-series borrows many features from its sibling, the Dogma F.

Starting at the front of the bike, where aero reigns supreme. The new F Series adopts the E-TICR headset first launched on the latest Dogma F, which uses an elliptical steerer allowing the internal cable routing to move from the sides to in front of the steerer. This allowed Pinarello to design the F Series with a slimmer headtube, to better cut through the wind. It’s paired with a redesigned Onda fork that’s thinner, and more importantly updated with a 47mm rake to bring it inline with the Dogma F, keeping the geometry identical between the two bikes, ensuring the same superb handling Pinarellos are known for.

This carries through to a similarly svelt down tube, again in a bid to cut a sharper figure through the air, which flares into a tall bottom bracket. Dubbed the “Aero Keel” by Pinarello, the tall but narrow BB takes advantage of relaxed UCI dimension rules governing frame design to help smooth airflow in this turbulent section of the frame.

Last but not least, the top level models of the F-series will come with the same integrated MOST Talon Fast handlebar. While they feature the…