Pinarello

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Pinarello (1952 - present) is an Italian bicycle manufacturing company based in Treviso, Italy. The company supplies mostly hand-made, high end bicycles. The company makes bicycles for road racing, track racing and cyclo-cross.

Pinarello also has a long history of sponsoring many successful professional cycling teams, including Telekom, Banesto, and Fassa Bortolo, an Italian team which met its end after the 2005 cycling season. Pinarello now sponsors the Caisse d'Epargne cycling team, and equips them with their Pinarello Prince Carbon bicycles.

Alexi Grewal won the Men's Road Race at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles on a Montello-model frameset from Pinarello. Miguel Indurain rode Pinarello to multiple Tour de France victories. Óscar Pereiro rode a Pinarello Dogma FP throughout his first place finish in the 2006 Tour de France.

Alessandro Petacchi rode a Pinarello to victories that include Milan- San Remo and 19 stages in the Giro d' Italia

Montello SLX

The Pinarello Montello SLX model frameset was one of the most responsive framesets of the mid to late 1980's as shown by its numerous wins in events such as the 1984 Olympic Road Race, Vuelta di Spagna and the Giro d’Italia and various stages of the Tour de France.[1] The Montello was distinctive in the Pinarello line with brake cable routing through the top tube, chrome sloping front forks and a chrome rear triangle. The Montello SLX was offered in Team Red, Cobalto Blue and Spumoni paint schemes.[2] Many of the Pinarello's from the mid 1980's have had their paint and decals restored by collectors as the original decals flaked easily.[3]

The Montello was fabricated from Columbus SLX tubing. Columbus SLX is a butted tubing with rifling down the inside center of the tubes. This provided rigidity comparable to the more commonly used SL tubing of the day, but with lighter weight. The bottom bracket was investment cast with the Pinarello logo and the dropouts were made by Campagnolo. Braze-ons for down tube shifters, front derailer and two water bottles were provided. The attention to detail on the brazing and investment castings on this frameset were quite exquisite with GPT (for Giovanni Pinarello, Treviso) appearing in many tasteful locations.

This frameset was suitable for stage races, long road races and club rides.[1] The sample shown in the photographs is a 55 cm (center of seat-tube to center of bottom bracket) 1987 Montello SLX that was professionally repainted and refinished in 1995. The seat tube angle and the head tube angle are both 73.5 degrees. Wheelbase is 97 cm and the top tube is 55 cm.

Un-retouched headbadge from 1987 Pinarello Montello SLX

Note sloping chrome forks, Olympic decal, lug cutouts and Aero brake cable routing

Note chrome rear triangle, GP engraving, cutouts on brake bridge, Pinarello signature and Aero brake cable routing

1987 Pinarello Montello SLX built with Dura Ace and Campagnolo C-Record. Repainted and refinished 1995

Gavia

Subsequent to the successes of the Montello SLX, Pinarello departed from his standard production design with parallel seat and head tube angles and created the Gavia. This resulted in a frameset that provided more saddle setback than the Montello or other Pinarello designs. Greg Lemond, the winner of the Tour de France in the years 1986, 1989 and 1990[4], actively promoted frame designs that pushed the saddle further back.[5]. The Gavia was constructed of Columbus TSX tubing. This model was available in Team Red, Deep Blue with Pearl White panels and Pearl White with Fluorescent Splatter.[2]

Frame Materials

Originally, all of the Pinarello framesets were constructed of steel tubing. Pinarello used tubing produced by Columbus for most of the 1980's but with tubing produced by "Oria" showing up in the lower models in 1989. The first time Pinarello used a non-Italian tube was when they used Tange Prestige tubing for the US based Levis Cycling team headed by Michael Fatka and ridden by Andy Hampsten, Steve Tilford, Roy Nickmann, Thurlow Rogers in the mid-1980's.[6] Througout the 1990s until 2004, Pinarello produced frames from conventional steel tubing using lugged construction, oversize steel tubing, oversize aluminum with TIG welded joints, magnesium and frames with a combination of carbon fiber and other materials. In 2005, Pinarello produced their first production all carbon fiber frame, the F4:13.[7]

Paris FP

Winner of the 2007 "Editor's Choice" award for a road racing bicyle by "Bicycling Magazine", the Pinarello Paris FP frameset is their premier monocoque, high modulus, unidirectional carbon fiber frameset. According to the editors at Bicycling Magazine, "...The 'compliant, brilliantly executed all-arounder' full-carbon Pinarello Paris FP has proved its worth in the Classics and Grand Tours but is also ideal as 'a fast all-day bike,' with a 'refined ride and impressive comfort.' Those attributes require no significant compromise in stiffness or lightning-quick handling. 'It's the best combination of everything,' was the definitive verdict..."[8] The carbon fiber Pinarello framesets are easily identifiable with their unique "S" curvature of the front ONDA forks and rear triangle that aid in absorbing high frequency vibrations.

Current Offerings

Pinarello currently produces the following race frames:

  • Prince -- Carbon Fiber
  • Dogma FPX -- Magnesium
  • Paris FP -- Carbon Fiber
  • F4:13 FP -- Carbon Fiber
  • FP5 -- Carbon Fiber
  • FP2 -- Aluminum
  • FP1 -- Aluminum


  1. ^ a b The History of Pinarello - bicyclerenaissance.com
  2. ^ a b GITA Sporting Goods, Pinarello Catalogue #65
  3. ^ RoadBike Review's Forum Archives
  4. ^ Tour de France 2007 - Stage by stage
  5. ^ Lemond G, Gordis K. "Greg LeMond's Complete Book of Bicycling" New York, NY, Perigee Books,1990
  6. ^ GITA Sporting Goods, Pinarello Catalogue 1989
  7. ^ 2008 Pinarello Prince Carbon - Competitive Cyclist
  8. ^ Bicycling Magazine, February 2007

[edit] External links

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'I'm sure Oscar Pereiro rode a Pinarello Paris FP carbon not a Pinarello Dogma FP.'

The Caisse d' Espargne/Illes Balears team rode Pinarello Paris carbon FP's and the Dogma FP magnesium during the 2006 Tour De France