REVIEW

Pinarello Prince Carbon

Pinarello Prince Carbon. Sexy look. Sweet ride. Surprised?

You shouldn't be. You could expect that based on the brand name and a glance at the bike. And even if you didn't, you probably have scanned a review or two that said as much.

We're not surprised, either. A few years back, we did a day of testing road bikes. Of the several we rode, the Pinarello F4:13 was our favorite of the bunch. Since then, Pinarello introduced the Paris Carbon then the Prince Carbon, two steps up from the F4:13. And the Prince has had ProTour success with Alejandro Valverde and his Caisse d'Epargne team and American success under the Bissell team. And the Prince is the Bicycle Magazine Editor's Choice Best Race Bike of the Year for 2008.

What have you heard about the Prince? Probably the same clichés as us -- Looks fast standing still. Luscious curves that are light but powerful. An Italian work of art comparable to the Duomo. Such beauty brings a tear to our eyes. We want to sing opera when riding this bike. As delicate and profound as organic Prosciutto di Parma with fresh, organic buffalo mozzarella. Etc etc.

We'll admit it -- the older we get, the more skeptical we are of Italian sentimental palaver. We can waste countless words on Italian craftsmanship, Italian style, sex appeal, race heritage, and we will have said nothing about the ride. For all the good Italian craftsmanship, there is bad Italian craftsmanship, there is clunky Italian style, sex appeal is fleeting, and race heritage can be downright misleading. And as much as we believe that the ride matters, we know that we get tricked by our eyes, our ears, and what we feel.

Not that we have a problem with what we see, hear, and feel. They are our senses, and we need to have them tickled, prodded, entranced, on near-constant basis. Just that subjectivity can and will seep in, though sometimes it rushes in and owns us. Subjectivity is good for so many things, but if we get too caught up in discussing the seductive curves of this frame, we're not talking about the ride.

The difficulty of discussing the way a bike rides is there are so many things that influence that ride. Most importantly, there is fit. If you don't fit a bike, you're not going to have a good experience riding it.

The Prince fits. Us, at least. Most bike companies design their bikes to fit a fairly wide range of sizes and body types. Not all bikes fit the same, nor should they. For the most part, we fit reasonably well on classic road bike designs. By this, we mean bikes that are both designed to ride fast and hard all day and are loosely designed to what a racer might find comfortable. We're a bit long in the torso relative to our height and have a relatively flexible back and neck. We tend towards longer top tubes and shorter head tubes relative to their frame size.

When we looked at the Pinarello size chart, we focused on top tube lengths, and then checked steerer tube lengths. The top tube on the 55 is close to what we're used to, 55.7cm, ours is 56cm, but the head tube on the 55, 16.3cm, is taller than the 15.5 that we currently ride. Since we have a low headset cap and no spacers under the stem, we decided to size down to the 54, with a 55cm top tube and 15.2 head tube length, and run a longer stem, a 130 as opposed to the 120 we typically run. We probably could have run a 73-degree stem and found a lower headset top cap, but…sizing down seemed easier. It is also lighter, however slightly, and much more pro. In terms of geometry, the 54 and 55 have the same angles and same fork rake, so all we're doing is getting a lower front end.

When you look at bikes pros are actually riding these days, as in the ones that are being piloted at ProTour races as opposed to the ones the rest of us are buying, you'll see that many run crazy-long stems and lots of seat post. This is the only way they can get their handlebars low enough, though a 140mm stem probably compromises their handling somewhat.

The received wisdom on carbon-fiber frames is that they are stiff and soak up road vibration. Yes, this is true of the Prince Carbon. But looking at the bike, you probably could have guessed those things.

The massive bottom bracket juncture probably helps with stiffness. So, too, does the 1 1/4" lower race headset, giving more room for carbon fiber meat at the head tube/fork juncture. The chainstays on the Prince Carbon are oriented so there's more fiber horizontally than vertically.

In terms of soaking up road vibration, the carbon-fiber helps. Those horizontal stays probably work in this realm. So, too, do the waves in the Onda fork and seat stays. Onda means wave in Italian. With the fork and stays, we often wonder if the reason they absorb shock so well isn't so much the nature of the waves, but the fact that the waves add material between where the hub clamps and where the fork and stay join the main triangle. More material equals more room to disperse the shock.

The funny thing is that these two elements together, stiffness and absorption of road vibration, often leave people non-plussed. Bikes made from metal can feel stiff and responsive, but carbon fiber often feels dead. We heard that a lot from friends who had carbon fiber bikes for comfort, but had passion for their metal-tubed bikes. We have to wonder if this is an aural thing, that we hear something different when riding over bumps or washboard pavement.

Classic road bike designs typically yield stable rides. By this, we mean that you don't need to pay attention to your steering every second. Stable bikes feel comfortable at high speeds, which could be due to the relatively low bottom bracket height. The Prince is stable. Sometimes the price of stability is not being able to pedal through a fast criterium corner, but we've long agreed with those who believe that the lower center of gravity is faster in the long run than the ability to pedal through. That noted, until you're regularly scraping your pedal or shoe on the ground while taking a corner, you're probably not taking full advantage of a higher bottom bracket anyways.

We weren't able to ride to a road that would allow us go over 50mph on the Prince, but in the 40s, the bike was stable and predictable. Taking winding downhills fast was similarly easy. Conversely, the bike was easy to ride no-hands, and we felt the front end was not jittery when grinding away up 15% grades.

Discussing each element of a bike sometimes obscures the bigger picture. A bike is more than the sum total of its parts. It's a package of qualities that need to work together in harmony in order to be worth anything.

On this, the Prince excels. It felt right from the moment we clicked in. We had no hesitation dive-bombing intersections, taking it up to speed and leaning on it going down steep hills. It immediately responded when we got out of the saddle to sprint for a light or duke it out with cars. We had no trouble piloting it in a tight paceline, even with little experience on it. When we wanted to put on a rain jacket, we just sat up, pulled out the jacket, and put it on as we were riding; very little thought and we had little concern.

Lots of bikes can feel right after quality time spent on them, only some feel right from the start. Yes, we largely knew this was coming, but it was a great experience all the same.

As much as we wanted to ride the fast wheels, we pulled them off in favor of training wheels and tires. Minimizing variables helps isolate ride qualities and our slower-than-slow winter tires really put the ride of the frame in the spotlight. We also put on a well-used Flite saddle; saddles are too important a variable to be switched. We took out all the stack spacers under the stem and put them on top to closely mimic our regular ride. All of this was to make the bike as similar to our regular road bike, making comparisons a bit easier.

The Most post was a bit harder to adjust than we prefer. You need an 8mm open-end wrench to adjust the saddle tilt. We were a bit concerned about over-tightening this bolt and stripping it, but it seems that it took considerable torque without a problem.

For those who like to play the weighting game, here are some numbers for you. The Paris Carbon, unpainted should come in at around 990g. Our test bike, with Speedplay Zero Stainless pedals, Selle Italia Flite Saddle, and Arundel Mandible cages weighed in at 16.29lbs. When we swapped in our training wheels with a PowerTap SL wireless hub, the weight went up to 17.48lbs. Put some light carbon-rimmed wheels on, and you've got a bike decently under 16lbs. Lighten up on the stem and bars, add replace some of the SRAM Force on the bike for Red and you could be looking at low 15lbs.

Pinarello Prince Carbon. Sexy look. Sweet ride. Surprised? We weren't. You weren't. Sometimes things are what they seem; they live up to the hype. It's just a bicycle, a bicycle we'd love to test a little more. Lots more.