Competitive Cyclist

PINARELLO DOGMA FPX

The highest caliber road racing bikes available in the modern marketplace seemingly have one trait in common, regardless of brand: All you see is carbon, carbon, carbon everywhere. Take a look, for example, at the team bikes ridden throughout the ProTour circuit: Every last one of them was carbon fiber. Attentive tifosi noticed the occasional intriguing exception: Liquigas' Danilo DiLuca and a small contingent of Euskatel riders proved their preference for cutting edge technology circa 1998 by riding full-aluminum bikes. This is perhaps a statement of their feelings about the stiffness, the weight, or the handling of latter-day Bianchi or Orbea carbon bikes, we're not really sure. And another especially noteworthy exception to the carbon rule is Team Caisse d'Epargne's Oscar Pereiro. We say noteworthy for reasons that are likely obvious to you: Pereiro has been crowned champion of the 2006 Tour de France, at the expense of both Floyd Landis and the credibility of French laboratory science. Pereiro originally finished 2nd in G.C., barely a minute behind Landis. And the bike he rode wasn't the carbon fiber Pinarello Paris Carbon used by most of his Caisse d'Epargne teammates. Rather, Pereiro rode the Dogma FPX.

Why was Pereiro on Pinarello's Magnesium super-bike instead of falling in lockstep with the carbon fiber trend of the ProTour? It's first and foremost a practical reason: No matter how tall and lanky Pereiro looks on TV, in reality he's built like a Breeder's Cup jockey. He's tiny and has oddball body proportions. He needed custom geometry, and Pinarello could customize his Dogma FPX, whereas custom geometry on a ProTour-caliber carbon bike is nearly unheard of.

That's not to say the only reason to consider a Dogma FPX over a Prince Carbon or Paris Carbon is its potential customization. Virtually all of the Dogmas we've ever sold here at Competitive Cyclist have been, in fact, stock geometry. Rather, since the unveiling of the first-generation Dogma a few years back, the central reason folks would trend towards something carbon rather than a Dogma was its weight. The original Dogma (and the 2nd generation Dogma FP) came in at about 200g heavier than most top-dollar carbon frames. While this isn't a fatal flaw, it was enough of a deterrent for most riders that they went elsewhere -- most commonly to the Paris Carbon. Pinarello addresses this issue head-on with the Dogma FPX by redesigning the tubing dimensions of its top tube, down tube, and chainstays. Their outside diameters shrink between 1mm-2mm in the FPX in comparison to the Dogma FP. Beyond this, the tubing goes to a triple-butted design. Overall, this has a net effect of reducing the weight of the FPX by 150g in comparison to the Dogma FP -- nearly a 15% decrease in overall weight.

Beyond its dramatic diet, another evolutionary transformation in the Dogma FPX is its change in bottom bracket shell design. In order to accommodate the hunger for drivetrain stiffness needed in the past by explosive sprinters like Alessandro Petacchi (who had 24 Grand Tour stage victories in 2 seasons on his Dogma), Fillipo Pozzato, and Fabio Baldato, Pinarello built their Dogma FP with a MOst bottom bracket shell that required the use of Pinarello-specific oversize BB bearings to reduce torsional frame flex. Now, with the introduction of Campagnolo's Ultra-Torque outboard BB bearings, Pinarello can make the Dogma FPX with a standard threaded BB and provide world-class sprinters with rigidity galore. You can use any Italian-threaded BB with the Dogma FPX -- Campy Record UT, Shimano Dura Ace-10, or SRAM GXP.

The final piece of progress with the Dogma FPX is its redesigned fork and seatstay. The original Dogma and Dogma FP both featured Pinarello's Onda carbon fork and carbon seatstay. Rather than being straight (or in the case of a typical fork, slightly curved), the Onda fork and stays had a noteable "s" shape. This curvature gave these models enhanced stability during braking and cornering, and good bit more vertical compliance. With the Dogma FPX Pinarello built a second "wave" into the Onda "s" shape. This redesigned shaping is known as the Onda FPX, and it serves to further reduce vibrations and increase comfort on any road surface.

We're often asked a simple and understandable question: Why Magnesium? Its combination of lightness (especially now with the Dogma FPX) and durability sets new benchmarks. It has greater durability than even thick-walled 6061 aluminum thanks to its superior elongation -- allowing it to have what is known in the business as "low notch memory", meaning Magnesium is better prepared to remain dent-proof in the case of impact. Even better, it accomplishes this at a 34% weight savings in comparison to 6061 while providing loads of shock absorption. Other than the legendary difficulty experienced by framebuilders in using Magnesium, it's a material with no downside. And Pinarello helps guard the look of your Dogma FPX by spraying the tubing prior to the paint process with a protective anti-corrosion treatment to give it surface durability equal to aluminum. In the rare circumstance that you chip your Dogma's paint, a special ceramic coating acts as a boundary layer to shield the Magnesium from contamination.

How incredible is Magnesium to ride? Recently retired sprinter extraordinaire Marcel Wust test rode a Pinarello for Pro Cycling magazine and wrote "The feeling I had going around the first roundabout was great, and as I kept on going around and around, leaning over more and more, it was clear to me that the Dogma handled perfectly. I went into a huge car park and did a series of standing start sprints that ended with me pulling on the brakes as hard as I could, because I thought the little bend in the fork must be there for something. What I discovered with this test is that all of the power seemed to be transported through the chain and onto the rear wheel without any discernible loss. The acceleration tests using smaller gears produced totally satisfying results, and even when conducting a power test by accelerating from a standing start up to 25mph with the bike in a huge gear I was not aware of any significant flexing in the frame."

Wust went on to hand out a grade: "'P' as in Pinarello as in perfect. This sounds pretty good and comes close to the truth. In common with most bikes ridden by the pros, the Dogma was on the stiffer side, but did not lack comfort even on Pyrenean backroads with their usual gravel surface. The Dogma is a 'must-have' machine for lovers of handmade Italian bikes, a 'wanna have' for those who are into performance and finish, and a 'wouldn't mind to have' for those few of you who have already got everything."

The Dogma FPX is offered in twocolors, a lovely White with Gold highlights; and Red. It is also available in 20 other custom colors for an upcharge through Pinarello's "My Way" custom paint program. It is available in 10 sizes between 44cm and 59.5cm. It includes a 1-1/8" Pinarello cartridge bearing integrated headset and a Pinarello carbon fiber 31.6mm seatpost. It requires the use of a 35.0mm front derailleur and an Italian BB.

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2010 Pinarello Dogma FPX Pricing

2010 Pinarello Dogma FPX Geometry

Seat Tube (c-c)	Top Tube	Seat Angle	Head Tube Length	Setback	Chainstay
44.0	50.3	74.4	11.5	11.8	40.6
46.5	51.5	74.4	12.0	12.4	40.6
50.0	52.2	74.0	12.5	13.8	40.6
51.5	53.5	73.7	13.0	14.5	40.6
53.0	54.5	73.7	14.4	14.9	40.6
54.0	55.0	73.4	15.2	15.4	40.6
55.0	55.7	73.4	16.3	15.7	40.8
56.0	56.5	73.0	17.0	16.3	40.8
57.5	57.5	73.0	18.4	16.8	40.8
59.5	58.7	72.4	21.0	18.0	40.8