Competitive Cyclist

PINARELLO LUNGAVITA

The advent of fixie culture pre-dates the current urban fashion of riding them by such a long way that the origins of the basic idea are unknown and undocumented. What we know, we've taken from the thought leaders such as the well-known Bike Snob NYC and the less-known but equally important Trackosaurus Rex. What is that basic idea? It's not what it seems -- let's ride in traffic with no brakes and with limited ability to stop the crankset from turning. Rather, not unlike acoustic sets and restaurants keen on serving only what they grow, our best guess is that it's an embrace of simplicity in an ever-noisier , evermore needlessly overwrought world. No gears? That cures 75% of a bike's maintenance woes. No brakes? We appreciate the aesthetic simplicity brought on by the elimination of the rest of the cables. The resulting irony, of course, is that a bike stripped down to its essential moving parts -- brainless to maintain, joyful to accessorize, minimally appealing to steal -- becomes the ultimate urban weapon for battling the nemesis of the true urban dweller: those dreadful cars.

Have you ever ridden a fixie before? If not, it's a bit of a shocker how your natural inclination to freewheel can jack you up rodeo-style over the bars. The first few times it happens it's pretty terrifying and terror, of course, is the best disciplinarian so you learn super-fast to stop indulging the freewheel instinct. We'll admit, though, that our riding time is precious (we're in that kids + job phase of life) and rather than master new skills our preference is fine-tune the old ones. This means (a) getting comfortable with the hardly-subtle nuances of a fixie drivetrain and (b) getting accustomed to dealing with traffic with no brakes aren't in the cards, which is a shame because the delights of a fixie -- simple beauty, little-to-no maintenance -- it appeals on many levels. And this is why we have a bit of a crush on the Pinarello Lungavita. It lets you access this good without forcing you to risk life and limb.

The Lungavita comes with a flip-flop rear hub. One side has a real-deal fixed cog, i.e. if the rear wheel is moving, your crankset will be moving. But the other side is a single-speed freewheel cog that allows you to do what you're used to doing -- stop pedaling whenever you deem fit, exactly like your ability to freewheel on your regular everyday geared bike. The other touch of risk management is the presence of small brake levers on the bar tops -- like what you're attuned to seeing nowadays on cyclocross race bikes. After all "Lungavita" means "long life" and we're not afraid of saying our days of doing overtly self-destructive things are pretty much behind us….

The Pinarello Lungavita frame is made from 6061 aluminum with a painted-to-match aluminum fork. It's available in 5 sizes and comes as a complete bike only, and all you'll need to add is pedals. It has a 46 tooth chainring and 14 tooth rear cog for a total gear of 86.4 inches.

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Lungavita Price:  $950.00  

2010 Pinarello Lungavita Geometry

Size	Top Tube	Seat Angle	Head Tube Length	Head Angle
45.0	52.0	75.0	11.0	71.0
48.0	53.6	74.0	13.5	72.5
51.0	55.2	73.5	16.0	73.0
53.0	56.7	73.5	18.0	73.0
56.0	58.2	73.0	20.4	73.0