I haven't bought a bike in over two years. Got the itch. If the non suspended one has direct mount brakes I'll get one.
Crumbling infrastructure is grim reality here. My daily commute was great ten years ago but now it is worse than Paris Roubaix. It would be impossible on my Dogma now. I have to use my mountain bike.
I almost said something very similar, then i thought "what kind of jerk says this?" I looked at your profile and saw we are both from Philly. It all makes sense now. lolz
Nice technology incorporation. Not something most of us need as we aren't on cobbles, but if I had to ride them regularly it would be something to consider.
Where I live, chip seal is the closest thing most of us will ever come to riding on cobble stones.
That said, the vast majority of road riders - me included - can achieve the same effect as the multi-million dollar Pinarello/Jaguar 'brain scientists' by letting a wee bit of air out of our overinflated tires and riding gingerly enough so as not to pinch flat (too often).
But what do I know ... I comment on Interweb posts and ride a hardtail mountain bike. :idea:
What I do not like about the design is that allowing the rear triangle to flex 10mm would change the distance between the crankset and cassette (granted, minimally). By having the seat tube flex and provide the "suspension" like on the Domane, the transmission triangle remains rigid and efficient. With a Domane when you stand to climb the suspension goes away and power is transferred with typical efficiency to the drive train. Pinarello's design more resembles a soft tail. It must loose some efficiency when someone stands to climb like, similar to a soft tail MTB.
Cannondale introduced the scalpel mountain bike with that same chain stay design. Trek had the same elastomer setup on early domaines. What is a leading "Italian" brand to do except marry two old ideas and make a new $12,000 bicycle?
Over the cobbles, that bike will be quite a bit faster than a standard. The suspension will allow the rear wheel to track the road and keep the power going to the road in lieu of spinning.
It will be tested soon.
I am not so sure about this. I really don't expect it to perform much better than the Domane does. My expectation is thay it will be super comfortable, but like everything else, that added comfort will come at the price of something else.
For normal people, sure, but these guys are trying to win a bike race. There's a lot more road than cobble in Roubaix. 38c file tread tires would be great over the cobbles, but you'd get there with a lot fewer matchsticks.
The best part is that Pinarello will be offering some outstanding bonuses for those purchasing the new K8-S frame: a free pair of parachute pants and a copy of the Scorpions' "Lovedrive". On audio cassette of course.
There's a video of Cavendish losing because his rear wheel was bouncing on the cobbles. He's a small guy and a big guy (Greipel?) passed him. Cav was bouncing on the cobbles and the other guy was planted.
I can see the little plunger thing making the ride softer but I doubt it will provide anything beyond that. Anyway it was a Canyon that crossed the line first with a heavy favorite in the cockpit.
Not so sure how well such a design will hold up over time. As it is, that elastomer shock will work as a strut to support the rear triangle, a load bearing part. It will be subjected to side to side, and torsional forces that normally would be handled by a traditional seatstay. Specialized used such a strut design on one of their earlier full suspension mountain bikes, and granted, they were using coil springs, but those shocks kept blowing up due to the excess forces they weren't designed to handle.
Now, this is road, and the stresses may not be so great, and perhaps technology and design have improved enough to compensate, but I don't think I'd spend my money on such a system.
Idiotic disk brakes, 28mm tires and now this (yes, I'm well aware it's not the first suspension road bike). At what point is it now a mountain bike? Getting pretty damn close.
I'm starting to like the Canyon now. At first I thought it was ugly but it's growing on me. I do like that it does not have flubber cushions.
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