The release of these 2 new Pinarello Dogma XC mountain bikes has been teased for longer than it took to develop them. And that’s maybe the wildest part of the story of how a relative newcomer to the mountain bike scene turned out 2 World Championship-winning XC bikes in the span of less than a year.
But now, after teasing us last spring and summer, the Pinarello Dogma XC mountain bikes are ready for consumers.
And you can pick up either the travel-adjustable full-suspension or the wildly asymmetric hardtail, each in two different carbon layups and requisite performance-focused build kits…
Btw, happy #panshotfriday!
2024 Pinarello Dogma XC full-suspension & hardtail MTB
Pinarello are back in the MTB scene with the official rollout of two all-new XC race bikes. Sure, It’s true that we all know the iconic Italian bike maker for road bikes, but they’ve also had a mountain bike line off and on in recent decades. But these Dogma XC bikes are nothing like the casual Pinarello mountain bikes of years past.
Two all-new off-road race bikes developed closely with Tom Pidcock and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. Two all-new bikes that have each already been ridden to World Championship titles. All less that 10 months after the whole Pinarello Dogma XC mountain bike development project began.
All-new full-suspension Dogma XC
The first one we laid eyes on was Pidcock’s full-suspension bike. Raced and won in its first World Cup outing in Nové Město, Czechia last May. He followed that up three months later with an XCO World Championship win on the same bike.
That bike is now made official as the Pinarello Dogma XC.
All-new hardtail Dogma XC Hard Tail, too!
The next one we saw was Ferrand-Prévot’s hardtail which turned up in Peebles, Scotland in August. And she proceeds to win two UCI World Championship titles in the bike’s first race outing – both Elite Women’s XCC & XCO.
That second bike is now made official as the Pinarello Dogma XC Hard Tail.
Ten months start to finish. Pinarello turned a spark of an idea into 2 World Championship-winning bikes in a single season.
(More on that story with my First Rides Review!)
OK, back to the bikes you can buy!
Both new bikes are available starting today for purchase through your local Pinarello dealer. The INEOS team has a development partnership with SR Suntour, so that’s what the team is racing. But that suspension isn’t ready yet for consumers, so you can get excellent new FOX suspension in the meantime. They also race on Shimano. But since there isn’t yet a new XTR Di2 group, Pinarello figured they would spec these commercial bikes with the latest SRAM AXS T-Type Transmissions. Thankfully (in my personal opinion and the minds of Pinarello), the bikes get spec’d with the best-performing Shimano brakes instead.
2024 Pinarello Dogma XC & XC full-suspension bikes
In short, the Pinarello Dogma XC is the full-suspension option, with 90mm of single-pivot rear travel paired to a 100mm fork.
But it features a movable machined aluminum front shock mount that lets you optionally swap in a longer stroke shock paired to a longer for to get 100mm out back and 120mm up font with the exact same geometry.
Tech details
Kinematics-wise, you get a roughly 100% anti-squat with a flat curve and a leverage ratio around 2:1 for a “simple yet progressive” suspension setup. The linkage-driven flex-stay single pivot rotates on bearings at the main pivot and bushings everywhere else.
Key features of the full-suspension bike include the extra triangle above the bottom bracket to dramatically boost drivetrain stiffness, and stiffness at the frame’s main pivot. It also follows Pinarello’s concept of asymmetric design to handle the asymmetric forces exerted on a bike comparing driveside vs. braking forces.
Less obvious, but the rear end of the Dogma XC is composed of 2 completely separate triangles. Not chainstay or seatstay bridges to connect them. But… hidden inside the oversized main pivot, the sides are joined with a Hirth joint. An oversized aluminum half axle is molded into both halves of the rear triangle, and a toothed interface connects them back in the middle to stiffen the two sides into one. The result is stiffness like you had a chainstay bridge, but with the ability to have ultra-short 427.5mm chainstays with 2.4″ tire clearance, and no mud shelf!
Integrated cockpits
Pinarello also gives both bikes a new one-piece integrated carbon MOST XC MTB cockpits to save weight and boost steering stiffness. With fully internal cable routing through the headset and an internal 60° steering stop.
It’s a massive handlebar to look at. And we’ll leave it up to the comments section to debate internal cable routing on a mountain bike. But a pleasant surprise at least to me, Pinarello did a solid job of making it stiff in the right directions, without it rattling your teeth (or wrists) when riding choppy trails!
Full-suspension specs & pricing
Pinarello makes the Dogma XC from their top-tier, lightest and stiffest Toray M40 J carbon fiber, available in 4 sizes (S-XL). All manufacturing in Italy, at least for now. All full-suspension bikes & frames come set up as 90mm of rear travel out of the box, and can later be extended with a different rear shock. Complete bikes all get 100mm forks.
The top-tier Dogma XC is available in Pidcock’s rainbow and Olympic gold replica paint job or classic carbon black and red, for $13,000 / 13,000€. For that unworldly sum, you get a SRAM XX SL AXS groupset, XTR brakes, DT XRC 1200 wheels, and a FOX factory suspension package including the new reverse-arch 32 Step Cast fork. Complete weight of just 10.45kg.
Or pick up a Dogma XC frameset for $6000 / 6000€ including the Fox Float SL shock. Frameset weight of 1750g, plus 252g for the shock.
The simply named Pinarello XC is the same bike out of the same mold, but made from a slightly less stiff Toray T900 UD carbon fiber that adds less than 100g more to the more affordable frame. It comes in black only, and only as a complete bike for $7900 / 7900€. At that price you get Fox Performance Elite suspension, a SRAM GX AXS transmission, XT brakes, and alloy DT wheels. At a claimed weight of 11.3kg.
2024 Pinarello Dogma XC Hard Tail & XC Hard Tail hardtails
The Hard Tail is a much simpler design, but will likely make more people scratch their heads.
It also gets the same unique bottom bracket and lower front triangle design to improve stiffness. But it takes the asymmetry design concept to new extremes. With dramatically different chainstay and seatstay layouts for the hardtail. Pinarello say this asymmetry addresses the forces in a frame in a more balanced way, leading to better energy transfer, improved traction, and increased speed.
Like the fully, it gets an integrated cockpit. And also comes in four stock sizes (S-XL). What it does not include is a dropper post. All of the bikes are dropper compatible, but the lightweight dropper that Pinarello wanted to spec on the bike wasn’t available in production quantities. (We think that was this world’s lightest Vertical Helium dropper.) So they gave the hardtails a rigid dropper, and left it up to the buyer to swap one in if they want.
Hardtail specs & pricing
Again, the Pinarello Dogma XC Hard Tail is made from top-tier, lighter and stiffer Toray M40 J carbon fiber. And designed for a 100mm travel fork.
The top-tier Dogma XC Hard Tail is available in Ferrand-Prévot’s rainbow replica paint (a bit less gold) or carbon black/red, for $11,200 / 11,000€ complete. Again eye-watering, you get almost an identical spec. SRAM XX SL AXS, XTR brakes, DT XRC 1200 wheels, and FOX factory suspension with the new 32 SC fork. Complete hardtail weight of just 9.2kg.
Or pick up a 960g Dogma XC Hard Tail frameset for $4500 / 5000€.
And the simply named Pinarello XC Hard Tail comes out of the same mold, made from the slightly less stiff Toray T900 UD carbon fiber that adds around 50g more to the more affordable frame. It comes in black only as a complete bike for $6600 / 7000€. At that price you get Fox Performance Elite suspension, SRAM GX AXS transmission, XT brakes, and alloy DT wheels for a claimed weight of 10.2kg.
First Rides on the Pinarello Dogma XC
Word from Pinarello is that until last week, only two people had actually ridden these new Dogma XC bikes. Tom Pidcock and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. Well, that was until I joined Pinarello’s development team and INEOS MTB Coach Kurt Bogaerts for the first test rides on the new bikes in Italy. Together with about ten other journalists. I got in a couple of fast rides over varied terrain on the top-spec full-suspension Pinarello Dogma XC. In its stock short 90/100mm travel setting. And I have to say… the bike pleasantly surprised me, at how a new XC bike from a road bike brand can feel so quick when you put the power down, yet still feel plush in such short travel without ever bottoming out.
More riding and development details in a full first rides review soon!
