With Paris-Roubaix just around the corner, it’s a good time to introduce Sir Bradley Wiggins’ latest bike. Especially if that bike is a suspension equipped road bike like the new Pinarello K8-S. Known for its punishing cobble stones, riders have historically looked for a way, any way to make the grueling race even a little more bearable. This isn’t the first time the race will have seen suspension on a road bike either. Over the race’s history there have been suspension forks from RockShox, road frames with coil shocks from Bianchi, and maybe most similar to the K8-S, the Trek S.P.A. system. All of which had one thing in common, they didn’t stick around that long. To be fair, Trek’s Suspension Performance Advantage system found its way onto a number of Trek and Klein models for consumers and could be considered early R&D for the Domane’s IsoSpeed Decoupler which has found success under Fabian Cancellara.
If you ask Pinarello (and Sir Bradley Wiggins apparently) the bike is a “game changer.” So much so, that you could make a drinking game out of how many times that phrase is used in the presentation of the new bike. Their reasoning? Their partnership with Jaguar resulted in a bike with the front end and handling of an F8, but with 50% better comfort…
Called the DSS 1.0, or Dogmas suspension system, the shock absorber appears to have quite a few pieces to the construction as illustrated by the video on Pinarello’s site. Ultimately the system adds vertical compliance to the frame by allowing the flat chainstays to flex with the elastomer insert compressing on impacts. The design was created with the help of Jaguar’s vibration analysis using acclerometers, powermeters, and GPS instrumentation to compare the bike with the previous Dogma K. It was this testing between the Dogma K and the Dogma K8-S that Pinarello is using to say that the K8-S is 8% faster, with 10% less energy.
Claiming to add only 95g to the total weight of the frame and supporting riders up to 100kg (220.5 lbs), the bike’s “shock” bolts in between the seatstay and the seat tube. The complete weight of the Torayca T1100 1K Dream Carbon fiber with Nanoalloy technology frame is said to be 990g for a 53cm before painting. The Onda F8 Fork with a 1 1/8″ – 1 1/2″ tapered steerer comes in at 360g. Elsewhere, the K8-S uses many of the frame feature you would expect from Pinarello including their Asymmetric design, Think2 internal cabling system, SOE system, and a proprietary seat post with TripleForce clamp (3 bolts on the seat tube).
Available in four colors including the Team Sky option, K8-S frames will be offered in 10 sizes each with size specific construction.
