Pinarello FP7 Review and Video

Family name and good looks alone?
Within the 2010 Pinarello range the FP7 is 3rd from the top and sold as a complete bike only. The engineering, finish, build kit and price would have the Fp7 as the flagship bike in many other brands. But, can the FP7 hold it's own in the top tier of road bikes for 2010, or is it relying on the family name to get into the club?

The FP7 comes mostly built from the factory in Asia and is easily put together. Cables are cut and handlebar wrapped. Quite a departure from the way Prince and Dogma arrive. At first I was not OK with this, but less than 2 hours later the bike was ready to ride and everything was exactly the way I wanted it to be. Small things matter to me, like gear cables that are run to long. It seems apparent that whoever is running the show for Pinarello in the factory outside of Italy feels the same way.

Where the rubber meets the road

When you jump on a new bike there is that out of the driveway feeling where you already know what you are going to know. On the FP7, I got that immediate feeling this will be a fantastic race bike and weeks later I still felt the same. The FP7 sprints very well, it's a bike that makes the rider feel confident when out of the saddle sprinting hard. I believe it has more to do with the Pinarello geometry than the 46HM3K carbon (46HM tensile strength of carbon used and 3K the fabric weave).

Where the ass meets the saddle

Not sure how this happens but for me Pinarello is the bike brand that is able to combine performance and comfort like no other, the FP7 continues this tradition. For a bike that sprints this well the FP7 is comfortable to ride. I said this in the review of the Dogma and its the same for the Fp7 just not as pronounced. Pinarello designs and builds bikes to be race bikes, unlike other brands, they do not specialize in making bikes for the Saturday group ride. Fortunately for Pinarello owners, the designers at Pinarello understand the need for comfort not only performance. It's more than performance that helped Indurain make 5 successful trips to Paris and Pettachi show everyone clean heals in San Remo.

When gravity takes hold

Complete built with SRAM Red and Fulcrum Racing 1 wheels the FP7 is 16lbs. This is not exactly a good weight for a top tier racing bike. If you are a weight weenie this bike is just not going to work but if your focus is performance then the overall ride quality of the FP7 will be what you remember. The MOst carbon wrapped alloy handlebars could be swapped out to save some weight and also the Most Leopard saddle has some real beefy cromolly rails that could go. The unpainted frame weight is 1050grams.

OK how does it ride?
Holds a straight line in the wind, keeps it's line in the corners, accelerates like a rocket and all that good stuff. The characteristics of the top of the line Pinarello bikes can be felt in the Fp7. Take the same materials, groupset, wheels, components and put them together without the Pinarello design, geometry and manufacturing experience and you will not get the same ride. The Pinarello FP7 upholds the family name and does it with the style and grace.