The Road Bike Everyone Wants, But Few Need: Pinarello Dogma F Dura Ace Di2 Review

For decades, Pinarello has been a dream bike for countless road racers and racing fans. The 70-year-old Italian brand has consistently produced visually stunning rides that have won every major race imaginable. The Pinarello brand is synonymous with victory at the biggest races, from the Olympic Games to the Tour de France and World Championships across several disciplines. Pinarello also holds world records.

The Dogma F Dura-Ace Di2 is the pinnacle of Pinarello’s road bike offerings. The spec sheet reads like a racing cyclist’s dream. From the finest raw materials, engineering involving Lamborghini’s Formula One team and Jaguar, distinct tube shapes, and immaculate paint, this Dogma F stands among the most wanted superbikes in existence.

My test rig is essentially the team bike for the lauded Ineos Grenadiers World Tour team, with different wheels. It commands an eye-watering price of $15,500!

In short: The Pinarello Dogma F Dura-Ace Di2 is one of the fastest and finest road race bikes I’ve ever pedaled. Everything on the bike equates to speed. If you are a racer, look no further (if you have a platinum card). But for the rest of us, it’s too much. It will deliver World Tour speed, but it isn’t comfortable or practical. But if you’re a watt-watcher, it’s what you want.

Pinarello Dogma F Dura-Ace Di2 Review

The Spec Sheet of All Spec Sheets

As stated, this is the World Tour ride for arguably the most successful professional racing team ever, Ineos Grenadiers (formerly Team Sky). With seven Tour de France titles, two Giro d’Italia wins, and two Vuelta a España victories, the team expects and deserves the best equipment. The Dogma F Dura-Ace Di2 is what they race, minus the wheels.

Pinarello sculpts M40X carbon into one of the most aerodynamically efficient frames on offer. From the “nose cone” head tube and flared down tube (to route airflow around water bottles) to a front dropout “fork flap,” everything screams aero.

Then, as Italians tend to do on bikes, Pinarello coats its creation in immaculate paint. I tried to find a paint flaw in every Pinarello I’ve seen in the last decade. I have yet to see one.

Of course, being a bike that meets Ineos Grenadiers’ standards, Pinarello hangs the top-of-the-line Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 on the Dogma F frame. With a Most (in-house brand) Talon Fast one-piece front cockpit and Princeton Peak 4550 DB carbon wheelset, the bike has little left to be desired.

The World Tour-ready build has a Most Lynx Ultrafast Superflow L Carbon saddle perched on a Pinarello aero seat post with a 3D-printed titanium top clamp. The bike is rounded out with Continental Grand Prix 5000s tires. My size 56cm tester weighs a verified 15.4 pounds, set up tubeless, with bottle cages but no pedals.

Pinarello Dogma F9 Dura-Ace on the Roads

Fast, in Every Way

Just sitting on the bike made me realize that Dogma F is all about putting every watt my legs can muster into forward motion.

Front Cockpit

Right away, I noticed the longer-than-usual stem and narrower-than-normal bars on the one-piece cockpit. Every 56cm road frame that has come my way for as long as I can remember comes with a 110mm or 100mm stem.

I have a long torso and am fairly flexible, so sometimes I swap it for a 10mm-longer version. But Pinarello sets up the Dogma F with a 120mm stem out of the box. So, you’d better be used to an aero, stretched-out position. For me, the stem length was spot-on.

The bars measure 38 cm at the hoods and 42 cm at the drops. I’ve only had one other bike that was this narrow up front: the equally race-oriented BMC Teammachine R. And like that bike, I had a hard time getting used to the narrow dimensions.

I started racing on wide bars (44s), and over the last few years, as per wind tunnel data, I have gotten myself down to 40 mm. But 38 mm was just too narrow for me.

Yes, I could feel that it was more aero. But, I felt like I had no leverage nor as much control when things got rough. And my arms definitely got tired, which they never do on wider bars.

Pinarello Dogma F Frame Stiffness

Equally as evident as the long and narrow cockpit was the lateral and torsional stiffness of the frame. From the first pedal stroke, it delivered an unflinching direct-drive feeling from my legs to the rear wheel. From sprinting to climbing to riding tempo in a big gear, the bottom bracket felt like it was welded in place. Again, the only other time I have felt this is on the BMC Teammachine R.

The frame also delivered this rock-solid feeling when descending twisty tarmac. Some descents near my home produce speeds of over 50 mph if I’m brave and there is no crosswind. I didn’t feel any lateral or torsional give about the front axle, head tube, or cockpit when I had to pressure the inside bar and outside pedal at the functional limits when traction allowed. Then, mashing the pedals on the exit gave me the same feeling around the rear triangle.

Sprinting or climbing out of the saddle was incredible. Try as I might, to the point where I thought my patellar tendons would explode, I couldn’t elicit a feeling of leaking power.

These attributes made the Pinarello Dogma F the choice when I did hill training. The unforgiving frame improved everything about repeatedly climbing and descending the steepest pitches.

Aerodynamics

The Pinarello Dogma F sits among the slipperiest current road bikes in wind tunnel testing. However, it is essentially in the same realm as other World Tour-worthy superbikes. The negligible differences in drag between bikes of this caliber only matter to elite racers.

To us mere mortals, the knowledge that the Pinarello Dogma F is among the slipperiest in existence might only serve as a flex around your riding pals. But compared to non-aero bikes with shallow frame tubes and rims, I could tell a marked difference on flat sections in low-wind conditions. This isn’t just a statement about the Dogma F; it’s also what I’ve felt across all high-end aero road bikes.

I’ve ridden the same roads in Austin since 1986 and have had a power meter since 1998. I’m well aware of my power output on certain flat, straight sections for my normal aerobic training speeds. Modern aero superbikes like the Dogma F are absolutely faster. And I don’t need to look at my bike computer to know. It just feels easier to maintain a constant velocity, and the higher the speed, the greater the effect.

Handling

First, the stiffness of the frame meant that on rough roads, chatter was a given, even with tubeless tires at lower pressures. So, my impressions of handling are relative to similar racing superbikes with super stout frames.

But that being said, I didn’t find the Pinarello Dogma F to be twitchy, as the racing pedigree might suggest. I was pleasantly surprised that the bike felt stable at high speed while descending and riding in a group. Coming off other high-end road bikes, there was almost no adjustment period for me.

Initially, on rougher roads, the stiffness of the frame equated to an unsettled feeling while on lean. This was the one thing that I did need time to adjust to (even compared to similar bikes), and after a few rides, I learned to ignore certain signals, and everything was fine.

However, on smooth pavement, the stiffness made the Dogma F feel like a scalpel; it was extremely precise in holding a line, and I had an excellent sense of what my tire contact patches were doing. Much of this was the result of the Princeton wheels and supple Continental tires, but the combined effect gave me heaps of confidence while carving turns at high speeds.

Components and Wheels

I won’t waste words. The Pinarello Dogma F Dura-Ace Di2 has components that the best World Tour riders trust. And I could not poke even the tiniest hole in the function of the groupset. Shifting and braking for road bikes doesn’t get any better.

I can say the same for the wheels. For high-end, aero carbon wheels of the same rim depth, you are splitting the thinnest of hairs. The wheels felt fast, remained true, and delivered the same road feel as other wheels in its high-end category.

The Pinarello Dogma F Drawback

Every accolade I’ve delivered so far for the Dogma F9 Dura-Ace Di2 should draw the interest of any serious road racer. When single-digit watts and drag numbers matter, the attributes listed above are all positive.

But for even a super-serious recreational cyclist who “competes” at Grand Fondos, the Dogma F can be too much. It’s not at all forgiving or comfortable. Pinarello’s aero-first body positioning and watt-conserving frame stiffness do not translate to a practical bike. The pros rightfully don’t care about such things.

On the smooth tarmac in Austin, the bike was a joy, other than the bars being too narrow for my shoulders. It sang speed, and that was fun in itself. But as soon as I got a little out of town or rode anywhere near my country home, it was a handful. I didn’t want to ride it for more than a few hours. All day? No way.

Riding on older chip seal roads sent vibrations right into my arms despite running the lower pressures for tubeless tires. And if I hit a square-edged pothole by accident, it was downright jarring to my entire body.

The difference in vertical compliance between the Dogma F and more “all-around” road bikes was staggering. It reiterated Pinarello’s pure pursuit of speed at all costs. The stiffness of the frame and wheels, combined with the narrow and long front cockpit, is what racers want and need. But for the rest of us, it was like using a Porsche 911 GT3 R track car as a daily driver. It was totally impractical and not at all comfortable.

So, Who’s It For?

The Pinarello Dogma F9 Dura-Ace Di2 is destined for road racers with deep pockets. That is the bullseye market and relatively small. But for that sect of cyclists, it’s one of the few bikes that seems to draw universal desire and credit card debt.

Another small segment that the Dogma F may serve is the financially endowed cyclist who gets satisfaction from riding the top-of-the-line from a prestigious brand, even for a leisurely weekend jaunt to the coffee shop — you know, the Sunday driver.

If I were that, I would have this bike in my stable. I would ride it for an hour or two. Then I’d polish it and put it in my living room to admire the rest of the time. It’s that beautiful.

Again, the best way for me to describe it is as a supercar. If you admire the speed, engineering, aesthetics, and prestige of the brand and model, I can’t think of a more trustworthy ride. But you have to be able to spend that kind of money.