Pinarello reworks the Dogma X: race performance for a wider audience

There is a particular kind of bike launch cliché that gets rolled out every time a brand claims to have "listened to feedback" – usually in reference to something as trivial as a new colourway or a slightly wider tyre clearance. Pinarello's revised Dogma X arrives with most of the usual claims of refinement, but beneath the marketing language lies a bike that should be genuinely interesting to a wide audience.

When the original Dogma X landed in 2023, its X-Stay system was its centrepiece. A distinctive design that really stood out within the Italian brand's portfolio. For the new generation, Pinarello hasn't simply left them alone. The X-Stays have been fully reworked into what the brand is calling X-Stays 2.0, swapping the original layout for a double-arm, four-point top-stay design. It's a less busy and far sleeker update to the original, more in keeping with the Treviso brand's design language. The attachment point on the seat tube has been lowered, which Pinarello says spreads road vibration across four connection points rather than concentrating it, exposes more of the seat tube, allowing a higher degree of flex, and the new linkage geometry is tuned to minimise rebound. 

Flex stays aren't new and have been used in road and off-road setups to dampen vibrations in various configurations, but I thought it was interesting that Pinarello acknowledged rebound in its design. Pretty much all top-end XC mountain bikes use a flex stay but, crucially, have a shock or damper to control rebound, which, of course, the X does not. But its latest design addresses this by cleverly controlling the movement of the back end and the carbon layups around the new stays. 

The aim is a frame that stays composed rather than skittish once the road surface deteriorates. It's the sort of tech that actually takes a lot of thought, development and skill to produce, but one you barely notice when riding – in a good way. It quietly gets on with taking the edge off impacts, letting you get on with pedalling and enjoying the ride.

It's also a meaningful differential from the usual aero-obsessed, race-bike-at-all-costs positioning that so much of the WorldTour-adjacent market still leans on. Theres nothing wrong with a race bike, but for a lot of us the position, handling and stiffness can make them an uncomfortable proposition. The Dogma X was never pitched as a pure aero weapon in the mould of the Dogma; it's the sibling built for long days in the saddle, whether that's topping mountains or simply cafe cruising with your mates.

Same carbon as the flagship, just tuned differently

Underneath the reworked stays, Pinarello has dropped in the Torayca M40X carbon layup first seen on the latest Dogma F, a fibre the brand describes as boasting the highest tensile modulus (377) currently available in production frame-building. In the F, that material is used to achieve outright stiffness and low weight. In the X, the same raw ingredient has been laid up with a different target: a frame that's lighter and more durable than its predecessor, but tuned to smooth out the road, and given the state of the roads in the UK currently, that comes as welcome news.

Aero gains without losing the plot

Pinarello's WorldTour aerodynamics programme has filtered down into the X range too, even if outright drag reduction was never really the main point of this bike. The most visible change sits right at the front: a new elliptical-shaped steering tube, paired with a wider head tube, which Pinarello says both improves aerodynamic efficiency and increases torsional stiffness. 

The down tube tells a similar story. It's been narrowed and tapered, and it follows a similar silhouette to the Dogma F series. This increases stiffness and helps cut through the wind. In practical terms, it should translate into a bike that feels more responsive out of the saddle on climbs and more willing to hold speed on the flat, without the sluggishness or dead feeling that's sometimes associated with endurance bikes.

At the front end, the closed dropouts from the F series have been introduced to tidy up airflow around the fork crown and hub. Pinarello is careful to point out that none of this has come at the cost of handling; if anything, the brand says the combined effect of the redesigned front end is more precise steering and improved stability, which, on a bike that already had impeccable handling, is an impressive feat.

Obviously, no current product launch would be the same without some increase in stiffness and an aero improvement, but here it's subtle and goes with the ride rather than introducing its own shortcomings, and it still manages to maintain the ride quality that Pinarello are famous for.

Room for real tyres, and a nod to modern drivetrains

Clearance has grown to 35mm, which is a little conservative compared to others but should be enough for most riders. Having said that,  I'd have liked to have seen more here, as performance tyres are growing in volume, with many offering a 40 or 42mm option, and a degree more future-proofing here would be welcome.

A new dual-mount system also brings the frame into line with SRAM's UDH standard too, which should keep the bike relevant as more of the groupset market consolidates around universal derailleur hangers and the simplicity they offer.

Fausto Pinarello, never a man short of a soundbite at a launch, framed the new bike as the brand's answer to riders who measure performance not by a single hard effort but by the ability to hold form deep into a ride: a bike as capable two hours in as it is at hour ten. It's a fair description, though don't be fooled into thinking it's only for distance; it's a fast bike, just one that fits a lot of us better than a pure race bike.

Why increased stack height over the Dogma F is the smartest move

I got the chance to ride the outgoing generation of the X and F series back-to-back at a dealer demo day earlier this year, swapping between sizes and stack heights over the same challenging but fun loop in the Lincolnshire Wolds, which was about as close to a controlled comparison as you get outside a lab. Two things stood out. The first was simply how fast the bike was; whatever compliance Pinarello has engineered into the rear end, it hadn't come at the expense of the sense of urgency that's always defined the Dogma name. The second was less about the bike and more about the riders on it.

Most of the riders at that demo, myself included, ended up running spacers under the stem on the F series bike. Not one or two riders who happened to prefer a more relaxed position, all of them. Which rather undermines the old assumption that a taller head tube is somehow a compromise, a concession for riders who can't or won't get low. If the geometry chart says everyone needs spacers to reach a comfortable position anyway, then the case for simply building that height into the frame becomes hard to argue with. You lose nothing in stiffness; if anything, a head tube built to the correct height from the outset should be a more rigid structure than the same frame with an inch of spacer stacked under the stem, working as a lever against the steerer. And you gain a front end that looks far sleeker.

It's still unmistakably a Dogma, still built with WorldTour aerodynamics and a flagship carbon layup. But in refining the stays, tuning the layup, creating a less fussy-looking rear end and sticking with a head tube height that acknowledges how riders actually end up setting their bikes up, Pinarello has built something that should ride faster, feel calmer over rough tarmac, and for the vast majority of us offer a more enjoyable ride

Colours, builds and pricing

The new Dogma X launches in four colourways: Moonlight Frost, Etna Lucente, Aqua Veil, and a launch-exclusive Jade Eclipse, with the full MyWay custom paint programme opening up from 24th July for riders who want to specify their own scheme. Build kits span Shimano Dura-Ace Di2, SRAM Red AXS and Campagnolo Super Record groupsets, with premium wheel options from Campagnolo (Bora WTO 4S), DT Swiss (ERC 1100) and Princeton (Grit 4540).

Frameset pricing starts at £5,500 (€6,700 / $6,950), with complete builds starting from £12,600 (€14,900 / $15,500). Full regional pricing and build configurations are available at pinarello.com.