Tour de France 2015 Bikes: Richie Porte’s Pinarello Dogma F8

After a disappointing – some might say disastrous – Giro d’Italia where he was forced to withdraw after a serious crash, Sky’s Richie Porte looked to be back in decent form in the Tour de France yesterday, finishing second to team-mate Chris Froome in the first mountain stage (of course, things change fast in bike racing!).

Like the other members of Team Sky, Richie Porte’s usual road bike is the Pinarello Dogma F8. Pinarello says that this bike was developed in collaboration with Team Sky and Jaguar.

The frame is made from Toray T11001K composite and weighs around 860g in a 54cm frame size, according to Pinarello.

More important than the weight is the aerodynamic performance of the frame. Frame elements are made to Pinarello’s FlatBack profiles. Like many other bike manufacturers, Pinarello takes an aerodynamically shaped tube profile and chops off the trailing edge. This is intended to maintain most of the tube’s aero performance while saving weight and keeping the design within the UCI’s regulations.

The Dogma F8 also incorporates other aero features like a fork crown that’s integrated into the frame, a down tube that’s shaped to hide the water bottle from the airflow, and a rear brake that’s hidden by the seatstays,

Of course, Pinarello makes big claims for the Dogma F8’s aerodynamic performance. Manufacturers always do. The brand says that the Dogma F8 “is about 47% more aerodynamic than Dogma 65.1”, although that doesn’t tell us anything about the aero performance compared to bikes from other manufacturers. 

Pinarello builds the Dogma F8 asymmetrically to take account of the driveside forces on the frame. The seat tube, down tube, top tube and rear triangle are all asymmetric.

Pinarello has been making elements of the frame asymmetric for a long time but it says, “With this… bike we enhanced this concept, not only modifying the sections, but also ‘moving’ the tubes of the main triangle (top tube, down tube and seat tube) to the right side of the bike… This solution further increases the stiffness of the frame and ensures a more balanced behaviour.”

Pinarello says that the Onda F8 fork has been derived from its Bolide time trial bike and that it’s considerably more aerodynamically efficient than the previous generation Onda 2 fork. The claimed weight is 360g in its raw state (unpainted). Pinarello also says that the Onda F8 fork has been designed to provide increased shock absorption and, therefore, comfort, although pretty much every manufacturer claims that.

Pinarello is one of very few manufacturers that has stuck with a threaded bottom bracket rather than a press-fit model on its top end bikes. Most have made the switch for increased stiffness.

Team Sky is sponsored by Shimano and uses top-level Dura-Ace groupsets with Di2 electronic shifting. The battery is hidden inside the seatpost. The wheels are from Shimano too. These are the Dura-Ace C35 Tubulars – the 35 referring to the rim depth in millimetres – although the team riders have other depths available to them.

The saddle is a Fizik Aliante with braided carbon rails. Those two little dots on the top are measurement markers to help the mechanics get the bike set up right.

A sticker on the seatpost serves a similar purpose.

Frame Pinarello Dogma F8
Fork Pinarello Onda F8
Shifters Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
Derailleurs Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
Brakes Shimano Dura-Ace
Chainset Shimano Dura-Ace, 53/39-tooth
Cassette Shimano Dura-Ace
Wheels Shimano Dura-Ace C35
Pedals Shimano Dura-Ace
Tyres Continental Competition Tubular 25mm
Handlebar Pro
Stem Pro Vibe
Seatpost Pinarello Dogma
Saddle Fizik Aliante, braided carbon rails
Bottle cages Elite Custom Race
Computer mount K-Edge