Pinarello Prince FX Disc 2020

The Pinarello Prince FX Disc is a very fast bike, pure and simple. Both frame and fork are hugely stiff which, when paired with the fast and direct steering, gives you a ride experience that will leave a massive grin on your face – as long as you can cope with the firm ride on our less than perfect UK roads.

• Pros: Very responsive frameset; plenty of aerodynamic benefits
• Cons: Frame can feel harsh on rough roads; it's crying out for some lighter wheels

I rode the rim-braked version of the Prince FX back at the beginning of 2019 and was really impressed with the way it behaved. This new offering is very much the same, but comes with the addition of disc brakes.

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Ride

With it being the best part of a year since I rode the Prince FX, I'd forgotten just how 'urgent' these bikes feel, pretty much all of the time. This disc model may be carrying an extra 400g, but it still takes off like a rocket, squandering absolutely none of the power you are putting down. You can feel the stiffness at the bottom bracket as you crank the bike over from side to side under huge acceleration, and once you are up to speed it's a breeze to keep it there.

Whether it is the aerodynamic detailing of the frame and fork helping is hard to say, but the Pinarello certainly feels like it flies along at 20-25mph.

It's really begging for a bigger chainset, though, like at least a 52/36 over the compact 50/34 it is currently wearing, for a few extra top end gears.

With all of this stiffness it'll come as no surprise that the Prince FX Disc climbs well. The 8.43kg (18.6lb) isn't too shabby among disc-equipped bikes, and ascending, whether in the saddle or out of it, is achieved with relative ease.

When descending, the handling isn't race bike sharp but it's right on the edge of that, delivering plenty of precision and speed while just keeping the right side of twitchy.

On technical sections, smooth adjustments in body position help you carve from apex to apex, and should you need to brake hard to make the next bend the stiffness of the fork keeps everything in check when the pads grab the disc rotor.

The Prince takes quite a few of its design cues from the top end Dogma, but the geometry is just slackened off a touch, which means the FX Disc is great for covering big miles on too. This test model came with a massively long 130mm stem which did put me in quite a stretched-out position; swapping to a more standard 110mm gives a much more user-friendly endurance-style fit.

If you are out for a while the only thing you're going to need to deal with is the firmness of the ride, especially if you are sticking to country lanes.

I quite like a firm ride – in fact, when I'm riding a race bike, comfort doesn't come that high up the list, to be honest – but there were a few times when even I winced on the Pinarello. It's not uncomfortable as such, it's just that it is a little bit unforgiving, allowing more road buzz and vibration through than many other bikes of this price level. Often, but not always, higher end framesets tend to be more refined and have a smoother ride because of the carbon choice and layup.

The FX Disc can easily take 28mm tyres, enabling you to knock a bit of pressure out to take the edge off.

Frame and fork

The difference between the Prince FX Disc version and the Prince Disc is the grade of carbon fibre used. The standard Prince Disc uses Toray T700, while the FX is made from T900, making it lighter and stiffer.

Pinarello has brought over various aerodynamic concepts from other bikes in its catalogue for the Prince's frame and fork. First up, you'll notice the concave down tube which is a design taken from the Bolide time trial bike, the theory being the sunken shape places the water bottle and cage out of the airflow.

You'll also see that the Prince has three bottle mounts on the seat tube, allowing you to position your second bottle higher up for ease of use, or lower towards the bottom bracket to, again, benefit aerodynamics.

For a clean look the Prince FX Disc has full internal routing for the hoses, cables and wires and is compatible with both mechanical and electronic groupsets. There is a small opening behind a cover on the down tube, providing a space to hide junction boxes and various electronic gubbins if needed.

Various parts of the frame are designed asymmetrically to withstand the various forces placed on them from braking and pedalling – the chainstays and seatstays, for instance.

The bottom bracket is a traditional bearing cup setup, though it is threaded the Italian way, as you'd expect on a Pinarello.

Up front the hourglass tapered head tube creates a smooth junction between the down tube and top tube for more aerodynamic benefits.

The fork is integrated into the bottom of the down tube for added wind-cheating and Pinarello has stuck with its Fork Flaps at the dropout, which work with the thru-axle levers when the bike is travelling at speed.

The fork legs are bowed outwards, too, something that we have seen on others such as the Storck Fascenario, to allow the air to pass through and prevent aerodynamically unfavourable vortices of the airflow apparently.

The seatpost uses an internal wedge system to keep it secure, and it works absolutely fine with no slippage issues at all.

Many brands keep their range of sizes quite small because of the cost of creating the carbon fibre moulds, but Pinarello offers the Prince FX Disc in a massive 11 sizes from a 503mm length top tube through to 620mm. It also comes in quite a few colours, although the orange of our test bike divided opinion in the office. I really like it; it certainly stands out, and the overall finish is very good indeed.

Build

The Prince FX Disc is available in two builds, Shimano Ultegra Di2 or the one we have here, Ultegra mechanical.

The current R8000 version of Ultegra is absolutely beautiful to use, and here it comes with the R8020 shifters/brake levers to work with the hydraulic callipers.

Compared with earlier versions, the hoods of the shifters have shrunk in size as Shimano has tweaked the hydraulic internals and layout, and now their shape isn't far off that of the rim brake versions. They are comfortable to ride on for hours and the shifting is top notch, as is the braking power from the 160mm rotors front and rear.

Pinarello has gone for a compact 50/34 chainset and an 11-28 cassette, which does offer a decent spread of gears at the top and bottom, although as I said earlier, I'd definitely be switching to a 52/36 if it was my bike, or possibly even a 53/39 to match the performance of the Prince FX Disc.

Most is Pinarello's in-house component brand, and the FX Disc has a Most handlebar, stem and saddle.

The bar is aluminium, unlike the carbon version we had on the rim brake FX, but it does have a nice shape to it, with its flattened tops giving a comfortable place to rest your hands.

The bar tape is also by Most and has a decent level of padding. It's grippy, too.

The stem is also made from alloy and, as I've mentioned, is a very long 130mm – ideal if you want that pro look. Its teardrop steerer cap is designed to add a little more aerodynamic bling to the proceedings when paired with the spacers.

The saddle is called the Lynx and it is a bit of a budget offering on a £5,500 bike, with a nylon shell and manganese rails, but I found its short length and curved hull to be quite comfortable. I certainly wouldn't be in a rush to change it.

Wheels and tyres

I criticised the entry-level wheels on the FX rim version and I'm going to do the same here. The Fulcrum Racing 500 wheels are original equipment offerings of the Racing 5. It's a decent enough wheelset in its own right, but not what I'd be expecting on a bike of this price.

I also had some Fulcrum Wind 40 DB carbon fibre wheels in for testing (you can read my thoughts here), which found their way onto the Pinarello, and while the overall weight difference wasn't much, the better ride quality and added bonus of the deeper rim section made a difference to the performance.

The Racing 500s work fine as general everyday training wheels, though, and stood up well to any abuse I gave them out in the lanes.

Also pretty good were the Vittoria Zaffiro Pro Graphene 2.0 tyres. Rolling resistance is perfectly adequate and the grip is good in both the wet and dry. Something a little more supple would really let you exploit the performance of the Prince FX to its limits, but the Vittorias were also reliable too on the hedge-cutting-strewn roads.

Value

Pinarello has always gone down the reassuringly expensive route, and this is a very good endurance/race style bike. The frame quality is brilliant and if you can deal with the firmness it delivers an awesome ride experience. Against the opposition, though, you are paying quite a lot for it.

The Bianchi Infinito CV Ultegra Disc follows a similar theme to the Prince FX Disc, with a quality frame and fork, a hydraulic/mechanical Ultegra groupset and Fulcrum wheels well under spec for the bike.

The weight is about half a kilo lighter but it 'only' costs £4,475, and if you can do without the Countervail (CV) vibration damping, a similarly specced Infinito XE model can be yours for £3,200.

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BMC has the Roadmachine 02 Two, a fast endurance-style bike which David also felt had a slightly too firm ride for UK roads. An Ultegra build with Mavic Aksium wheels is priced at £3,300.

Another bike I was riding alongside the Pinarello was the Specialized Roubaix Comp, which is a little different to the Prince FX in the way that it has the suspension system at the front, but it is still a fast endurance bike. It's the same weight as the Pinarello, but comes with an Ultegra Di2 groupset and costs £4,400.

Conclusion

Overall, I really liked riding the Prince FX Disc. It's an absolute blast and it certainly looks the business, but when comparing it to all of the other similar bikes I have ridden, I would just feel a little short-changed considering its overall price.

Verdict

Firm, fun and fast bike to ride with excellent handling, but the price is high