Pinarello Dogma XC Hardtail first ride review

We ride the bike that won Olympic Gold.

Liam Mercer

Jul 30 2024

For fans of skinny tyres and Tarmac, Pinarello is a brand that needs absolutely no introduction. Its road bikes have brought many a rider to great success but at the Nova Mesto MTB World Cup last year, it debuted its prototype cross-country bike under Tom Pidcock and Pauline Ferrand-Prevot. Since then, it’s racked up numerous results, including gold medals in both men’s and women’s XCO categories at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Only now has the brand released the bike to the public and we headed out to Riva Del Garda to get a taste of what Pinarello’s latest XC Hardtail is all about.

Pinarello Dogma XC HT - Technical details

With the introduction of the Pinarello Dogma XC platform, the brand has introduced two all-new cross-country bikes. First, it unveiled a full suspension bike then slightly later a hardtail. Both bikes have been developed with a huge input from the brand’s athletes – so much so that the XC Hardtail (we’ll call it the XC HT from now on) came as a result of Ferrand-Prevot’s request. However, impressively, the full-suspension bike was developed in just three months for the Nova Mesto event. For more details on that bike, head over to our news story as Pinarello marks its return to cross-country mountain biking with the Dogma XC.

Both bikes share a lot of the same technologies but, importantly, both are designed for one thing – winning elite-level cross-country races. As such, the brand has put stiffness at the forefront of the bike’s design, as well as weight savings. The former is evident in the unique bottom bracket triangle, and on the XC HT especially, its asymmetric rear triangle. While it might look a little weird, the whole idea behind it is to balance forces transmitted through the drivetrain when under the incredible power of an elite-level XC athlete.

At first, I questioned why the brand felt to go to such lengths but I was assured that regardless of how stiff each side of the rear triangle is, there would still be an imbalance between both sides. This design is also partially to credit for the lack of bridge, braces or arches. The lack thereof then contributes to the bike’s very short chainstay which has been specified for its responsiveness.

The Dogma XC HT then gets a large focus on building stiffness around its bottom bracket and with its triangular design, Pinarello claims that it's the stiffest BB on the market. This is all to deliver as much power to the rear wheel as possible.

Coming as standard on modern cross-country bikes is a fully integrated, one-piece cockpit picked for the greater precision this solution offers, compared to the traditional two-piece alternative. To the dismay of some, this bar features internal cable routing and there’s an internal stopper in the headset that stops the bars from rotating more than 60-degrees to protect the downtube from damage caused by the bar overrotating.

To wrap up the features, the bike comes standard with a fixed seatpost which, given this bike’s race focus, is an interesting move, especially considering that Ferrand-Prevot and most XC racers ride with a dropper. However, I’m told that this is to put this bike in line with others on the market, as many top-spec race hardtails don’t get droppers as standard. This bike does feature the necessary routing to fit one post-purchase if that’s more your thing. The Dogma XC HT runs 29-inch wheels and 100mm of suspension travel.

As for geometry, I rode a large frame that gets a 470mm reach, a 68-degree head tube angle, a 424.3mm chainstay, and the wheelbase comes in at 1167.9mm.

Pinarello Dogma XC HT - Componentry

Bolted to its mega high-end Toray M40 J carbon-fibre frame is Fox’s all-new 32 Step-Cast fork in its Factory guise. This fork is complete with a remote lockout.

Driving the bike is SRAM’s XX SL Transmission drivetrain but that’s where the SRAM stops, as Pinarello has paired the shifting with a duo of Shimano XTR two-piston brakes. The bike rolls on a set of carbon DT Swiss XRC 1200 Spline hoops which are wrapped with Maxxis Rekon Race tyres both front and rear. The front is fatter, at 2.35in in width and the rear is a little slimmer at 2.25in but what’s good to see is that both get EXO casings.

Before moving on, I did have a bit of an issue with the drivetrain in that there was a little bit of play between the battery and its cradle, so it'll break from its contacts every so often. This left me without shifting until either it rattled back into place or I relocated it myself. However, I would consider this a freak accident as this is the first time I've ever run into this issue on any of the Transmission drivetrains I've ridden since its launch.

The rest of the components come from Pinarello’s componentry brand, MOST, including the bar and solid seat post.

Wrapping up the build is MOST’s Talon Ultra XC one-piece bar and stem, for me, a controversial addition but one that’s unsurprising. I find such bars to be too stiff with arm pump taking its hold far earlier than I would prefer. But to my surprise, I rode the bar with no issues. I would admit though, it’s not the prettiest bit of kit around.

This build, we’re told, tips the scale at 9.2kg with its frame weighing 960g of that.

Pinarello also offers a non-Dogma model, the XC Hardtail. This gets a lower-grade Toray T900 UD carbon frame, SRAM’s GX T-Type drivetrain, Shimano XT brakes, and DT Swiss XR 1700 Spline wheels. The rest of the bike follows suit with the kit seen on the Dogma build and this model is claimed to weigh 10.2kg.

The Dogma XC HT is priced at £6,200 whereas the XC HT will set you back £4,500. Those prices don't look too shabby at all which comes as a real surprise – nd in most cases cheaper than the Scott Scale RC World Cup, Factor Lando HT and Mondraker's Podium RR SL.

Pinarello Dogma XC HT - Ride impressions

Given the Dogma XC and Dogma XC HT’s success on the elite cross-country circuit, this is one of the most exciting bikes of the year for me. To top things off, Pinarello invited us to sample the bike at the northern tip of Lake Garda. Despite biblical rain on the shuttle up to the location, the sun dried out the trails fairly quickly, making for a very welcome respite from the consistent slop coating every one of the UK’s trails.

Once set up, and the first few pedal strokes put in, one thing is immediately clear – the Dogma XC HT is one efficient machine. Through Pinarello’s obsessive stiffening of the frame, and as per Tom Pidcock’s request, the Dogma XC HT transmits every single watt to the rear wheel. Power delivery is immediate and although I’ve not been as fit as I would like, it made incredibly light work of all manners of uphill. Granted, on looser climbs, I had to watch my output to retain traction at the rear wheel but that is a common trait of any kind of hardtail.

Pair that eagerness on the pedals with its very serious geometry and the Dogma XC HT is super responsive. For a modern XC track, the numbers picked make sense as while the reach figure is certainly up to date, the head angle isn’t as slack as we’ve seen on bikes like the new Specialized Epic 8 and Yeti ASR. Sitting at 68-degrees, it’s on the steeper side of what may be becoming the norm of cross-country bikes, matching that of the Merida Big.Nine 10k.

That head angle, combined with the short chainstay, makes the bike very point-and-shoot when it comes to technical climbs and that’s where the bike excelled. There were short sections where I questioned my ability but as the rear wheel is basically underneath the rider and the steering is so sharp, I managed to clear niggly technical sections very much to my surprise. Though it must be said, there were a few occasions where the Dogma XC HT's headset stopper got in the way.

Then when it comes to descending, that reach and the decent wheelbase makes for a rather confident ride. During my time with the bike, the downhills mostly comprised rocks of both the sharp and pointy kind and slabs, two things that I rarely ride in the UK. There were some decent gradients, too. During these sections, the solid dropper held the bike back as I wasn’t able to shift weight and allow the bike to move around as much as I'd have liked. The tracks we rode were fairly lumpy and having a saddle to manoeuvre around became a limitation more than anything. On a bike of this level and at this price, a dropper out of the box would be massively appreciated.

Although, with the seatpost dropped old-school style, I was impressed with the handling provided. That responsive character that makes loads of sense on the ups translates well when the Dogma XC HT gets some speed under its wheels. Even though the head angle is on the steeper side, the reach and wheelbase summons good stability and I found that I could trust the bike as I got more comfortable and pushed the bike harder. The new Fox 32 Step-Cast fork specified on the bike is superb, too. Its travel delivery and support towards the mid-stroke are sublimely smooth. What’s also cool is the fork’s blow-off valve when flicked into the locked position. This opens up the fork to move through its travel when hitting more considerable impacts. Over flatter and tamer gravel sections, this added a boost in efficiency and support but without confiscating comfort.

Such relentless efficiency comes at a price, so the bike is far from forgiving. Compliance isn’t a word that graced Pinarello’s press release and that was a clear factor in the ride quality. Every single bump and imperfection in the road, trail and gravel I rode was transmitted straight to my backside, as I relied on the solid seat post and rear tyre to absorb any kind of chatter. This is a hardtail, so there is a point where this could be forgiven but, compared to other bikes with similar intentions, the rear end is noticeably hard-going. For the professional athlete, I can understand this but, for a rider like me, the lack of damping in the frame caused some fatigue sooner into the ride than I would have expected.

Pinarello Dogma XC Hardtail - Early verdict

The ride that the Dogma XC HT provides is nothing short of unique. A brand rarely uses the input of its athletes so heavily when it comes to a bike’s design but with the Dogma XC HT, it's incredibly evident. It’s a bike built by two of the best cross-country athletes in the world and that shows. That does somewhat limit its appeal, as it’s built to be ridden at the ragged edge during an hour and twenty minutes’ worth of racing and its capabilities have already been proven in its gathering of trophies. Because of that, it's hard to get away from the idea that this bike has been brought to market only so it can be raced in this year's Olympic Games in Paris.

With Pinarello’s pursuit of stiffness taking pride of place in the bike’s design, the Dogma XC HT is built for the sport's top riders. For the average Joe, it’s ruthless and it takes no prisoners but that’s a direct trade-off for the almost ridiculous speed it rustles up with relatively little effort. It's a bike that's designed to make some of the most physically demanding aspects of riding a bike easy through its outright efficiency and responsiveness while keeping its capability on the descents more than manageable.

In the right hands, it’s a force to be reckoned with, which has already been proven through a healthy helping of exceptional results. That said, before dropping the cash on the Pinarello Dogma XC HT, some serious self-reflection is required as it’s not a bike that’ll suit all tastes and it's not quite as welcoming as the current roster of cross-country bikes that are getting ever-more 'traily'. But what is very cool about this bike is that it offers a glimpse into what elite-level cross-country athletes want from their bikes.

pinarello.com

Author block

Liam Mercer

Tech Editor here at off.road.cc Liam can also be found photographing bikes as well as revelling in cycling's intricacies. Whether it's gravel, mountain, or e-MTB as long as it's a bike on dirt, he's happy.