2013 Rock this ROKH!.....

With the growing demand for Pinarello thanks to its exposure underneath Team Sky they have produced a bike which caters for the large proportion of riders on a platform equally at home racing or on long sportives.

The Pinarello ROKH (pronounced ‘Rock’) is a direct descendant of the Pinarello Dogma-K or KOBH (which in a round-about way means ‘cobblestone’) and which was designed for the Sky Team to race on at the Northern Classics.

The frame of the ROKH is similar to the Dogma K but the sizing is based around the average rider with a healthy physique rather than the super flexible pro. The other main difference is that, like the FPQuattro, it is constructed of 30HM carbon as opposed to the 60HM carbon in its bigger brother – simply put it will withstand 30 tonnes of force per square centimetre rather than 60. This does not mean for a second that the bike isn’t stiff, on the contrary it has impressive lateral stiffness that allows the bike to accelerate and climb with the best of them; bear in mind that the professional rider is putting out a considerably higher wattage than the average amateur and as such a bike that is designed to cope with this is frankly rather an overkill.

As with all Pinarello frames for 2013 the ROKH is asymmetric. – a feature that had it’s genesis in the Dogma 60.1. This is not simply asymmetric in the rear end however, rather in exactly the same way as the flagship Dogma 65.1 Think 2 the entire thing is constructed to balance the power expertly throughout the bike. This means that if you inspect the frame closely you will see that the right hand side of the rear triangle and the fork is broader and more muscular than the left whilst the top tube is sculpted differently on either side in order to adequately spread the load throughout the bike. This means that under power the handling is very predictable and stable; this applies to both acceleration and cornering.

The ROKH uses what Pinarello call their ‘CenturyRide’ geometry, a term which is pretty self-explanatory – the bike is designed to be comfortable even when spending long periods in the saddle. The head and seat tube angles are slacker and the seat stays are curvilinear which offers more vertical compliance when compared with the double S-Bend Onda as found on the Quattro, Paris or Dogma; there is space for a larger and more comfortable 28mm tire in the frame – the preferred width of the pros riding in the hideousness of the Northern classics – and something most of us in Canada could benefit from given the state of our roads! The rake in the fork is greater and the headtube is higher, allowing for a higher bar position without the use of 40mm of spacers you might require in the out and out race bikes of the range. The slightly longer wheelbase that the ROKH also provides gives superb stability. Ultimately then, the ROKH is more comfortable than the Dogma 2 over harsh terrain for instance and will for the large majority of people be faster. After all - a comfortable rider is usually a faster rider; especially after 100 miles.

The frame also shares the beautiful ribbing found on the KOBH (now called the Dogma-K) around the headtube and bottom bracket and the effect is nothing short of stunning, such is the attention to the aesthetics when Pinarello produce a bike. The paint too is so vibrant and well finished as to take your breath away; indeed the Pinarello department is usually the most alluring in store purely thanks to the array of gorgeous bicycles on display.