THE DOGMA SHOOTOUT: Contender no. 2 - The F10 disk

Another couple weeks but pretty much the same—rain, wind and grey skies.  This time though, I was looking forward to it a little more as I'd be riding the Pinarello F10 disc bike.  This was going to be my first extended amount of saddle time on a road disc bike.  I was looking forward to seeing if everything that I had said road disc was accurate or just needed to be tossed into the trash.

The week started well and I got a few good rides in a row in, but then another companion of winter came to visit, the flu.  Luckily, compared to others I've seen get it, this was a short lived one for me and I'm back at it.  It did keep me from hitting the road during the worst of the weather, but in the end I definitely felt I was able to get a great comparison  between the F10 with rim brakes and the disc model. 

We'll cover my thoughts on that during the ride portion of this test, for now I'd like to introduce Dogma contender No.2, the F10 disc.

It's funny that a bike we built just a few months ago is now"outdated," but that's how it is.  This bike is built with Sram's eTap wireless electronic shifting disc braked groupset.  in our opinion, eTap is the group to beat with it comes to battery assisted shifting.  Super easy to use, big shift buttons and no wires.  The no wire part is huge and I feel that until Shimano and Campagnolo come out with a wireless version of their own, they'll be fighting for second place.  And no, I don't think it matters that SRAM is a millisecond slower per shift, in fact after getting used to it, it could actually be a good thing.

The gearing we're using here is 52X36 for the rings and the WiFli rear derailleur is managing the jumps on an 11-30 cassette.  The crank is a SRAM Red Quarq power meter and has done it's job flawlessly.

The bearing upgrade has been handled by our friends in Denmark, with the Italian threaded bottom bracket and the headset bearings coming from Ceramicspeed.

For the disc version we've been putting some miles on Zipp's 454 NSW tubular wheels.  Like the last bike, the dead of winter is maybe not the best time to test a companies full on aero offering.  Like the Campagnolo Bora 60's I was using on the other bike, these do get pushed around a bit in the super windy conditions, but honestly, not too bad.  The tires are from my personal stockpile, a pair of Vittoria Corsa Pav és in 27mm.  Being tubulars, they don't balloon out as much as clinchers would and fit fine in a frame that usually does not have much room for over 25mm.

This will be a post for another time, but every time I get back on a bike that has tubular tires glued on it I get a little happier.  Not sure if I can actually feel any difference anymore as clinchers and tubeless have become so good, if not better on paper, but until you get on a set and put some good miles in, you'll never know what you missed.  For me though, I'd have to say that it's mainly due to the decreased weight in the most critical area, rotating mass.

We're running the standard SRAM Red disc brake calipers but the "old" rotors, 160 on the front, 140 for the rear, centerlock.  The levers are big, especially compared to non-disc levers and is one area where I wish they could squeeze all the internals into a tighter package, but on the road, they didn't feel bad. 

The cockpit is pretty much the same as the F10 rim brake bike, with the exception of the bars.  On this bike I'm using the Zipp SL-70 Ergo carbon bar.  I tend to like a more traditional bar with a round profile on the tops, but, these bars are extremely comfortable.  The bends in the drops are perfect.  Zipp did a really nice job with these, probably the most comfortable bars I've used.  They are also easy to use, no internal routing required, which is a pain in the ass.  Good job to Zipp on this one.

One update on the cockpit is that I've been getting more miles on the Repente saddle and it's proving to be a great fit for me.  It has a somewhat unique shape that while it doesn't look like it, it feels a bit like the old school San Marco Concor saddle in that you feel like you can really push against the back of the saddle while climbing and feels comfortable doing it.  Still need more miles on it to confirm, but it's nice. 

Next up is the last one, the Dogma K10.  And then the riding notes on all three to see which would be my pick for how and where I ride.  Stay tuned!