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Antipasto Italiano di Bici from Colnago, Pinarello & De Rosa, August 31, 2006Three top Italian companies reveal new models for 2007The trade show season is upon us with the Eurobike show kicking off in Germany today, but before the world's bike companies start their month-long trek around the show halls of Europe and the USA, Tim Maloney got three of Italy's top bike makers to give Cyclingnews readers a sneak peek at their offerings for 2007. Pinarello 2007
Fausto Pinarello's right hand man Luciano Fusarpoli took Cyclingnews through the Treviso, Italy bike firm's new models for 2007, starting with the new incarnation of the magnesium-framed Dogma. "After a successful run, we have updated the Pinarello Dogma FP for 2007," explained Fusarpoli. "Our new top of the range model is the Pinarello Dogma FPX. The proprietary AK61 magnesium tubing maintains the same shape, but we have made it slightly smaller and lighter." According to Fusarpoli, a 54cm frame without fork will weigh 1.25kg for the 2007 Dogma FPX. Pinarello has also added new and improved Onda FPX fork and seatstays, with a double wave configuration and new reinforcing side ribs. Pinarello's carbon fiber flagship, the Paris Carbon FP has carried ProTour leader Alejandro Valverde to considerable success this season, and so, according to Fusarpoli, "we have not done much to change this model for 2007, but have some attractive new graphics," including a replica of Valverde's Caisse d'Epargne road rocket. Fusarpoli and Pinarello were more excited about a new carbon model in the range, the F3:13, which sits in the middle of Pinarello's spread. "We have had a lot of success with the F4:13 carbon fiber model, so we took the same frame moulds and used a different, less-expensive but still high quality grade of carbon fiber to reduce the cost. We have used Torayca 24IM UD unidirectional composite in this new model, which is still a much higher grade of material than used by most other bicycle manufacturers." The new Pinarello F3:13 will be equipped with SRAM's new Rival group and will be available in seven sizes. The new F3:13 will be available in US stores in September and will retail for about $US 3,000. Pinarello's entry level aluminum rig Galileo stays the same except for adding some rich new metallic finishes. With an extensive array of track sponsorships that includes the Italian and Spanish national squads, Pinarello has put a lot of time and energy into developing new track bikes for 2007 that will be raced at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. These bikes are a labour of love for Fusarpoli, who rode the track for the Italian National team in the 1980's. "We created our new Pinarello X-Track in two versions, one for the points race and Madison and one for pure sprinting," he said. "It's not a big market, but since we sponsor some top track teams and riders, they asked us for some special new bikes for the Beijing." Pinarello X-Track frames are made in special Torayca 46HM 12K carbon fiber composite material and according to Fusarpoli , the points race and Madison version weighs 1.2kg without fork, while the sprint version is stiffer and weighs 1.35kg without fork. A dramatic departure from the norm is Pinarello's wild new 4Power tandem. Fusarpoli said, "we don't expect to sell a lot of tandems - it's a niche bike - but we have had customers ask us for a high-performance road racing tandem." Fusarpoli also showed us the array of MO.s.t. components on the Pinarello range for 2007. The new component line includes the MO.s.t. Tigerlight thinwall 2014 aluminium stem with carbon cap and titanium bolts that weighs a claimed 95g for a 100mm model, and the new Talon integrated carbon fiber bar and stem. DeRosa 2007Cyclingnews visited Cicli De Rosa in the Milano suburb of Cusano Milanino, situated in an industrial zone just north of Milan's hectic 'tangenziale nord' ring road. Before the usual summer closing for August, Cristiano De Rosa gave us a few details about De Rosa's key new products. "We have created a new model called Idol," said DeRosa, "totally made in Italy with a process called 'fasciata' where we wrap the tubes with special carbon fiber tape to join the tubes. This works really well and we've developed the Idol as a cousin for our Dual aluminium model, with a special integrated seat post." De Rosa's King X-Light gets some new paint and graphics, and Cristiano was happy to show us what he believes is the first ever carbon fiber kids' bike, the Jr. Carbon. "We wanted to have some more fun with kids' bikes this year and so we decided to come up with this first ever carbon fiber kids' bike." As we were departing De Rosa, Cristiano's brother Danilo, an avid competitor in Italian Gran Fondo events came to tell us about the first ever Gran Fondo DeRosa, on Saturday, August 26 in conjunction with the Hotter N' Hell Hundred endurance ride in Wichita Falls, Texas. Colnago 2007After our visit to DeRosa, no visit to Milano would be complete without a visit to Cambiago just east of the Lombard capital, the home of Ernesto Colnago's worldwide HQ. The wizard of Cambiago has expanded his facility this year, opening the new annex that had been under construction for the last 12 months. Just next door to his current offices and warehouse facility, Colnago's new building has a new warehouse downstairs and a huge showroom and museum upstairs. Although he was busy with customers visiting from all over the world, Colnago took a few moments to reveal his new creations for 2007. Colnago is very proud to have two of the best sprinters in the world, Alessandro Petacchi and Erik Zabel riding his bikes this season on Team Milram and has created a special new rig for them. "My new Extreme Power model is derived from the Extreme C climbing bike, but we have modified if for the needs of a more powerful riders like sprinters Freire, Petacchi and Zabel, who can generate over 200kg of force with every pedal stroke." Colnago said that although the Extreme Power resembles the Extreme C on the outside with its round tubes, inside they are nothing alike. "In order to make the Extreme Power more rigid, yet still have light weight, we added two unidirectional carbon fiber internal reinforcing ribs along each tube, and two more at the ends of each tube. Our tests have shown that the reinforcements increase the rigidity of the frames main triangle by 30 percent." Colnago's Extreme Power has a larger diameter 35mm seat tube that an 31.6mm oversize seatpost and has distinctive leaf shaped rear chainstays and is available in 15 traditional and 7 sloping frame sizes. Colnago said that the C50 and Extreme C climbing bike will continue in the Colnago range for 2007. The Extreme C was ridden by Rabobank's climber Michael Rasmussen, who has won the polka dot jersey of king of the mountains at the Tour de France for the last two years. "The Extreme C is our lightest bicycle, but we won't make it too light," said Colnago. "We could make this frame lighter, but at Colnago, we believe in safety and stability for the rider. Too many people are making very light bicycles, but they may be compromising the riders security if they are too light." The 2007 C50 family consists of four carbon fiber models: Strada, Crono, Pista and Cross. All of these frames, plus the Extreme Power and Extreme-C are made in Italy, as is the Cristallo, which will continue for 2007. Cristallo is a monocoque front triangle bike with swoopy lines that has been very successful in its first year with plenty of race wins from Colnago's sponsored teams. Inspired by the streamlined looks of the Cristallo, Colnago has a new mid-range carbon fiber bike for 2007 called the CLX. Designed by ColnagoLab, Signor Ernesto's in-house R&D department, the Colnago CLX is the first ever carbon fiber bicycle from Colnago built in Taiwan. Colnago told Cyclingnews, "My new CLX is a high performance yet affordable carbon fiber bicycle. We have designed the CLX here in Cambiago in our ColnagoLab, then brought the manufacturing to Taiwan to bring the price down to a more affordable level. For years, our customers have been asking us for a more affordable carbon fiber bicycle but we didn't want to make anything cheap and unreliable. We have done a lot of testing and now we know the CLX deserves the name Colnago." Colnago's new CLX has a monocoque front triangle with external ribs to enhance the frame's rigidity at key points, and CLX has a special aero section seat post and will be available in three colourways and seven sloping sizes as both a complete bike and frameset with aero seatpost. Colnago's classic Master model has been revisited for 2007, with its classic Columbus steel Master front triangle, mated to a rear triangle with carbon fiber seatstays and steel chainstays and the top tube now TIG-welded at the seat cluster for more rigidity and lighter weight for this neo-classic Colnago. Finally, Ernesto Colnago introduced us to his all-new monocoque carbon fiber mountain bike frame that is a cousin to the CLX. Colnago's off road rider is called Ibex and is available as a frameset. PhotographyFor a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here Images by Tim Maloney/Cyclingnews
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