New Pinarello Grevil F launches with the one feature we wanted

Four years after first stepping into the gravel space with the launch of the Grevil, Pinarello has today returned with the latest iteration of its race-ready gravel bike, the Grevil F. 

With its aero tube shapes and integrated cockpit, there's no denying that the intentions for the new bike remain in racing, and that is only further backed up by the list of performance claims from its Italian creator. These include a stiffer bottom bracket to the tune of eight per cent, an aerodynamic improvement of four per cent, and a claimed saving of five watts when riding at 40km/h. 

However, the standout feature of the Grevil F, in our eyes, is the ballooning clearance which will accept tyres as wide as 700 x 50mm. This is as wide as any of the best gravel bikes designed for racing, coming in at 3mm wider than the Specialized Crux, 8mm more than the Canyon Grail and 12mm more than the fellow Italian Bianchi Impulso Pro. This will help the Grevil F be as versatile as gravel is varied, and mean that owners aren't forced to trade-off between speed, comfort, and capability. A simple tyre swap will allow riders to change between fast light gravel terrain and more difficult technical trails, and this can be pushed even further with the Grevil F's ability to accept 650b wheels with mountain bike tyres up to 2.1in in width. 

The original Grevil was once described as a caricature of Pinarello's own design philosophy, thanks to the wave shape being applied to almost every available tube. Clearly, Pinarello stands by it though as it's tough to tell the difference between old and new from the silhouettes alone. The design still features Pinarello's asymmetric methodology at its heart, which adjusts the position and shape of the frame's tubes in order to equalise the stresses put onto the drive-side of the frame. As part of this, the seat stay and chainstay are rotated downward, with both chainstays being dropped to help with tyre clearance.

In a bid to find that aforementioned five-watt saving, Pinarello redesigned the front end with its TICR (Total Internal Cable Routing) system, which sees the cables route internally through the bar, into the stem, and through the 1.5-inch headset bearings into the frame. In addition, Pinarello has optimised the aerodynamics of the tube shapes, while retaining the concave downtube and fork flap to smooth airflow around the bottle and front disc brake calliper respectively. 

At 8.55kg for a fully built bike (size 53cm fitted with Campagnolo Ekar and Princeton Grit wheels), the Grevil isn't the lightest on the market — a similarly specced S-Works Crux is 7.25kg — but it's also not particularly heavy for a bike designed to go off-road. An unpainted frame weighs 1,090g, while the fork weighs in at dead on 500g. The frame is made using Toray T700 carbon fibre, which is the same used for the Pinarello Prince, and each frame size gets size-specific geometry for consistent handling and stiffness across the range. 

It also gets a threaded bottom bracket for ease of servicing, as well as a front-positioned seatpost clamp to keep it out of the way of mud. Being race-focused, there are no mounts for mudguards or racks, but a third bottle cage mount is positioned on the underside of the downtube to carry extra water. 

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The Grevil F is available in three colours; black, champagne, and green, although the latter is unavailable in the UK. 

A Grevil F with Campagnolo Ekar and Fulcrum Rapid Red 500 wheels will be priced at £5,300, while an upgrade to Princeton Grit 4540 wheels will bring the price up to £7,000. International pricing is yet to be announced.