Lately, I’ve been traveling a lot. And not the good kind of travel. The capricious kind that makes you feel like you’ve just gone over the falls on a set wave, being pile-driven into the ground while your thoughts transcend anything from “I hope I can hold my breath a little longer” to “which way is up,” all while having a newfound respect for your clothing while in a washing machine. But I digress. Often.
When one is faced with this kind of travel, finding equilibrium is critical. Some people have a drink at night, some find solace in licentious activities, some eat, and me, probably like the rest of you hedonists, exercise. Even though I mostly loathe running, I’ll always tell you I don’t do it because of a distinct lack of cartilage in my ankle, which, incidentally, isn’t untrue. Ergo, this ‘medical condition’ allows me the excuse to bring a bicycle with me everywhere I go without (too much) fear of being lambasted or criticized. I just wanna be healthy, man.
So, the great conundrum:
If you can only bring one bicycle with you, what the heck do you bring? Obviously, geographic location is a large consideration. Should I find myself in Kamloops, Bellingham, Moab, Oakridge, etc., the answer would be a simple one, with that answer doubling as the solution to the age-old question, what is the spirit of gravel? It’s a Mountain Bike. But I digress again. For me, a person who’s constantly fighting the urge to 1. Be halfway decent at riding a bicycle subjectively fast and 2. fighting the innate talent of my body to ingest copious amounts of food while having a somewhat difficult time metabolizing said food, my bicycle of choice usually becomes a road bike. It’s easy enough to put a quick route together via your favorite GPS app and get blissfully lost while not being lost whatsoever in a completely unfamiliar place. The downside? You might be in a place that loathes cyclists. Which is everywhere.
In comes the Dogma X. Honestly, I thought the X was a little suspect when I first read about it. For years, my eyes have glazed over when reading about some brand’s new ‘endurance’ model bike, which somehow offended the internal struggle in my head that thinks for some reason, I’m deserving of a full-on race bike despite being 20lbs overweight. While I probably would’ve never considered getting on the Dogma X, the opportunity I’ve had with Pinarello this year allowed me to ride one without the prodigious fiscal investment I inevitably face when building new bikes—more carbon and titanium = more ill-timed and undeserved baked goods, in my humble opinion. Is my unhealthy relationship with food apparent yet?
This isn’t all to say I wasn’t somewhat intrigued with the X. I can wax poetic and talk about the good old days of running 700×23 tires with tubes (and those lovely hooked rims) long before these newfangled gravel bikes came en vogue, but in reality, it wasn’t until BWR came along that I started wanting a bit more out of my tire choices. And yeah, whether you’re trying to race 150 miles on an equal mix of gravel roads, tarmac, singletrack, and sand, or find yourself in an acrimonious town of drivers set on making you fear for your life, having some extra rubber to take the path less beaten is a good thing. Luckily, I’ve got Rene Herse’s Bon Jon Pass on the X at the moment that measures out to 700×38, which is more than enough to go exploring on.
How do I use this darn thing?
Ok, great. We’ve got some big tires on a road-ish bike… what’s that mean, exactly? I’m honestly not sure what the engineers at Pinarello had in mind while designing the X. Maybe it was just to create an ‘endurance’ version of the Dogma F, considering the comparison of geo, respectively. The X has all the traits of an Endurance rig, featuring longer chainstays, an increased stack, and an ever-so-slightly slacked out headtube angle all within a cohesive design and layup that proffers increased ‘compliance,’ a term, for what it’s worth, that also results in glazed-over eyes. But while those characteristics are often found in the Endurance range of ‘road’ bikes, they’re also ever-so-present in gravel. Heck, the first gravel bike I ever built was running the same size tires as this Dogma X, which at that time I thought were absolutely massive.
It’d be easy to say that gravel has evolved since those early days when there were just a handful of handmade outfits offering a dedicated gravel rig, along with Open Cycles and a couple of other big brands willing to dip their mass-produced toes into the gravel arena. But while frames have improved, so has the nuance of what’s considered gravel riding, and indeed, racing. The needs of someone in Nebraska may not be the same as someone in Utah or California. I think we’re starting to see this with ‘allroad’ frames that might offer a geo and stiffness profile closer to a road bike but built around a tire well larger than anything you might want to run on the road full-time. And while these bikes might be sold as a jack-of-all-trades solution, read: Endurance, it’s nice to have the option to build the right bike for the right conditions, which in this case for me is the following:
- A geo that’s far less slack than where most gravel bikes are going. I loathe the feeling of lethargic steering whilst riding a gravel bike down a pavement descent.
- Enough tire clearance for a 35mm tire at the least, maybe even a file tread.
- Aesthetic that looks more… I dunno, aggressive? I often find myself disappointed at the profile of some gravel rigs that drop the top tube way down on the seat tube for standover clearance at the expense of aesthetic. And yes, I do know that’s subjective.
- A weight and carbon layup that’s closer to a road bike—I’ve also found myself disappointed with a few gravel bikes in the past being far overbuilt for certain routes and courses, as the frame considerations for really rough gravel are massively ineffective for anything but rough gravel. Right tool, right job.
In closing…
For me, the Dogma X acts as my jack of all trades while also being a purpose-built gravel-ish race bike. I may not want to race a crit on the thing, but I have no doubt the issue between winning and not would largely be the fault of my legs and not the bike (which I’d like to test out sometime this year). Plus, when considering a race like BWR, Steamboat Gravel (with or without vowels), or in Warren Buffet’s backyard, this thing is an absolute weapon, giving you just enough off-road capability while still being fast as hell on the pavement.
Is a Dogma X for you? That’s something you’ll need to decide for yourself. For those who currently own a dedicated road and gravel bike, it’ll be an N+1 argument in your head, though if you’re trying to conflate a road and gravel(ish) bike, this thing is a dream.
If you happen to ride a 54 and happen to be in Marin, by all means, go ride mine. Wanna test ride one? Follow Pinarello’s US Instagram page for upcoming events with the whole Collective team and the opportunity to test the X, F, Grevil, and others.
