When Pinarello released its rear sprung K8-S back in 2015 it was to much fanfare. In between the top of the seatstays and the seat tube was a miniature elastomer-based shock that gave the rear of the bike up to 10mm of vertical travel, tuneable through swapping between elastomer inserts or variable squidginess (the technical term).
The shock’s rebound was also tuneable, via turning a ring above the shock that tightened down on the elastomer, effectively preloading the make it even firmer.
Today, Pinarello have gone one better, yet it’s done so rather quietly, launching the Pinarello K10-S Disk almost under the radar.
Eagle eyed Classics viewers would have seen a curious appendage on the K8-S’s shock at this year’s Paris-Roubaix, and now, it seems, Pinarello has finally released it to the masses.
Step forward the Electronic Suspension system. Yes, that’s the only name we can find for it now – although ‘eDSS 2.0’ and ‘Electronic Dogmas Suspension System’ were terms bandied around the prototype, but as it says on the tin, the rear damping of the all-new K10-S is electronically controlled using a series of accelerometers and gyroscopic sensors that automatically change damping, rebound and spring rate as the the surface dictates.
Smooth road? The sensors will detect this and firm up the shock for better pedalling efficiency.
Cobbles? The sensors will set the shock up to iron out the bumps.
We believe there is a remote lockout via buttons on the handlebars. Oh, and there’s also disc brakes, the new down tube junction box mount for Di2 and Pinarello’s 3X Air bottle mounting system, which basically means you can drop the position of the bottle cage on the down tube to make the bottle itself aids aerodynamics.
All this really pales into insignificance though. The big story here is Pinarello pushing suspension on road bikes even further.
Is this the future we can all look forward to? And when will we get a fully sprung road bike (again)?
We’ll keep you posted with more details as we find them.
£TBC, pinarello.com
