TREVISO, Italy (BRAIN)—Pinarello’s top retailers got their first look at the Dogma XC carbon 29er at the brand’s introduction of its 2013 product line in Treviso, Italy on Saturday.
The hardtail mountain bike represents Pinarello’s first foray into big wheel bikes, and the first time the Italian brand has sold a mountain bike in the U.S. Pinarello’s U.S. distributor, Gita Sporting Goods, will offer the Dogma XC frame, seatpost and Fox 32 90 millimeter suspension fork with a retail price of $3,500.
The bike was first unveiled at the Giro D’Italia, and Gita sent videos and pictures to its retail base, but this weekend is the first time many retailers saw the bike in person.
The response was positive with several retailers ordering framesets on the spot, said Sandy Nicholls, marketing director of Gita Sporting Goods, as a small crowd snapped pictures of the bike on display nearby. The Dogma XC will be available early this fall. Pinarello has produced 26-inch mountain bikes in the past for the BCF team, but waited until it made something more distinctive to enter the competitive U.S. market, said Sandy Nicholls, Gita’s marketing director.
“Through our involvement with BCF, we were doing it for them and realized we can produce this,” Nicholls said. The Dogma XC frames will be made in the same Asian factory that makes Dogma road bikes, and will be painted at Pinarello’s Treviso facility.
Jaime De La Cruz, manager of I Martin Bicycles in Los Angeles, said he planned to bring in the Dogma XC in anticipation of demand from Pinarello loyalists and other high-end customers looking for a different option among the flurry of other well-known mountain bike brands.
Pinarello’s other headliner for 2013 is the Dogma Think 2 carbon fiber road frame, the Dogma 2’s replacement. The frame is compatible with electronic and mechanical cable routing. The Think 2 retails for $5,300, $750 less than last year’s Dogma 2 electronic version and $450 less than the mechanical option.
—Nicole Formosa
Photo: Local media filming a story on the Dogma XC 29er at Pinarello's product launch in Treviso, Italy
