Pinarello Crono

Price Paid:  $2000.00 at Big Ring Cycles Gold

Model Year:
2005

Favorite Ride:
Lookout Mountain

Bike Setup:
Chorus, Corima Carbon aero front/disc rear wheels, Hed race bend clip-ons.

Summary:
I bought this 2005 Pinarello Crono for the sole purpose of improving my times in the local Cherry Creek time trial series; I had been riding a road bike with clip-on aero bars. My times did improve, and the bike has been much more pleasant to ride than I expected.

Much has been written about the twitchy, unstable, unfriendly, and generally evil handling of TT bikes. This Crono is the angel opposite of every such story I have read. It is completely stable at speed (40.8 mph in a 53x11 gear, downhill with a tailwind), and similarly stable in crosswinds, even with a disc rear wheel. If it is windy enough, it will swerve, but even then it does so gradually enough to allow me time to react. I was also pleasantly surprised at the ride comfort, which I credit to the carbon fork and seat stays.

Here's my estimate of the improvement that the bike and the wheels gave me. Starting in 2005 with a good road bike (Trek 5900), I bought Mavic Cosmic Carbone wheels, which have aluminum clincher rims with a carbon fairing and a rim section height of 50 mm. I estimate that the Cosmic wheels alone on the road bike were worth about 40 seconds in a 26 minute TT. Next, I got the Crono, which cut about another 30 seconds. Together, the Crono and the Cosmic clincher wheels cut my average time from about 26:30 to 25:20. This year (2006), I bought the Corima carbon wheels with Conti sewups. Ride quality on the sewups was better than on the Conti Supersonic clinchers, and it seemed that it was a little easier to accelerate at speeds over 25 mph. However, in the first three races I could only match last year's times, not improve on them. A crash (not on the Crono) took me out of the series after that, so I don't know if the Corima wheels would have cut my time any further. I conclude that the TT bike and aero wheels delivered a significant improvement, but I won't be buying sewups again.

The Pinarello quality is first rate. Nothing has broken, chipped, or fallen off, and the bike has no rattles or creaks. If your bike handling skills are as modest as mine, this bike will allow you to concentrate on going fast and not worry about keeping the bike under you. You could do a lot worse than this bike for club-level TT and Tri racing.

Strengths:
Stability at speed, crosswind stability, ride comfort, smooth and predictable handling.

Weaknesses:
Non-standard seatpost size, not the most aero frame.

Similar Products Used:
none