First it was Cipollini, now Pinarello: all the top-end Italian bike brands seem to be embracing the e-bike revolution. But while Cipollini have gone with a road bike, Pinarello are kicking things off with a full carbon electric mountain bike, the Andromeda.
Pinarello haven't released any full pics of the bike yet but they have offered up these teaser shots and a press release that gives an overview of the Andromeda.
"Pinarello, who is always careful to the market needs, decided to enter the e-bike market with a very high range bike designed specifically for enthusiast bikers", say the company of their new steed. "Pinarello evolved the concepts studied and developed with the Dogma XM and Dogma XC in a hardtail electric bike dedicated to the trail. Thanks to the choice of the extremely compact and lightweight Shimano mid-motor, we have been able to maintain very racing geometries."
The headline information is thus: it's a carbon hardtail that's assisted by Shimano's E8000 mountain bike system which dishes out 70Nm of torque for the tricky bits. Pinarello have designed it around 29" wheels and Boost axles, so the bike is running 30mm internal width rims and it's designed to accept Plus-sized 3" tyres. A carbon shield protects the motor from damage when you're kicking up rocks on a descent.
The frame is internally routed for a neat look, and made from Torayca T700 carbon fibre. It's designed to be mated with a 120mm suspension fork. In the 9.9 build that Pinarello have trailed here (it'll be the most expensive one, probably) the bike has a claimed weight of under 20kg. That'll be handy on the ups.
Pinarello have long been involved in the Ata Badia region of Italy, in the Italian Dolomites. The region was the first mountain area to create an E-MTB sharing service, which runs between the vilages in the area and the plateau that in winter is the main ski area. You can pick up a bike at one of six points, three in the villages (La Villa, Corvara and La Val) and three on the plateau (Piz La Ila, Piz Sorega and Col Alto). The Andromeda 9.9 will be added to the fleet as soon as it's launched. You can find out more about the service at www.altabadia.org.
The Andromeda 9.9 will be available in three sizes – small, medium and large – and two different colors, Carbon Orange and Carbon Sky Blue. For more info (as it arrives) head over to www.pinarello.com
