Bike Check: Pinarello Vuelta
Founded by Giovanni Pinarello in 1952, Pinarello isn’t a brand that needs much introduction. With that in mind, we’ll do what we can to keep this brief and get right to the bike. This Pinarello Vuelta is currently in Broad Street Cycles on consignment, though maybe not for long, so we thought we’d take a closer look while its here. And there are some fun things going on. Like that crazy ‘Mutant’ stem from 3T. Beyond that, this Pinarello is an almost entirely purebred Italian race bike. 3T and Campagnolo, both storied Italian brands, make everything on the bike except the wheels and bottle cage. Even then, this Vuelta doesn’t stray too far from home turf, with the wheels coming from Mavic’s factory just across the border in France.
Pinarello’s bear the name of their home town, Trevisio, Italy, on the head badge
Waves of colour roll across the top tube
The wonderfully lugged seat tube junction. And a couple more ‘Pinarello’s, in case you forgot
An amazingly unique Mutant stem from Italian component manufacturer, 3T
3T takes care of the entire cockpit on this Pinarello, making this a nearly purely Italian racer
Campagnolo Chorus groupset with how many gears?
There’s even a tidy little G.P. tucked in there on the front derailleur mount
The Chromed fork crown is an eye catching feature, even below a Campy Chorus headset
More chrome on the chain stays. Why have a protector, when you could just use chrome?
Basically anywhere it’s feasible, the Pinarello name has been stamped into the Vuelta frame
It’s even hiding down there in the very nice bottom bracket lug
A full Campagnolo Chorus group set adorns Pinarello’s Vuelta frame
Not to be outdone, Champy have also found a way to stamp their name wherever they can
Brev Campagnolo stamped into each chainring, along with a big ‘Made in Italy’ is a nice touch
But they get right down into the details, like stamping every chainring bolt
Pinarello sneaks another one in on the dropout
Campagnolo’s Chorus 10-speed rear mech
And once more, for good measure: Pinarello
Open Pro rims from French company, Mavic, are the only non-Italian parts on this Vuelta
A classic steel frame still has the full frame-pump mount hiding on the back side of the head tube
An Italian race machine through and through, even the seat post is Campy. Who knew they made those?
