Pinarello Bolide F HR 3D Frameset

The Pinarello Bolide F HR 3D Frameset is the production version of the track bike Filippo Ganna rode to the UCI Hour Record in Grenchen, Switzerland, where he covered 56.792 kilometers. It is not a conventional carbon frameset. Pinarello 3D prints it in Scalmalloy, a scandium, aluminum, and magnesium alloy developed for additive manufacturing and common in aerospace work. Printing lets the frame be built around one rider's measurements rather than drawn from a size chart, with geometry set to the millimeter for the person who orders it.

That freedom shows in the shapes. Pinarello took its cue from the tubercles on humpback whale flippers, the bumps along the leading edge that help the animal hold flow and keep turbulence in check. On the Bolide F HR 3D, a ridge of bumps Pinarello calls AeroNodes runs along the frame, and the team developed and tested it specifically to manage the turbulence created by a rider's legs moving up and down. A track bike spends its whole life at constant speed with the legs in the airstream, so that is where a few watts are worth chasing. The bottom bracket area is narrowed from 70mm to 54mm, and the hubs are narrowed too, to cut frontal area where the rider's feet and the frame meet the air.

The frame is built in five printed sections that are bonded together with aerospace-grade epoxy, an approach Pinarello developed with UK-based Metron Advanced Equipment. Printing also allows internal reinforcement to be placed only where the frame needs it, instead of being limited by tube shapes and carbon layup. The frame uses an integrated headset and 700c wheels, and the wider system is designed around a custom fork, seatpost, stem, and handlebar. On Ganna's bike, the fork head and the narrow bullhorn-style bars with kinked extensions were printed in titanium.

Getting one is a process, and Pinarello treats it that way. The Bolide F HR 3D is a special order that goes through Pinarello's team and a Dynamic Body Analysis consultation so the geometry matches the rider. It is built on demand, with delivery measured in months and a deposit required up front. Hour Black is the finish. It is an expensive, unusual piece of equipment, and it is aimed at track and hour-record riders, collectors, and anyone who wants to own the point where additive manufacturing met elite track racing.