RIDE REVIEW: PINARELLO GREVIL F

“Having taken delivery of my latest acquisition to add to my stable / garage of bikes (11 now at the last count) all of them used and raced in various disciplines. I add the Pinarello Grevil purchased from the awesome people at PAU Run and Ride in Trentham.

I was at Trentham and had a few minutes to spare and felt like a coffee so walked to the shop with my partner (she came willingly😂). I noticed since my last visit that they had introduced some more makes to their line up, an ORRO road bike took pride of place on the wall and a Grevil with shimano GRX also on the wall, also some Pinarello road machines. Aren’t bike shops lovely? You don’t get the same feeling looking at websites, you can’t feel the soul of a bike. Also you don’t get young and enthusiastic sales assistants, like Lukah who is a massive Pinarello fan, highlighting all the benefits of owning one!!

To cut a long story short, having been in the store on Saturday afternoon the guys at PAU had fetched the bike from the other shop, built it to my specific measurements and I collected it on the Tuesday. That’s service!!

If you only needed one bike and you wanted to road ride and have some off road fun this is the machine for you.

Built with Pinarello’s in-house MOST components and having the new Campagnolo EKAR 1 x13 group set and a pair of Fulcrum Rapid Red 500’s this is a ready to ride package. Incidentally the Campag hydraulic brakes are the best I’ve ridden, the gear changes direct and meaningful up and down.

Being a bit fussy I put a pair of Tubeless Rene Herse Steillacombes ultralight on the Grevil. With these at 32 to 35 PSI I rode effortlessly on the tarmac with a feint buzz from the closely packed knobs. Off-road if it gets a bit harsh I just give the valve a couple of blips and it’s supple as you like with plenty of grip.

This bike is smile inducing, the harder you go the better it gets! To date I have done 100 varied KMs on the south west coast path (sand, gravel and mud tracks with some gnarly rocks thrown in) I have blasted round the gravel trails of Cannock Chase and threw in some of the red Monkey Trail (some steep switchback climbs and descents) and also the varied surfaces found on canal towpaths (hardpack, gravel and gloopy mud)

The Grevil has not missed a beat. The gears 40 up front with a 9 x42 at the back made for cadenced progress up hills and power and speed on the road and I haven’t spun out yet.

The Grevil is a race bred machine and responds well to the input, I’m grateful for the alu bars which soften the feedback from hardpack surfaces, and also the alu Fulcrum Rapid Reds seem more than adequate to cope with all that has been thrown at them.

100% Italian and knows it.

My advice for what it’s worth……you need one.”