Pinarello Greville F-Car Review: Inflame your need for speed

The 19.5-pound Greville F Ecar build I tested, and the only one available in the United States as of September, comes with alloy wheels and Campagnolo Ecar bodies, the first gravel team from the legendary Italian company. The mechanical 13-speed is 1x, which means the bike has one front chain instead of two. The advantage of the 1x is that it is lighter, provides more efficient shifting and has fewer parts to replace than a highwire. It’s also light, especially in this case—the Acar drivetrain weighs just 5.29 pounds, which, according to Campagnolo, is the lightest gravel drivetrain on the market. The disadvantage is that cyclists who live in mountainous regions or who compete in endurance races in different places, need more gear.

So how does this package add up? Overall the bike is snappy, responsive and fun to ride. I’m 5ft, 9.5in and tried a 53cm frame – 3cm shorter than my own gravel bike, but Pinarello’s recommended size. My body felt ready for powerful and efficient pedal strokes, with a very compact cockpit that was honest and extremely responsive. But on hard climbs out of the saddle, my thighs grazed the front handlebars and the rear wheel spun, indicating that I was too far ahead of my front wheel and the bike needed to be adjusted for a better fit. I could have used a longer stem; One of the problems with riding a bike from the factory is not being able to fully customize the fit.

To shift gears, Campagnolo uses a thumb lever on the inside of his right handlebar. It took me a few miles to find it, and a few more to get used to it. The advantage to a thumb shifter is that it’s easier to use when riding on top of your bars, which is where gravel bikers tend to be. The mechanical drive train left me with enough gear for most of the gentle uphills and downhills on my 30-plus-mile trips in and around Duluth, Minnesota, where I live. However, on very steep short climbs—like a 30 percent gradient—I found myself on soft gravel, a few gears short, which made climbing painful, if not impossible.