Event: Giro d'Italia Gran Fondo Miami recap.

Sometimes it's easy to take for granted the things that go on outside of my little world of being a bike rep, family guy and weekend bike racer. Professional team sponsorships are organized in the off season. Product is passed out to Vacansoleil and Androni in the form of Oltre and Sempre frames. Advertising budgets are sharpened and material is submitted to the magazines and online publications for testing and review. With a kiss of the Cornicello, nod of the head and a brief pointing to the sky, the company waits for a response from the masses in the form of annual sales and event turn out.

Looking to get the best spot at the Gran Fondo Miami bike expo, I consulted our independent rep as to which booth location/ number would be best for us. Across from the VIP tent is where we pitched our tents. 

On Saturday, the riders of the Gran Fondo Miami strolled in to pick up their packets for Sunday's ride. Surrounding their exit from the sign in tent, were us bike companies offering up a peek at the latest cycling technology and a chance to speak with factory reps.

Having a celeste bikes at the booth is always a sure fire way to bring out fans of the brand. Not having Campagnolo on every single bike can also bring out the worst in some people. But let's face it. If you're buying a bike that's over $2200 and it's made of carbon fiber, Bianchi has you covered. There's no need to go home and kick a puppy.

Saturday's booth traffic was defined by a large number of visits from Bianchi owners. A small chunk of passer-bys were generally curious cyclists. If the conversations on Saturday were any sort of a groundswell for what we'd see people riding on Sunday, we'd be very busy that day. And that we were.

Sunday. Ride day. Carbon clincher wheel day. Oltre day? Yes, Oltre day.

Being across from the VIP tent had paid off. As people racked their bikes, enjoyed the food and then departed with a full belly, they strolled over for a chat, some swag and a handshake.

You can spout out gobs of metrics about who attends a gran fondo in Miami, Florida. Some of it might be exaggerated, speculated and methodically formulated. One thing was for sure, the majority of the carbon bikes and their owners that stopped by after the ride to show me their pride and joy, rode an Oltre. Those not on an Oltre-- it was some other model of carbon fiber, Bianchi road bike. Absent were the classic steel bikes like the Imola, Vigorelli and Volpe like I saw endlessly at RAGBRAI 2013. 

I saw every size Oltre from a woman on a 50cm Super Record with EPS, on up to a 61cm frame size with FFW celeste colored deep dish wheels like the Vacansoleil team rode. 

I believe Aldo from Canada gets the super fan award of the weekend. Tri-color helmet, Oltre with Campagnolo Super Record, Bianchi branded sunglasses and.....

....ink. I thought he was showing off is guns until he rolled his arm over revealing this. Edoardo would be proud.

Another event goes down for me and much like RAGBRAI, people felt entitled to tell you their story of how and why they have a celeste colored bike. So much enthusiasm, so much passion and excitement these Bianchi owners have; it's more than any brand I've seen from 20 years of working retail. 

It's difficult at best create a brand's culture, buy culture or force a culture to last over a century like Bianchi. It has to marinade for a long time. Culture creates itself and after 128 years of it, I'm proud to be a part of Bianchi's culture because once you throw a leg over their bicycle, the world is that much smaller. 

From Florida, back to the Mid-Atlantic weather.....brrrrrr!

Bianchi Bicycles Oltre Vaconsoleil frame review.

This is my second season riding an Oltre. Last year I had a stock Oltre frameset and this year decided to get the Vacansoleil livery edition. 61cm for my tall self.

The big thing I noticed about the Oltre last season was it's ability to rail a corner 10% beyond your comfort level, make mid-cornering steering changes and the bike remains stable until you exit the corner. Also, the steer dynamics are such that very little input at the handlebars is required to steer the bike. [Ed note: don't attempt to rail a corner at 'Oltre speeds' when you're on a Impulso back up bike on the last lap of a crit. It will get ugly and you might lose some skin.]

This was obvious to me at the end of last summer when I pulled the parts off the Oltre and installed the build group onto my Cavaria cyclocross frame. On my first shake down ride of the cx bike, I just about over-cooked a  corner because I was trying to steer it like in was on the Oltre... little steering effort. Wrong! Next corner, pretty much the same thing. And this time I realized that I was actually pulling on the inside-turn, of the handlebar to initiate the turn. Yes, the Oltre is that sensitive you can lightly steer it one handed. 

When you introduce a slacker head tube angle like the one you'll find on a cyclocross bike or one of the C2C bikes, you will need to use pressure from both sides of the handlebars to steer and push the bars through the corner and hold it there or the bike will try to 'stand up' through the corner. 

Second note. Last year's Oltre with the same part kit, minus the SL-K crank of this year, included a SRAM Red crank. When I built up the one in the photo below, ran the same winter wheels, tires, everything the same as 2012 except the FSA crank and brakes. This season, out of the saddle efforts were met with the rear wheel flexing and rubbing each side of the brake pads with every pedal stop over a climb. Yes the brakes are now FSA but their gap to the rim is the same. The spoke tension of the winter wheel is where it needs to be as well. 

So the question looming here is... 
-Is the SL-K crank is stiffer than the Red crank? Thus twisting the frame more due to the reduced flex at the arms? The Red crank was a 177.5mm length, the SL-K is 175mm. 
-Is the Vaconsoleil edition frame a bit stiffer in the bottom end of the frame? I need to dig a bit further for an answer when I see Angelo at Interbike.

So the summer rolls on and I'm still humbled by how amazing this bike rides; fast and quick, velvety steering, steer it with your hips thanks to the aero seat post's lateral stiffness or chase down the group

to the township line signs. You won't be disappointed! 

Here are some photos of the final build on the Oltre. I hope you enjoy them!

Final weight without accessories- 61cm.

Your next pair of winter gloves?

The temps are still in the 30s and merits a winter-type glove for riding. These beauts showed up this week. It's too late in the day to test their warmth on a ride so I tested them the next the best way I knew.

Yup, hands are still warm... More results coming once I get out over the weekend with them.

2013 Bianchi Bicycles sneaky peaky.

Bianchi Italy is launching the new version of the Oltre, in France. 


So far, the photos of the bike are nothing short of stellar!


The two immediate updates for this Oltre are the paint scheme and the name. There's an XR tagged to this Super Leggera frame, which has been in the product range for Bianchi since calendar year 2011. 


What Bianchi has done is they've shaved a bit more weight off the Oltre to the tune of 30grams. The weight loss has been achieved through the introduction of another grade of high modulus carbon fiber- CN60. Along the down tube, chainstays and the ever so sexy UTSS- Ultra Thin Seat Stays. Achieved is a 20% increase in overall stiffness of the Oltre XR frame when compared to the previous Oltre. 


[short review and reflection of my Oltre]
I've been riding and racing an Oltre with SRAM Red and Kysrium SR wheels, for the better part of this year. I can attest that this bike is stiff like my prior year's ride, the B4P 1885 which I grafted the build kit from for the Oltre. I like a stiff bike, seeing as I'm just shy of 6'5" at a 180lbs. Leverage of a 38.5" inseam when paired with 177.5mm crank arms can twist a frame when out of the saddle. Hence why I've ridden the 1885 for the past 2 seasons, I like stiff!


The Oltre has never fallen short of efficiently transferring my energy to the rear wheel and once you ride a bike with this kind of personality, it becomes the benchmark for all other bikes you choose. The biggest note of the Oltre is it's ability to make mid-corner steering corrections and not have the bike become startled or unsettled underneath the rider while carving a turn with all your weight dumped on the outside pedal.


Back to the Oltre XR. The XR retains all the technology from the first Oltre; UTSS, Tapered head tube 1.5" bottom bearing, Nano-Tube construction, BB30 bottom bracket, X-TeX at the headtube region, Monocoque unidirectinal carbon fiber construction, and what you don't see when riding...WMP. Feel free to visit the technology page on the Bianchi USA site for further details of the aforementioned tech bits.


The 355 gram fork with carbon drop outs is still sleek and finned just under the oversize bottom head set bearing. This profile allows for the directing of airflow, out around the oversized down tube. The semi-round bottom surface of the down tube on the Oltre creates enough outward push of wind to reduce the force from strongly regrouping behind the down tube where you have your down tube water bottle mounted. The cross section of the down tube is diamond in shape and the trailing edge of the diamond (inside the front triangle of the frame) disrupts the air flow across the frame ever so slightly. Should the air come around the bottom of the down tube and sharply return behind at the point of the diamond, a bit a suction or drag would be created, equaling a need for more wattage from the rider. 


Taking on more aerodynamic duties on the Oltre XR frame are the chainstays which are modeled after the time trail machine from Bianchi, the Pico Crono. Tall, broad and visually providing from the non-drive side of the bike what looks like a continuous piece of carbon leading from the rear axle, to the bottom bracket, up to the tapered head tube; the chainstays carry the brunt of the rider's weight and transfer of power to the rear wheel. So much so is their heft that the seatstays are slimmed down to the thickness of your average coffee shop barista's pinky finger. This slenderness is Bianchi's technology is referred to as UTSS.


The Oltre XR's aero seat post remains a thing of beauty. Influence by the 2010 928SL IASM frame and now a regular feature on the Oltre. Actually not masted but an actual adjustable post which provides the benefits of a masted post frame. Benefits? Think of high speed descents and the ability to incrementally adjust the Oltre's steering with a slight movement of your hips.


There's an overall claimed weight of 895 grams for the Oltre XR (+/-5%). Very light and smartly evolved from the previous Oltre version. Electronic and cable shifter frame sets will be up for grabs and a few complete build bikes for those wanting some out of the box without the head ache of overdosing on OCD to spec one from the ground up. 


My Oltre build as listed above with Speedplay SS Zero pedals and Bianchi Doberman cages, tip the scale at 15.8lbs. Not bad for a 61cm frame size and oh yeah, it rides like no other bike out there, seriously delightful!

#bianchibicycles Oltre 61cm

61cm and a whole lotta post sticking out. Review to be up soon.

Shake down ride.

Just finished up a rad shake down ride on the new Oltre build. I'm feeling inspired to do a blog entry soon, share some thoughts on this frame.

And no, I will not talk about vertical compliance and lateral stiffness...


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Vacansoleil-DCM PR guy talks spring classics.

Vaconsoleil-DCM's marketing and PR guy shares his positive outlook on the team's racing schedule for the Spring Classics, aboard the Oltre, no less.

What bike is Frank riding? Classico!