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.

2013 Infinito Test Ride, get one now!

Arrhh, I'm slipping on my posts as we enter Spring of 2013. I made a mental note to post more but this month's bike demos have been keeping a wrench in my palm and shop visits, a steering wheel in my hand instead of time at the keyboard.

That being said, I've been working on getting more cyclists out to shop's for a bike demo or two. Or to at least bring a shop to me, along with any available employees, to ride the bikes through the farmlands near my house. 

Some shops are closed on Mondays and one of those is Bikenetic in Falls Church, VA. I phoned the owner, Jan (yahn) and ask if he wants to drive a couple of hours to central PA and ride the new batch of Infinito bikes I had just received for the season. Without hesitation he accepted and invited his service manager Brian and sales associate Jeremy.

Jan in yellow shoes!

It's funny how you get used to receiving riders (consumers) to test your bikes; set them up, swap out pedals and send them off. I sort of forgot that the three guys in my garage are 'shop ready' and upon dropping all their gear in my garage, grabbed some tools and immediately started installing their pedals and adjusting saddle height for themselves. That made my work easy!

Paceline, love the kits.

We rolled out on the blue bird day, slight winds out of the northwest, just cool enough for a long sleeve jersey. As we spin through the first 30 minutes of the ride, I could see the guys getting comfortable immediately. Corning a bit quicker, jumping for the top of the hills a bit sooner, all of this before we started the on-bike discussion about the how and why of the 2013 Infinito Ultegra. 

Bikenetic has sold a handful of Infinito bikes in the past 12 months, they know the product range very well and how to explain the use of this bike to the average rider without barfing macho data on the customer's shoes. Even still, there's still one missing detail... riding it, to experience it. 

Smooth, fast, steady, well balanced, were the words Jan, Brian and Jeremy used to describe the bikes they were operating. In a head wind and cross winds, the bike was "stable; you didn't fight the front wheel as much as you would on the B4P bikes". Much of this Jan realized because he owns a B4P Mono-Q from 2009. Jan likes the quickness of the B4P (Sempre) geometry but was very pleased by the refined ride the Infinito exhibited; along with the way Bianchi K-VID and B.A.T smoothed out the choppy, Amish buggy-gauged asphalt we traveled.

(l-r) Brian, Jan, Jeremy

At about 25 miles, we pulled back into the driveway, parked bikes and grabbed some lunch. 

More questions came from the guys over lunch as we gnawed on some pesto tortellini salad. Jan put it well by stating that, reading about the bike and listening to my clinics is fine but experiencing the 'real world application' is where it's at. 

Thanks guys!