2012 Bianchi Carvaria with SRAM Force.

You can pretty much connect the dots on Google Maps, or at least place your push pins, and see that cyclocross racing is blowing up in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern states; from Philly to the Carolinas.

Every year events seem to be drawing more and more racers in the men and women A/B groups, single speed, worse drag queen category; none the less, people want to dip their toe into the CX Pool of Goodness. With this growth, dealers have been getting on board with our Zurigo Apex bike which launched at Interbike last year. It's big brother, the Carvaria Ultegra rolled in with it's super clean Ultegra 6700 kit, Fulcrum wheels, carbon frame and $2700 price tag; proving itself as a bike well suited for the dirt, as well as the 220 lbs cyclist who needs something 'sturdier' for the strada.

Cyclists this side of the Mississippi are very loyal to what they put on their CX bikes and while attending any race, it obvious that racers want SRAM components. I started my campaign with the office in California last year, for an update to the Cavaria with an obvious change in mind in to the bike spec.

Even though I've been riding SRAM Red all year and really like the weight and performance of the build kit, I've become a closet fan of SRAM's Force groupo as well. There isn't much of a weight difference between the two kits...I'm recall somewhere around a 1/4 lbs difference but don't quote me on that. Eitherway, Force has the mid range bike kit market locked down so it seemed natural to have it on the next generation Cavaria.

Photo courtesy of Bianchi USA Inc.

Enter, the 2012 Carvaria Force. (Pricing on this bike will be released in August.) I am super stoked on this bike. It's nice to see it go from something scratched on paper in a bar at last year's Interbike to popping out of production for this years CX season.

The other update aside from the SRAM kit is the introduction of the Tubeless Ready wheel set on this bike. Wheels are a very sensitive topic for many racers and bike fans. You can only please some of the people some of the time... so in this case we're offering the cyclist a chance to ride Road Tubeless on their cyclocross bike with the A-Class ALX-730 hoops. The bike will be coming though set up with tubes in the tires so if you want to convert the 34c Hutchinson Bull Dog tires, I suggest you visit your local bike shop and get two cans of Hutchinson Fast Air to start the conversion process. I'll soon know if the tubeless air valve is included with the bike build as spare parts; a vital piece for running tubeless wheels.

I rode on this exact wheel set earlier in the season and really like them. Yes they were set up for road, not dirt. From a riding perspective, I was impressed by their 1560gr weight for the pair and the level of grip Road Tubeless tires exhibit when riding. I was getting away with 90lbs of pressure in the tires and I weigh 180lbs at 6'5" tall. They're hand build wheels using DT-Swiss Aero spokes so if you pop a spoke, they're not some crazy proprietary spoke that a shop won't be able to get hold of for you. I've also been holding onto a pair of the Bulldog CX tires for my ALX-730 which I plan on using for my pit wheels for the upcoming CX season.

Avid Shorty 6 brakes and an FSA Energy Cross crank handle the stop and go portions of the Cavaria Force. Continuing with the cockpit bits are the Bianchi Reparto Corse branded seatpost, stem and handle bar that shops have become familiar with on our bikes this year.

When a sample hits my stand, I'll be sure to get up some photos quickly.

The 5 HIlls from Hell, 7 Hills would take longer to ride.

One thing that's for certain, once you're in the bike industry, fellow cyclist lean on you as their Bicycling Help Desk. Being the bike geek that I am, I really don't mind this.

An email pops into my Inbox last December from an old cycling friend, Dan. Dan and I have a long history of bicycling together, errr, allow me to clarify, mountain biking. He and I started riding together in the early 90's at the local Monday night mountain bike ride. While we shared many miles on the dirt, Dan was still an avid roadie where as myself, not so much. I had traded my road bike in '91 for a mountain bike which I would go on to regret once I got into mountain bike racing. The road bike is a damn good training tool for mountain bike racing.

(l-r)Dan Stambaugh, me, Davey Jr, John Grab, Andy N, Brad T.

Dan was putting a plan together back in the mid-90's to do a bike shop in Lancaster, PA. Leading up to the launch of this shop, he was gathering up all his riding buddies who aspired to mountain bike race in support of his shop and slapped a shop jersey on their backs. Me being one of them.

The photo above is from the 1995 Pinch Pond Classic in Brickerville, PA. Dan has a clip board under his left arm; data acquisition from the racers. In the picture, I'm on my first official bike that I purchased for racing with my own money I was earning as a controls technician; KHS Montana Pro w/Full XT kit- $1300. 21lbs steel hardtail, loved that bike. Next to me was Davey Jr as we called him. He was racing Expert class for Jamis at this point and would go on to race against some of the top pros of that era; Landis, Bishop, and Chris Eatough. The kid was all legs and lungs.

Back to the story, Dan emails me a laundry list of questions about what he's looking for in a new road bike, what his options are in his price range. After a couple of more phone calls and me playing psychologist with him, I came to the conclusion that this man needs either an 1885 or an FG Lite. Neither of which are available in the US market this year. In fact the FG has been out of our product range since 2009....[click for FG goodness] and the 1885 has been, well, it hasn't been...

After much combing of the interwebs, my inbox churns up a bike via Google Alerts. (It pays to use this feature if you really want to keep tabs on the brand you work for or support.) The results showed a guy who was selling a lightly used 2009 Bianchi HoC FG Lite in a 53cm, Ultegra 6700 build with Easton EC70 wheels. About two grand later, the auction was won by our man Dan.

A couple of months roll by and Dan is in town from Albany, NY for the Fourth of July weekend, itching to get in a ride with me. I meet Dan at his in-law's house in York and we roll out for the ride with his wife Betsy. On tape is what Dan refers to as the 5 Hills from Hell. Typically this ride is 7 Hills but Dan is short for time so we keep things to 5.


Over the course of 36 miles, we knock off 2100' of climbing which is pretty good for keeping things around the York area. There are some good hills in this county and I'm glad this day that I have a compact crank on the 1885 as we climb Copenhaffer Road. This section of climb has a grade like the top wall of Paris Mtn in Greenville, SC only not just a top wall but rather the majority of the climb. Yeah, that steep...6mph, humping the handlebars type of climb.

Dan's previous bike is one from a major brand and carbon fiber. A mid-2000 model year carbon bike and as we all know, carbon bikes have changed a lot over the course of even 5 years. All things considered, Dan wanted something stiff, responsive, light and with a bit of swagger. He agrees the Oltre would have hit all those talking points but $5k for the frame alone, wasn't in his budget.

As confessed by Dan, he loves the bike and the FG isn't a bike you can be lazy upon. "It likes to be constantly turning", Dan confesses. Not that the FG won't track straight at high speed but rather keeping the bike straight requires a level of attentiveness and core strength. Think crit race versus gran fondo ride. (Tech note--this is a good comparison also between the Sempre and Infinito. The Infinito will accelerate close to the rate of the Sempre without the need to be on your game while gripping the bars; due in part to its slightly slacker head tube angle over the Sempre/B4P or HoC frames.)

It was terrific catching up with an old friend through riding and sure as people head out to the fairways with their clubs for business meetings, it's really nice to stretch the legs and put in some miles on the bike. Dan is still itching to do a shop again someday and I can almost bet a paycheck what brand he'll line up with when the doors open.

My wife doesn't understand why bike shops are into coffee and ale.

While visiting Proteus Bicycles in College Park, MD they dropped this gem into my lap. I'd say it's an even exchange for the Sempre Ultegra demo bike I delivered to them that morning.

The big question now is what to fill this with? 32oz of Leffe'?

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Race supplies for the #bianchibicycles SOK.

As I'm working on the road bike today, My son is staring at the back of my 29r; which I've been racing this summer.








"Hey Dad! Why's there a fire extinguisher on your bike?", asked my son.

--posted via iPhone.

2012 Bianchi Bicycles are on the horizon.

The media got a sneak peak of Bianchi Bicycles 2012 product range last month in Bergamo, Italy.

Bikeradar.com was there to cover the goods and here's the photo gallery of the new Impulso...[more]. These images are not representative of the US spec bikes but the frame construction obviously is.

I'm really excited about the Impulso for a couple of reasons. As those around me know, I've been loving my 1885 since I got it last year. Part of my bike criteria has always been stiff and quick. Notice I didn't say...FAST here; as that is a component of the engine of said bike. And well, I'm not all that FAST but do love a quick handling bike.

The quickness of the 1885 is partially due to it's Triple Hydroformed tube set which has found way over to the new Impulso. Heavily manipulated to the point where the top tube and head tube appear to be monocoque like it's carbon brother.

Photo courtesy of Road.cc

I really like the clean lines of the front end. The tubing is hydro-formed, welded then hydro-formed again which smooths out the welds nicely. Another atheistic is the head tube height is now paired up with the top tube. The head tube lengths should be relatively close to the Infinito and the increased surface area of the top tube/head tube weld should stiffen up the handling a bit.

The fork of the Impulso remains familiar to the C2C line employing Bianchi's K-Vid technology which is now moving into it's fifth model year of use.

Photo courtesy of Bianchi USA, Inc.

The chart above shows the factory test results of our Bianchi K-Vid fork.

We also utilize this technology on the Gran Fondo bikes; the Vigorelli, Imola and the Brava since 2009. As you can see by the carbon+kevlar (K-Vid) constructed fork's sign wave, it's frequency rate is noticeably reduced. Test rides by my dealers and Velonews who tested an Infinito on the cobbles during the spring classics, concur. Similar to the reason why some ski manufacturers uses Kevlar in the construction of skis; to reduce tip and tail chattering on crusty, icy snow, K-Vid keeps the wheel firmly planted when cornering the bike on not_so_great road surfaces. The Infinito implements this technology additionally at the seat stay.

I'm excited for the carbon road bike sector as well as the Turismo and Gran Fondo line of bikes...none of which I can reveal at this moment but will post as soon as I get the green light.

Now go out and ride!

Quick afternoon bite #bianchibicycles #capocycling

3pm snack and reading material. Mmmm.


--posted via iPhone.

Carbon soled mtb shoes, these ain't slippers. #mountainbikegear

An unwritten truth about using carbon soled mtb shoes is they will get jacked up racing in them. So, put away any preconceived notions about keeping them euro-roadie spot less and free of blemishes.

At least that's the conversation I've had with myself. (love the fit of this particular shoe!)


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