Bianchi Oltre XR4 Disc build

[BianchiVirgin]

I checked several cages before I made the original warranty claim as I felt a bit silly at the time. This one actually seems better than the original; it's still not straight but I'm going to try and make some washers to bond to the bottle cage to square it all up. It won't take long to print them as they'll only be a mm or so thick

Still disappointing from the brand to clearly have QC/ QA issues by the sound of it.

 

[Johnno260]

Could it be a machining or mold error?
Our machine shop has jigs setup for high count machined items, could they have a drilling jig that has an alignment issue.

 

[T4tomo]

I'm afraid so, it's a pig of a job for something that is normally so simple. The spacers are split in half so they can be removed but the steerer will need shortening. To do this properly you need to remove the fork, which means removing the hydraulic hoses. It's possible to work around it, but mistakes would be extremely costly so it's just not worth it IMO.

Whilst this fully internal cable malarkey looks very sleek, it does mean thing like that are so massively complicated and moreover you can't lower the bars without cutting the steerer, as there is no longer an option to park a spacer or two above the stem. So a 5 minute job becomes a trip to the LBS & ££ and also your bike becomes a bit less adaptable for either selling on or if you stiffen up later in life.

Lovely bikes by the way, I have the Infinito CV.

 

[BianchiVirgin]

Whilst this fully internal cable malarkey looks very sleek, it does mean thing like that are so massively complicated and moreover you can't lower the bars without cutting the steerer, as there is no longer an option to park a spacer or two above the stem. So a 5 minute job becomes a trip to the LBS & ££ and also your bike becomes a bit less adaptable for either selling on or if you stiffen up later in life.

Lovely bikes by the way, I have the Infinito CV.

On my fully concealed system spacers can be put up top if required so I don't see why not in this instance. It just looks a bit off.

 

[T4tomo]

On my fully concealed system spacers can be put up top if required so I don't see why not in this instance. It just looks a bit off.

on the ones shown you would have to bodge it with a non proprietary top cap, as top cap is shaped on 2 levels to fit flush with the bars

 

[JhnBssll]

Still disappointing from the brand to clearly have QC/ QA issues by the sound of it.

Agreed, it shouldn't happen.

Could it be a machining or mold error?
Our machine shop has jigs setup for high count machined items, could they have a drilling jig that has an alignment issue.

I suspect it's a mold error; the threaded inserts are part of the layup, they don't appear to be drilled and inserted later. I suspect the part of the tooling that holds the inserts in place has seen better days and has some play.

I had a quick play in CAD last night; I took a photo and overlaid it with a sketch to get a rough idea of the angle to aim for.

I used this to print some quick spacers to see if it would do the trick...

I bolted it up and it's almost square now, I've got an adjusted set of spacers printing as I type and will neaten it up a bit before installing them, hopefully it'll be spot on this time and I can strip the bike down and think about rebuilding it 😊

on the ones shown you would have to bodge it with a non proprietary top cap, as top cap is shaped on 2 levels to fit flush with the bars

The integrated stem allows 10mm of adjustment without cutting the steerer - theres enough space under the top cap for this movement. The spacers are split in half; once you lift the stem you can pop them apart and remove them (or add them) without having to remove the stem or disconnect any brake hoses. If you want to add/remove more than a couple of 5mm spacers you're out of luck though and the carbon cutting equipment has to make an appearance

 

[Milkfloat]

Even if you do bodge it with a pretty elegant solution I would be reporting it to Bianchi so they can at a minimum fix it on future frames, but also ideally compensate you the pretty crappy service.

 

[JhnBssll]

I've got the cages fairly straight now with my patented wonky washers They're not perfect, but I know all it will take is a quick tweak of the CAD geometry and an equally quick print to improve them at a later date so I'm happy with that.

I have made contact with Bianchi UK to let them know I'm not overly impressed, will wait to see what they have to say but wouldn't be surprised if it was chalked down to 'Italian flare' or other such sentiment, I've heard a lot of it recently. In my book its either straight or its wrong and they need to pull their socks up but if they've been getting away with it I can see the temptation to let it ride... On the other hand if I'd rejected this one too that would have been a pretty hefty chunk of warranty cost that you'd think they'd try and avoid... Who knows

I've resisted the strong urge to start stripping down the original frameset so far; I won't be able to start building the new one until a few bits arrive so makes sense to keep it in one piece for another day or two.

The internal routing means I'll have to cut the olives off the ends of the brake hoses to remove them which means they won't be long enough to re-fit. I've ordered a new length of hose for the rear brake and will trim the existing rear hose down further to use it up front. I'll need a new barb and olive for the Hope caliper so have ordered a few of those but have the shimano ones ready to go for the lever end. I've ordered new bar tape as generally it's a pig to get looking nice again after complete removal plus it gives me a chance to try something slightly different whilst maintaining the orange theme...

Might look nice, might not. Only time will tell

I will measure the seatpost insertion length, steerer length, saddle position etc etc before the teardown so I can set it all up exactly as it is now when I swap it over. It's riding so nicely it would be a pain to have to dial it in again

I'm also half tempted to revisit my bike computer mount, see if I can improve on the design again, but that may be a project for another day 😊

 

[T4tomo]

I've ordered new bar tape as generally it's a pig to get looking nice again after complete removal plus it gives me a chance to try something slightly different whilst maintaining the orange theme...

I have the celeste version of that on my Bianchi, it looks good on.

 

[JhnBssll]

I couldn't resist a play in CAD... Something like this might be nice for the GPS mount.

 

[JhnBssll]

I stripped the bike down this evening, hoping the brake hose arrived in the next few days so I can get to rebuilding it

Am I going to regret putting them next to each other without labelling them

 

[BianchiVirgin]

No because the brainy part of you will realise the new one is the one with the boxed rear axle. 👍

 

[BianchiVirgin]

Curious why a new game came with new forks as well. The was nothing wrong with the old ones. Presumably it was just easier from an admin perspective to just ship a whole new box of stuff.

 

[JhnBssll]

Curious why a new game came with new forks as well. The was nothing wrong with the old ones. Presumably it was just easier from an admin perspective to just ship a whole new box of stuff.

Exactly this. New frame, new forks, new bars, new seatpost, new headset etc etc. They basically replace the whole kit as originally ordered. I'm keeping the old mech hanger as a sneaky spare 😋

 

[JhnBssll]

I ran some Di2 wires this evening

I also cleaned up the two mech's and refitted them, a job I always find strangely soothing

Theres a trapdoor under the BB for running the brake hose so with the Di2 wires in place I could fit the Wheels Mfg. ceramic bottom bracket, after giving it a nice clean and checking the bearings of course 😊

I'm rather hoping the new rear brake hose arrives tomorrow so I can crack on and get the rear brake fitted then move on to the front end

I also need to box up the old frame and pop it back to the dealer 😊

I really need to tidy the garage too