Today I test rode a £5000 race bike!

[Globalti]

Rode over for a coffee at the Naked Man cafe in Settle and the bike shop opposite was holding a Bianchi test day. So my buddy and I got the mechanic to swop our pedals over and off we went on two top of the range carbon Bianchi Oltres.

How did it feel? Well, incredibly light, very stiff, very small (too narrow bars may have helped there) and it accelerated well. Best of all was getting out of the saddle when it rewarded you with a very lively feel. The only thing I found strange was the effect of changes of wind direction on the deep rim carbon wheels, it really felt as if some invisible hand was gently pushing the bike first one way then the other.

Beautiful bikes though, absolutely stunning to look at with some superb design touches.

 

[Archie_tect]

Did it make you think that it could make enough difference to be worth buying one?

 

[Globalti]

No. I like my own Roubaix very much and was reminded of that as soon as I got back on it. I'm sure the design features I admired will eventually filter down into lower-priced bikes anyway as far-eastern factories learn how to do them and get tooled up. The Bianchis were stunning bikes but you pay for the name and nobody would think they were any good if they were cheap, would they?

I'm reminded of a story I once read about Suntour; they used to be a respected name in bike groupsets (still got a pair of beautiful little Suntour XC Pro thumbshifters on my mountain bike) until they launched a top of the range groupset aimed at professional riders, better and lighter than anything Shimano or Campy had at the time. However they made the fundamental marketing error of pricing it too cheap and nobody thought it could be any good so no professional teams specced it and it flopped. Suntour being one-tenth the size of Shimano the development costs killed them and now all they make is cheap components for BSOs.