Which Italian bike?

alsmudger

I am interested in buying an Italian bike. I ride about 2-3 times a week, at the moment I cover about 10-15 miles as i am recovering from an injury. I have always wanted to time trial but just dont have the time to train to get myself a respectable time (30 mins for 10 miles etc) so most of the time I just have a mixed ride of hills and flats. Bianchi's look good to me.............thanks for any input.
PS. I have about a grand at my disposal

Monty Dog

I'll probably get flamed for saying this, but Bianchis have a pretty poor reliability problem in my experience - think 1970s Fiats and Lancias - look lovely when new, but have a habit of falling apart. They've got better recently, but there are so many decent italian brands out there that don't have such a poor reputation. For good value, try looking at Wiliers or Viners - and they're a darn site less common too. I will say that you generally pay a premium for an Italian brand - but no more that you'd pay for a soul-less Specialized, Trek or Cannondale. The key thing with any bike purchase is fit - got to a dealer whose prepared to help with fit or sizing.

walleyes

I have had 3 Colnago's and a Pinarello and they've all been fabulous to ride.
Whatever you do make sure you have Campag fitted to it.

Bianchi Boy

Monty Dog wrote:

I'll probably get flamed for saying this, but Bianchis have a pretty poor reliability problem in my experience - think 1970s Fiats and Lancias - look lovely when new, but have a habit of falling apart. They've got better recently, but there are so many decent italian brands out there that don't have such a poor reputation. For good value, try looking at Wiliers or Viners - and they're a darn site less common too. I will say that you generally pay a premium for an Italian brand - but no more that you'd pay for a soul-less Specialized, Trek or Cannondale. The key thing with any bike purchase is fit - got to a dealer whose prepared to help with fit or sizing.

Now where is my Blow Torch!

redddraggon

Monty Dog wrote:

I will say that you generally pay a premium for an Italian brand - but no more that you'd pay for a soul-less Specialized, Trek or Cannondale.

All three of the American brands you mention make very good frames however (better than a lot of the similarly priced italian brands), and if you can live with the name on the downtube are fine bikes.

I've currently got a hankering for a CAAD9 with decent kit hanging off it.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Loved the look of the Bottecchia frames...mmmm....
http://www.fatbirds.co.uk/store.asp/b=1/Bottecchia

giant_man

Just make sure your Italian bike is indeed made in Italy! So that counts out Bianchi .....

Check out Casati, Somec, Ciocc, Gios, Colnago of course, Pinarello, De Rosa, Tommasini, plus a few others I probably should know.

LangerDan

giant mancp wrote:

Just make sure your Italian bike is indeed made in Italy! So that counts out Bianchi .....

As well as Colnagos and Pinarellos at the OPs price point.

ciocc1

Well i have 2 Ciocc's A Scandium and now a Carbon. Both excellent, sharp handling, pure race bikes to be honest. Have to say mate of mine has just got a Casati Laser Steel, it's stunning, very good products.... Try Scapin as well..

passout

Ribble Nero Corsa.........well kind of. You have enough money left over for a holiday to Italy!

campagchris

Check out Battaglin theres one on page33 of procycling this month.
I have a Battaglin and Pinarello and love them both,with campag

Van Nick

giant mancp wrote:

Just make sure your Italian bike is indeed made in Italy! So that counts out Bianchi .....

Check out Casati, Somec, Ciocc, Gios, Colnago of course, Pinarello, De Rosa, Tommasini, plus a few others I probably should know.

I think most, if not all Bianchis, are made in the far east now.

DavidBelcher

giant mancp wrote:

Just make sure your Italian bike is indeed made in Italy! So that counts out Bianchi .....

Check out Casati, Somec, Ciocc, Gios, Colnago of course, Pinarello, De Rosa, Tommasini, plus a few others I probably should know.

I think you've already ticked most of the boxes there. Would probably also add in Simoncini, Scapin and Bottechia.

David

Jez mon

I think your going to struggle to get a 100% Italian bike for a grand. Plus it probably isn't going to be as good as those made in places with cheaper labour

4kicks

www.paduanoracing.com

Of course, you would need to take yout grand and put it on a long shot in the 4:30 at Ascot, or Newcastle winning the leage this year, but frankly everything else is just tubes.

alfablue

You could get a Condor - Italian frames, built in London. Classy (I think). not common, in budget, but maybe doesn't shout "I'm Italian" as you might wish.

edit: At least the Dedacciai tubes are italian, unlike frames on many low end italian bikes.

DavidBelcher

Jez mon wrote:

I think your going to struggle to get a 100% Italian bike for a grand. Plus it probably isn't going to be as good as those made in places with cheaper labour

You could probably just about run to, for instance, a low-end Simoncini built with a Cr-Mo steel tubeset like Columbus Zona, and kitted out with, say, Campag Mirage/Xenon bits and their entry-level Khamsin wheels. Unlikely to be able to get anything genuinely Italian which much of a higher spec, though.

David

Barry Roubaix

Viner do the full carbon Gladius for a grand but unfortunately to get to that price point the frame is outsourced in Taiwan.

As people have suggested to get a full carbon frame 100% built in Italy for a grand is going to be hard. Why not look at Aluminium or Steel with carbon rear end?

Ste_S

Monty Dog wrote:

I'll probably get flamed for saying this, but Bianchis have a pretty poor reliability problem in my experience - think 1970s Fiats and Lancias - look lovely when new, but have a habit of falling apart. They've got better recently, but there are so many decent italian brands out there that don't have such a poor reputation. For good value, try looking at Wiliers or Viners - and they're a darn site less common too. I will say that you generally pay a premium for an Italian brand - but no more that you'd pay for a soul-less Specialized, Trek or Cannondale. The key thing with any bike purchase is fit - got to a dealer whose prepared to help with fit or sizing.

How exactly does a frame fall apart ? Bianchi's are probably the most popular bikes in my club, no one has any issues with them.

gundersen

How exactly does a frame fall apart ?

I think he means the "made in Taiwan" sticker falls off - revealing the "Made in Italy" decal.

campagchris

How exactly does a frame fall apart ? Bianchi's are probably the most popular bikes in my club, no one has any issues with them.

Big Magnus wrecked a few

Monty Dog

Quote; How exactly does a frame fall apart ? Bianchi's are probably the most popular bikes in my club, no one has any issues with them.

Where do you want me to start? There was the EV2 frames about 8 years that had countless problems - mainly the headtubes falling off due to stress cracking - I was helping out a friend who was a Bianchi dealer at the time and we used to see quite a few. I also know that one of the most well know shops in the South that specialises in Italian bikes dropped them because of the amount of warranty returns. I can also recall riding with one of my clubmates who wondered why his bike had gone "all soft" because the seat tube of his Bianchi had fractured above the BB! And finally, as somebody said, Big Magnus' manager lives around the corner and joins our local rides regularly and regaled us with tales of broken Bianchis - they refused to listen and didn't want to build him a stronger bike and was one of the reasons Liquigas dumped them.

A lot of those problems might be in the past, but there are plenty of brands out there without that history of poor quality and breakages.

andyp

I'd back up what MD says. It's well known after Pantani's Giro-Tour double in 1998 (on a Bianchi) that demand for Bianchis rose and they struggled to keep up, which led to corners being cut on quality. There were lots of warranty returns and quite a few dealers walked away from Bianchi.

They've meant to have rectified these now but it definitely damaged their reputation.

Ste_S

Funnily enough my experience is completely different to yours. One of my club mates has one of the early aluminum Bianchi frames, still rides it and loves it and hasn't had any major problems. My lbs has nothing but good things to say about Bianchi, in stark contrast to Scott who they dropped due to problems with breakages and warranties

Jez mon

I have also heard bad things about bianchi from older members of my club, but these days as soon as a bike manufacturer has major reliability problems it gets all over the net, or so it seems.

dennisn

I have a GIOS compact pro that I bought about 4 years ago. Not a single problem with it.
Of course it's steel but I like it and it gets it's fair share of looks . Sometimes I think people don't even know or believe that steel bikes still exist. Here in the states you hardly ever see one in the bike shops or catalogs.

Dennis Noward

Jez mon

Steel??

What is this ancient material that you speak of

wilwil

The poster says he has a grand to spend so that rules out a lot of the recommendations so far. I think all the monocoque Italian carbon frames are made in the far east and are finished in Italy and hopefully designed in Italy. There is a Wilier Mortirolo which you may find for around a £1000 especially at this time of year. Have a look at Epic Cycles website. Or go for aluminium/carbon like the Wilier La Triestina.

bill57

4kicks wrote:

but frankly everything else is just tubes.

He's right, you know.

DavidBelcher

dennisn wrote:

I have a GIOS compact pro that I bought about 4 years ago. Not a single problem with it.
Of course it's steel but I like it and it gets it's fair share of looks . Sometimes I think people don't even know or believe that steel bikes still exist. Here in the states you hardly ever see one in the bike shops or catalogs.

Dennis Noward

I thought steel was still very popular in the US with smaller-scale builders like IF? I have noticed in the last few years that American-made tubes like True Temper have partly superseded Reynolds across the pond, though, which I guess is due to the hefty import duty slapped on European steel products not so long back (thanks a bunch, George).

David

DavidBelcher

andyp wrote:

I'd back up what MD says. It's well known after Pantani's Giro-Tour double in 1998 (on a Bianchi) that demand for Bianchis rose and they struggled to keep up, which led to corners being cut on quality. There were lots of warranty returns and quite a few dealers walked away from Bianchi.

They've meant to have rectified these now but it definitely damaged their reputation.

Absolutely. I remember the EV2 fiasco and thought at the time "I'll be steering well clear of those". Having said that, I now own a Look, bought after the incident at the Worlds a while back when Jay Sweet's bike fell to bits underneath him (that was of a different type of frame construction to my KG241, mind).

David