Bianchi?

Porta105

Hi there,

I know this has been done umpteen times before by many people like me but having had a trawl through the forum nobody has mentioned the bikes that I'm looking at.

I'm going through the C2W scheme but I'm still on a budget so I'm looking at £600-700 on the bike plus 100-150 on top of that for helmet, clothing etc. Also being on the C2W scheme means that buying 2nd hand is out of the question as I don't have the pennies to pay up front and without the discount the scheme brings me.

Having searched the net and popping into a couple of LBS I've come up with:

Trek 1.2 £625
Bianchi C2C Nirone Sora £675 (current favourite)
Orbea Aqua TSR 2010 £650
Specialized Allez Sport Triple 2010 £625

I was quite interested in the Allez as it's highly favoured by people but my LBS said that Specialized aren't shipping till Feb even though Evans have it in stock on their website.

Anyways, sorry for the essay, any thoughts?

Also posted in the beginners forum http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12661155

Escargot

Is there any chance of you paying an extra £25 for the C2C Mirage ?

I had a bike with Sora and have ridden a 2009 C2C with the Mirage group and my opinion was that the Mirage was smoother in operation.

I can't really comment on the other's but the Bianchi is a great bike

Slow Downcp

Of the ones on your list - the Bianchi, but with mirage if it's only £25 more.

pickled

+1
I'm not a fan of Sora levers. Try both if you can

Porta105

Escargot; Could you let me know where you've seen the Mirage for the extra £25?

I've realised a lot of people are fans of the Campy-Bianchi relationship but as a novice is it a noticeable difference between that and the Sora gruppo?

Buckled_Rims

pickled wrote:

+1
I'm not a fan of Sora levers. Try both if you can

Does anyone actually like them? I've never meet a Sora fan.

GemmaAtkinson1

i had sora on my my first entry level bianchi c2c. its perfectly fine if you are starting out and its set up well.

Porta105

Gemma, which year did you have the c2c sora and any problems with it I should know about?

Buckled; I've discovered the Sora levers are a little marmite-esqe, I've read that some people prefer them to having a wobbly brake lever so I'm going to have a test ride next week I think and see how it goes.

GemmaAtkinson1

well i had the entry level black via nirone alu with sora. i had never had a race bike before. I bloody loved it, was comfortable enough, and i upgraded to lioghter wheels.
I had my sora tuned up well when i purchased the bike and had a further 2 services on the bike in the 18 months i had it. I always found a little tweak of the barrel adjuster to add in more tension was all it needed.

I now ride a full carbon B4P, and i love it, but i never had any problems with the alu via nirone. I was also knocked off twice on this bike and it survived both accidents with minor scuffs only.

id say if its your first bike, its a lovely bike, ride it into the ground, and when or if you take your cycling more serious in the future you can upgrade to something better with a superior groupset . But beware of people crowing to get ultegra or things like that on your first bike, i think its better to start off on the cheaper scale of things then progress when your ready and sure about the sport.

wish you many happy rides on it if you go for it!

(ps - i sold mine which i bought for £500 for £350 on gumtree so they hold their value relatively well)

Buckled_Rims

Porta105 wrote:

Buckled; I've discovered the Sora levers are a little marmite-esqe, I've read that some people prefer them to having a wobbly brake lever so I'm going to have a test ride next week I think and see how it goes.

I should really have said "Does anyone like Sora after using 105, etc..."

Anyhow, I'd rather stump up the slight extra and buy the compag mix.

http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/bianchi-via-nirone-item129108.html

Nice bike - yum yum.

andyxm

I had a Via Nirone alu carbon model for around a year, and to be honest was very dissapointed with the bike, lovely looking but a real let down on the performance side-my average speeds over the same rides were no better than when riding my Roberts tourer, which is getting on for 30 pounds and has 26" wheels and touring tyres. My impression is that Bianchi are living off past glories a little, I'd seriously recommend at least trying out a few other bikes

Anonymous

I have Sora triple on my winter/commuter/training bike and Ultegra 10 sp on my race bike. The sora needs a bit of tlc and fettling now and again but I still quite like it, just look after it and its fine.

GemmaAtkinson1

Buckled_Rims wrote:

Porta105 wrote:

Buckled; I've discovered the Sora levers are a little marmite-esqe, I've read that some people prefer them to having a wobbly brake lever so I'm going to have a test ride next week I think and see how it goes.

I should really have said "Does anyone like Sora after using 105, etc..."

Anyhow, I'd rather stump up the slight extra and buy the compag mix.

http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/bianchi-via-nirone-item129108.html

Nice bike - yum yum.

would have to second this, bianchi with campag is nice :-)

Porta105

GemmaAtkinson1 wrote:

Buckled_Rims wrote:

Porta105 wrote:

Buckled; I've discovered the Sora levers are a little marmite-esqe, I've read that some people prefer them to having a wobbly brake lever so I'm going to have a test ride next week I think and see how it goes.

I should really have said "Does anyone like Sora after using 105, etc..."

Anyhow, I'd rather stump up the slight extra and buy the compag mix.

http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/bianchi-via-nirone-item129108.html

Nice bike - yum yum.

would have to second this, bianchi with campag is nice :-)

That bike does look incredibly tasty, the only problem is that with this being my first I'd prefer to stick to the LBS (M.Steel in Gosforth Buckled) to help me weed out any teething problems etc that there are bound to be, plus they offer your first 3 services for free.

Andyxm; What should I be looking at when taking for a test then? I thought a test would involve riding round the local streets for a bit, not really time to find out average speeds etc,

Dmclite; What bike do you have the sora set up on?

Escargot

Porta105 wrote:

Escargot; Could you let me know where you've seen the Mirage for the extra £25?

I've realised a lot of people are fans of the Campy-Bianchi relationship but as a novice is it a noticeable difference between that and the Sora gruppo?

In short no :oops:

I'm sorry for being a total plank but I meant the Xenon (yeah, I know they sound alike :roll: :oops: ) which is £25 over you max budget. Unfortunately I got all mixed up as I tried the C2C with Xenon, Mirage and the 1885 with Veloce.

Anyways the Xenon is still better IMHO than the Sora due to the smoother gear change.

I'm not biased either way when it comes to Italian bikes and group sets but I would say the thumb shifter on Campag seems to work better than the old Sora I had, which was quite clunky. In terms of shifting I found even the lower Campag stuff changes more smoothly than Ultegra SL but I found the hoods very uncomfortable relative to the Ultegra ones.

Soz again for the mixup.

phearnde

My entry level bike (Orbea Fleche) has Sora, which I find just fine, I particularly like the little indicators on the hoods that show me roughly which gear I'm in. Something which strangely is missing on the more expensive (upmarket?) Ultegra!

Porta105

Hmmm the 2010 Xenon is £50 more than the Sora, but it is in Celeste too!

I'm off for a test ride of the Sora on Saturday, not sure if they had the Xenon in stock but I'll definitely contemplate it. My original budget was about £600, this biking malarkey is getting expensive.

GemmaAtkinson1

let us know how you get on and enjoy the test ride. if its your first racer consider asking them to adjust seat height and maybe flip the stem to afford a more forgiving position.

ps - the more you get into biking the more it seems to creep into an 'essential' expense

Porta105

Thanks Gemma, I've ridden an old racer of my dads years ago so I may as well be brand new to the concept.

Anything I should look for or concentrate on while going for a little spin, they seem a pretty good shop so should be able to get them to help set it up etc, only problem is now I'm going to have to sit patiently for a few weeks till my C2W voucher comes back to me, hopefully it won't be too long.

Philby

Don't forget to budget for pedals and shoes - these will make a huge difference to your performance on the bike, but could easily add £100+ to your budget.

I have a Bianchi C2C - really enjoyed it and was by far the most comfortable bike when I was looking round. Try and get the best groupset you can afford. Also wheels, tyres etc can be upgraded to lighter models when they wear out, or you come into some spare cash.

Don't worry too much about the average speed of the bike (see AndyXM post above) - most of that is down to the rider. I have overtaken people on bikes 5 or 6 times as expensive as mine and have been overtaken by people on much cheaper bikes.

Escargot

Porta105 wrote:

Hmmm the 2010 Xenon is £50 more than the Sora, but it is in Celeste too!

I'm off for a test ride of the Sora on Saturday, not sure if they had the Xenon in stock but I'll definitely contemplate it. My original budget was about £600, this biking malarkey is getting expensive.

Best of luck

The whole C2W scheme is a nightmare as it's too easy to slip into spending £1000. I increased/decreased my budget about 5x before settling on a final figure of £650. A bit of an odd figure but was the point at which I wasn't going to notice any impact on my salary.

GemmaAtkinson1

Philby wrote:

Don't forget to budget for pedals and shoes - these will make a huge difference to your performance on the bike, but could easily add £100+ to your budget.

I have a Bianchi C2C - really enjoyed it and was by far the most comfortable bike when I was looking round. Try and get the best groupset you can afford. Also wheels, tyres etc can be upgraded to lighter models when they wear out, or you come into some spare cash.

Don't worry too much about the average speed of the bike (see AndyXM post above) - most of that is down to the rider. I have overtaken people on bikes 5 or 6 times as expensive as mine and have been overtaken by people on much cheaper bikes.

bang on the money here - think about extra budget for essentials - shoes , pedals & helmet are the bare essentials id say. Go with the best groupset you can afford, and try a size or two out to determine the best for you. Best of luck!

andyxm

Porta105 wrote:

Andyxm; What should I be looking at when taking for a test then? I thought a test would involve riding round the local streets for a bit, not really time to find out average speeds etc,

You obviously wont be able to get a full impression of each bike from a test ride, I suppose my advice is not to get fixated with a Bianchi, I think there are a lot of better bikes out there for similar prices - I've ridden a friends Specialized that was a similar price to mine and found it much more lively

andyxm

Philby wrote:

Don't forget to budget for pedals and shoes - these will make a huge difference to your performance on the bike, but could easily add £100+ to your budget.

I have a Bianchi C2C - really enjoyed it and was by far the most comfortable bike when I was looking round. Try and get the best groupset you can afford. Also wheels, tyres etc can be upgraded to lighter models when they wear out, or you come into some spare cash.

Don't worry too much about the average speed of the bike (see AndyXM post above) - most of that is down to the rider. I have overtaken people on bikes 5 or 6 times as expensive as mine and have been overtaken by people on much cheaper bikes.

Funnily enough it was the same rider (me) riding my Bianchi as it was (also me) riding my Roberts tourer.

pickled

andyxm wrote:

You obviously wont be able to get a full impression of each bike from a test ride, I suppose my advice is not to get fixated with a Bianchi, I think there are a lot of better bikes out there for similar prices - I've ridden a friends Specialized that was a similar price to mine and found it much more lively

I don't agree with this at all. (I suppose I wouldn't because I own one...)

Most bikes are pretty similar in their respective price ranges, so as long as the bike fits, you can buy whatever you like.

People buy things for all sorts of reasons. Being the perceived best isn't normally one of them. (Except maybe BMW drivers... )

Escargot

I don't buy that either.

Average speeds aren't going to be improved a massive amount by a few kg's when your body weight is the governing factor. A change from a 30 to 22lb bike might result in a total 5% difference in weight but how this relates to the road is anyone's guess.

The Via Nirone is also a sportive bike and is extremely comfortable for riding long distances. It's not set up to be a tight and responsive racer (although it probably does that pretty well too) so may not be surprising that your mate's Specialized was more lively.

I doubt that there are many *much* better bikes out there for £600ish. Just ones with different ride characteristics.

andyxm

Just giving my objective opinion from owning one for a year, I found it very unresponsive and leaden to ride, compared to my mates bike and to my own tourer which is unresponsive by design.

A lot of the attraction of Bianchis is the image, and they do look much more expensive than they are and more expensive than their competitors but having ridden a number of bikes in my time I don't think the performance lives up to the image.

Porta105

Might have opened up a can of worms here.

Thanks for the advice though, I've got money in the pot for pedals, helmet, tools, locks and some nice tight lycra :? Think I'm going to stick with pedals and toe clips for a short while before making the extra expenditure for cleats and shoes

Escargot

andyxm wrote:

A lot of the attraction of Bianchis is the image,

And the fact that many of them are sublime to ride

Can't argue with your experience as we're all different and want different things.

Of course all Italian things are about image. Who in their right mind would ever buy an Alfa if they thought about it logically. They look fantastic but they fall apart after 5 mins and lose money faster than Gordon Brown

Maybe it was just the Nirone for you though. I rode a 1885 and it was lovely.

pickled

It's all about perception, prejudice and opinion.
I've ridden mine for long distances in total comfort and i found it comparable to all the other bikes I rode while testing.
The c2c which is what the OP was asking about isn't made for racing.
However I'm not sure you could call it leaden. :shock:

PS I've owned Alfa's in the past and they both took waaay longer than 5 mins to fall apart.
... I got a 18 months out of one of them...

fungus_the_muffin_man

I've not rode the lower end models. But when I got my mono q I test rode it against quite a few other bikes and this IMO came out tops against all the other £1500- 2000 bikes I rode. I hadn't even looked at Bianchi's until the bike shop encouraged me to try it out. In fact i'd gone out of my way to not look at them for some reason. However it was the best move i'd made. - find it a quick responsive ride which hasn't managed to completely deaden out the frame respose like some frames do. As soon as i'd rode it I had to have it.
It all comes down to subjectivity of the individual buying the bike and what they want from it doesn't it.