New bike - Bianchi Via Nirone

[Sonofpear]

I cycle to work on odd days, 31 miles round trip, so that keeps me ticking over during the week. I keep getting faster on that, so it feels quite motivating, and the 15.5 mile one way is short enough to basically push the whole way. My best home run (less climbing) is 19.3 mph, but last night with headwind only managed 18.5 mph.

Into work is slower, and my best is 17.5 mph, which I guess was wind assisted as it was also yesterday

At the moment I am just using a basic computer to keep track of my mileage and time, and record all in bikemaps manually. But am saving up for a Garmin

Yeah I'll defo look at doing some organised rides in the future, like I say just wanna get used to my bike and work on my fitness. Will probably use the route I did as my little night time training ride. Work on getting quicker round it. Maybe extend it a little as I thought it was further than 13 miles.
I've just started using an app on my phone to log my rides. Just to give me a basic idea of distance and time. Seems alright.
Somebody on here has also given me some info on a local club which I think is another thing I'll look to for the future.

 

[VamP]

A quick update.


Beverley (named after beautiful but ditzy friend from distant past) has now just under 600 miles on the clock. She has had her first service (freebie from Evans) where as far as I can tell they fiddled a little with the rear mech indexing. Great .

Last weekend had a rear wheel puncture (great big jag of a flint slashed right across the tyre) so that was the perfect excuse to move from the factory fit Zaffiros to Schwalbe Ultremo DD (which had been sitting around on my garage shelf impatiently). Big, big big difference in rolling resistance, and Bev is now significantly faster.

I have been in an upgrading mood, so there are new wheels on order (Mavic Ksyrium Elite) as well as a Centaur rear mech. I guess over the years I will uprade the whole groupset to Centaur level (ish).

60 mile sportive in 10 days time, so will update again after that.

Still

 

[Sonofpear]

Starting the upgrades already eh vamp. My mate had a shoot load of probs with his zaffiros. I have the same tyres but haven't had any probs yet touch wood. Think I'll go for ultremos when I do upgrade. So is the deference in tyres really noticeable?

 

[VamP]

Starting the upgrades already eh vamp. My mate had a shoot load of probs with his zaffiros. I have the same tyres but haven't had any probs yet touch wood. Think I'll go for ultremos when I do upgrade. So is the deference in tyres really noticeable?

Heheh. I think the scope for tinkering and toys is one of the great reasons why cycling is so succesful as an industry

On Ultremo's - I have only had the opportunity to test on my work commute thus far - four legs. The in - leg has resulted in the fastest two times I have yet posted (by 3 minutes!), while the home - leg runs have resulted in 2 of top 3 times.

More impressively (as usually one of the two legs is into headwind) the aggregate time for both legs on Monday was a full 7 minutes faster than my previous best one day aggregate time. That's a 7.3% improvement which can be attributed 99% to the tyres.

I look forward to further significant improvements with the new wheels, as the factory fitted ones are gash.

 

[gbb]

Managed to get out for a 47 mile circuit throught the South Downs on Sunday. As it happens my lycra shorts and mitts showed up on Saturday so I had the full Sunday rider regalia on - and felt pretty comfortable, mainly as the South Downs were packed with riders of all shapes and colours.

Did the 47 miles in 3 hrs 1 min, which I have no idea whether that's a good time or not, but I did have a great time, and my Via Nirone was excellent. Reached max speed of 42mph on one of the downhills, and that was exhilarating, but the biggest revelation came on the climbs - very easy to get a good rhythm, and much more comfortable to get up in the pedals than my old ride.

I have no idea about the altitude climbed, bikemap reckons 2099 feet, bikehike over 3000 feet.

My only concern was over a kind of noise from BB, when really pushing on or getting up in the pedals. Only from the left pedal, and the sound was kind of a metallic tightening - but subtle, not loud. Probably just the BB needs a good tightening.


Anyways, the odo now reads 85 miles, so should break the 100 mile mark on the ride home tonight. I still love my bike

Hiya VamP, another Via Nirone Xenon here.
Had mine 2 and a half years, its all worked flawlessly barring the BB. That failed (or started to fail) around 6 months ago. If its got the Omega BB, the bearings inside the shells are 'basic' quality and the shields are only plastic, worse still the axle runs directly on that plastic, so its a far from perfect design and probably acknowledged as the only shortcoming on the bike (actually its the BBs fault, not the bike )

I know the post above goes back some time, but for any other users out there, dont overtighten the end screw on the cranks, its to pre-tension the cranks 'float' then you use the two pinch bolts to tighten the cranks onto the axle. If you tighten the end bolt too much, it WILL damage the BB.

I was only thinking the other day...i still love the Bianchi, i never get bored with looking at it even though with over two years riding and commuting, the frames showing quite a few light scratches which is a shame.
I saw the fork mentioned somewhere regarding its weight...mine has a full carbon fork and funnily enough,i weighed it the other day while doing some maintenance on the bike...400g and that included the bung. I did wonder what an alu/carbon fork weighed.

The only other thing ive found that may be of interest, and this applies to most bikes anyway, is while i was checking the forks, i had the bearing cartridges out of the headset...they were showing surface rust. Quick clean and re-grease, all's well. I dont really use it much in the wet or winter, so it pays to check after a while.


I keep thinking...if i get another bike, i cant see myself buying anything other than a Bianchi.

 

[Sonofpear]

That's a pretty decent gain with the new tyres. I didn't think it would be that much. Like I said i think I'll be getting some

 

[VamP]

Hiya VamP, another Via Nirone Xenon here.
Had mine 2 and a half years, its all worked flawlessly barring the BB. That failed (or started to fail) around 6 months ago. If its got the Omega BB, the bearings inside the shells are 'basic' quality and the shields are only plastic, worse still the axle runs directly on that plastic, so its a far from perfect design and probably acknowledged as the only shortcoming on the bike (actually its the BBs fault, not the bike )

I know the post above goes back some time, but for any other users out there, dont overtighten the end screw on the cranks, its to pre-tension the cranks 'float' then you use the two pinch bolts to tighten the cranks onto the axle. If you tighten the end bolt too much, it WILL damage the BB.

I was only thinking the other day...i still love the Bianchi, i never get bored with looking at it even though with over two years riding and commuting, the frames showing quite a few light scratches which is a shame.
I saw the fork mentioned somewhere regarding its weight...mine has a full carbon fork and funnily enough,i weighed it the other day while doing some maintenance on the bike...400g and that included the bung. I did wonder what an alu/carbon fork weighed.

The only other thing ive found that may be of interest, and this applies to most bikes anyway, is while i was checking the forks, i had the bearing cartridges out of the headset...they were showing surface rust. Quick clean and re-grease, all's well. I dont really use it much in the wet or winter, so it pays to check after a while.


I keep thinking...if i get another bike, i cant see myself buying anything other than a Bianchi.

Thanks for the heads up. I am not sure what BB the bike has, as it's not described in any blurb. I have untightened the end bolts again

 

[VamP]

That's a pretty decent gain with the new tyres. I didn't think it would be that much. Like I said i think I'll be getting some

Yes, I was surprised too.

New wheels arrived today, so once those are fitted, I will update how much difference they have made. Going with Ultremos R1 on these.

 

[Sonofpear]

Awesome mate. Let me know how you get on with them.

 

[Mark_Robson]

Awesome mate. Let me know how you get on with them.

If your thinking of buying them you can have a look at mine before you make your mind up. If your bike is geared up for Shimano I can put my wheels onto your bike and we can have a blast up the coast so that you can try them.
https://www.cyclechat.net/

 

[Sonofpear]

Thanks for the offer mark. There's no chance of me getting new wheelset anytime soon. No money for extravagances like that the mrs would say. Maybe some new tyres if I'm lucky.

 

[Sonofpear]

Your bike looks great aswell mark. Really nice.

 

[Mark_Robson]

TBH the offer was so that you could see what you thought of the tyres rather than the wheels.

 

[Sonofpear]

Sorry I got a bit mixed up there mark. Because I was asking vamp to let me know about his new wheels I assumed you thought I was after new wheels haha.
Thanks for the offer though mate. Might take you up on that. You live near the north east coast yeah?

 

[Mark_Robson]

Yep West Boldon.