BIANCHI ORSO SPECIFICATIONS Road Test Price: $2,100 (as reviewed) • Frame: Double-butted Bianchi Sizes available: 46cm, 49cm, Chromo Lite chromoly tubes; rack 51cm, 53cm, 55cm, 57cm, 59cm, and fender mounts; three bottle 61cm mounts; flat mounts for disc brake Size tested: 57cm • Fork: Bianchi carbon with tapered aluminum steerer (not Weight: 24.5 lbs. (without pedals) pictured). Double bosses on each blade for bottle/gear cages; TEST BIKE MEASUREMENTS internally routed brake cable; • Stack: 595mm fender mounts • Reach: 384mm • Handlebar: Bianchi alloy, • Head tube length: 150mm 420mm • Head tube angle: 72° • Stem: Bianchi 3D forged alloy, 31.8mm clamp, 110mm, +/-7° • Seat tube: 540mm (center to top) • Brake levers: Shimano 105 STI • Seat tube angle: 73.5° • Shift levers: Shimano 105 STI • Top tube: 560mm (effective) • Front derailer: Shimano 105 • Chainstays: 440mm • Rear derailer: Shimano 105 BIANCHI ORSO • Brake calipers: Shimano RS505 • Bottom bracket drop: 75mm hydraulic disc, flat mount • Bottom bracket height: (not pictured) 286mm • Fork Offset: 45mm BY PATRICK O’GRADY • Wheelbase: 1035mm • Standover height: 825mm ➺BIANCHI KEEPS A VARIETY of animals in its all-road zoo. “Volpe,” the fox. “Lupo,” the wolf. And “Orso,” the bear. This last seems aptly named. The Stranger could have been discussing the Bianchi Orso in The Big Lebowski when he observed, “A wiser fella than myself once said, ‘Sometimes you eat the b’ar … and sometimes the b’ar, why, he eats you.” I never got eaten by Bianchi’s b’ar. But at times I felt gnawed upon. Bianchi USA marketing veep David Reed and I first discussed reviewing the Orso in fall 2017. But unspecified issues at the factory kept nudging delivery back, and when my review bike finally arrived at Two Wheel Drive in Albuquerque in early May, I was surprised to see Yogi, the $2,100 Shimano 105 model. I thought we had been discussing Boo-Boo, the $1,300 Sora bike. But the boo-boo was mine; it seems my subconscious had hijacked the project. I’d been on a diet of lower-priced machinery, and to the voices in my head an 11-speed with hydraulic disc brakes must have seemed more appetizing than a 9-speed with mechanicals. Anyway, we were already pushing the deadline. What can’t be cured must be endured. Time to bear down. The Bianchi website pronounces the Orso capable of “the greatest variety of rides from commuting to centuries, long-distance touring to backroad

34 ADVENTURE CYCLIST oc tober /nov ember 2018 • Rotors: Shimano RT70-S, 160mm GEARING RANGE • Crankset: Shimano 105, 50/34T, 172.5mm 34 50 • Cassette: Shimano 11–32T, 10spd 11 85.3 125.4 • Chain: KMC X11 12 78.2 115.0 • Bottom bracket: Shimano BB- 13 72.2 106.1

RS500, threaded 14 67.0 98.6

• Seatpost: Bianchi alloy, 27.2mm 16 58.6 86.2 • Saddle: Bianchi-label WTB Speed V 18 52.1 76.7 • Headset: FSA No. 11 20 46.9 69.0

• Hubs: Formula 100 x 12mm thru- 22 42.6 62.7 axle (front) Formula 142 x 12mm 25 37.5 55.2 thru-axle (rear) bikepacking, and every potential 28 33.5 49.3 adventure in between.” • Rims: Reparto Corse CDX22 disc, 32h, tubeless ready 32 29.3 43.1 That’s a lot of territory, and I’m not • Tires: Kenda Flintridge Sport, wire sure the Orso has the range to cover bead, 700c x 40mm Contact: Bianchi USA, 2536A Barrington Court, it all. I enjoyed taking it around and Hayward CA 94545, 510.264.1001, bianchiusa.com, about in the Duke City, especially on [email protected]. trails. But then I would, because it rides like a beefed-up, stretched-out, up-to-date riff on the cyclocross bikes I favor whenever I’m not working for a living. As it happens, one of those is also a Bianchi, a Zurigo Disc, which I reviewed in the Oct./Nov. 2014 issue of Adventure Cyclist. I alternated rides on the two bikes early on, trying to sniff out how Bianchi’s all-road approach might have evolved in four years, but it was something of an apples-to-oranges comparison. The Zurigo is a snappy little 55cm speedster — aluminum frame and carbon fork, rack and fender mounts, two sets of bottle bosses, room for 38mm tires, mechanical discs, and quick-release skewers — with a limited portfolio of racing, gravel rides, and light touring. The 57cm Orso is chromoly and carbon, also does racks and fenders, sports five (!) sets of bottle bosses, accommodates 42mm fatties, and upgrades to hydraulics and thru-axles for anyone planning to carry anything heavier than an American Express Platinum card. The Zurigo weighs 23.3 pounds ready to ride with Shimano M540 pedals, two bottle cages, and a Cateye computer. The Orso goes 26 pounds with the same add-ons. Both have a long-and-low setup and pretty typical compact drivetrains, with the same low end (34x32). While I can live with that gearing on the Zurigo, which I think of as more hobbyhorse than workhorse, it seems a handicap for a heavier bike with loftier ambitions.

ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 35 I often found myself just a cog or saddle they look like the bullhorn bars pump might be a better fit. two away from the Orso’s low end on a ’90s time-trial bike. • Full-coverage 45mm SKS of 29.3 gear inches while riding the Still, they proved comfortable to my mudguards likewise looked bike unloaded. And when carrying an hands, if a bit knobby, and shifting was snug with 40mm tires, both up overnight load of a dozen pounds, I crisp, especially from little ring to big. It front with that chunky carbon routinely found myself with no bailout was pleasant to take baby steps between fork and out back with the front gear on steep climbs. cogs instead of giant leaps. And Mahler derailer arm intruding into the The cheaper Orso Sora would have says the more you shift, the better it fender space. given me a 34x34 low end, as I kept gets. I’ve exerted more effort typing. • Installing a rear rack proved reminding the voices in my head. And those brakes? Powerful, to be challenging thanks to eyelet But I may have been asking too sure, with scads of control. Easy two- placement (behind and below the much of the bike. Bianchi USA factory finger stops from the hooks, four from Breezer-style dropouts) and the sales rep Will Mahler, who provided the hoods. But my deceleration palate lever-operated thru-axles. Mahler the home office with some input on the may not be sophisticated enough to recommended a Blackburn Orso, told me that half its owners are gauge their relative value. To me, the Central, but I made the Tubus using it mostly as a commuter, “with the difference between cable-actuated Cargo Classic work with a $13 other half touring and gravel riding.” discs and hydraulics feels like the pair of adapters. The thru-axle With 10 pounds of whittled-down difference between a $50 bottle of wine lever nicks the lower rack strut overnight kit, the Orso felt much and a $100 bottle. I don’t really notice on the first spin but after that it’s quicker, especially in the dirt. In fact, until I drop the pricey one on some fine. A Tubus Logo Classic would that’s where I felt I got the most out of unforgiving surface. work, too, equipped with the same the bike, so if you’re a pebble-pusher, Other observations: adapters, as would a Tubus Disco, good news. • I had a fundamental using offset stays. The Kenda Flintridge Sport disagreement with the Bianchi- There’s plenty of competition at this wire-beads seemed cumbersome on label WTB Speed V saddle, which price point and slightly below it. The pavement but made light work of is to say that it disagreed with my $1,799 Salsa Vaya is another attractive gravel, sand and mud, even when fundament. I rarely swap saddles steel bike with a carbon fork. No pumped to 50 psi. However, their on review bikes, but the elaborate hydraulics, and thru-axle in the front small, closely spaced knobs had a habit stitching on this one wore out only, but a more versatile drivetrain of picking up things they shouldn’t, its welcome after just 50 miles. — FSA Omega Adventure crank with especially goat-head thorns. At one Wearing one of my scarred old 48/32 rings, SRAM Apex and GX point (rimshot), I saw sealant squirting Selle Italia Flites, the Orso felt derailers, and an 11–36T SRAM cassette. out of both tires. like a whole new bike. If you’re looking for a commuter These OEM-only tires are not • Mounted under the down tube in that can also handle gravel rides, tubeless-ready, though the Reparto a Blackburn alloy cage, a 21-ounce some light bikepacking, and the Corse rims are, so you’re halfway home bottle felt perilously close to the occasional overnight trip, keep an if you can’t abide the humble inner tube. front tire. A composite Profile eye on the Orso. With some broader The Orso’s big selling points are cage with four mounting holes gearing and a narrower saddle, it’d be probably Shimano’s 11-speed 105 STI widened the gap but crowded the a real teddy bear. drivetrain and RS505 hydraulic disc rear brake line and derailer cables. brakes. For a rider accustomed to A 5mm spacer on the bottom cage Patrick O’Grady is a contributing writer for cable levers, the STI controls seem bolt addressed that issue. But a Adventure Cyclist and a cartoonist for Bicycle preposterously massive. From the smaller bottle, tool pod, or mini- Retailer & Industry News. He blogs at maddogmedia.com.

36 ADVENTURE CYCLIST oc tober /nov ember 2018