Bianchi Specialissima RC: Ugly But BRILLIANT

This is the Bianchi Specialissima RC. It’s a lightweight aero road racer that costs £10,999 or nearly $14,000 and is an absolute dream to ride. Honestly, it’s fantastic, but then you’d hope so at that cost!

But is it ugly? Those tube shapes sit like a modernist house in a quaint village. What have they done with the elegant lines of the original Specialissima?

But with the way it rides, should we even care about how this thing looks? Let us know what you think, in the comments below!

#BianchiSpecialissima #Bianchi #Specialissima #ItalianRaceBike

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:52 Ride Impressions
01:30 Speed
03:44 Handling
05:01 Comfort
05:56 Looks
07:22 Spec & Changes
09:33 Conclusion

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This is the biane specialist SM RC it’s a lightweight aor road racer that cost £ 10,999 or nearly $144,000 and it is an absolute dream to ride honestly it’s fantastic but then you would hope so for the cost but is it ugly to me those tube shapes look like a

Modernist house in a quaint little village what have they done with the elegant lines of the original special easta but with the way that it rides should I even care about how this thing looks I’ll answer that but before I do let me tell you more about how a

$114,000 bike actually rides oh and be a lamb and subscribe to the channel it’s free and it really does help us out massively let’s park all chat of Aesthetics for now because how this thing rides is really what should matter biani has balanced speed comfort and handling really really well making the

Special eastart RC a delight to ride but there are numerous bikes in the lightweight Arrow category names like the canyon ultimate Factor O2 giant TCR Scott addict pinell dogma and what is arguably the king of all of that the specialized tarmac sl8 as an allrounder though this is really nice to ride

But what do you buy a lightweight road race bike for I’d imagine it’s to go fast everywhere climbing is this bike’s natural strength shallow gradients feel very very fast but the special e my RC really shines as the gradient tips into double digits these steeper climbs are

Where I too feel most comfortable and the stiffness of the frame rewards these Punchy efforts with kind of a can do attitude it really does Glide up hills with an efficiency that reminds me actually of my specialized AOS which is impressive given that the Athos is a dedicated climbing bike now just for

Reference the Athos weighs around about 6 kilos compared with the 7 kilos of this bike as you kind of see it so climbing is good but a bike like this needs to be fast on the Flatlands and here it has some seriously strong competition steady in on flatter roads

Is good but I didn’t really feel a notable difference over my very unero specialized Athos that’s just a tad disappointing but I think I know what the problem is similar lightweight AOW bikes I’ve ridden which use deeper Wheels than the special e SM feel just a little bit more efficient here

Especially in a crosswind where the wheel depth can give you a bit of like a sail effect but still 30 km an hour was a maintainable speed when I was riding on my own and when I got stuck into a few Zone 3 efforts the bike was happy to

Surge forward the geometry does help here it’s roughly on Trend with other modern road bikes but if you pop it against a specialized hmac sl8 the bian is longer and lower now the result Embraces an aggressive racing stance giving you the option of adopting an uncompromising aerodynamic riding

Position whether you can persuade your spine down into such a long and low position is enough the matter to summarize I’d say that this allrounder is weighted slightly more to the climbs but I’d expect that a deeper set of wheels would make this bike really fly on the Flats that geometry chart that we showed you has a massive effect on the handling instead of boring you by reading the numbers out I will put them on the screen again now but the simple takeaway is that I loved descending on this thing given the wet weather that we’ve had and

The skinny 26 mm pelli TT tires opportunities to really Bank the bike into a corner were fleeting in fact I did Scare myself a few times when a corner got wet halfway round but on flowing high-speed desense the bike feels calm with purposeful not just re steering this I believe is largely down

To the 988 mm wheelbase which is carried over from the old model the sl8 for example has a shorter 978 mm wheelbase in the equivalent size which will make the handling a little snappier the bian’s assured nature when riding at speed is brilliant whether you’re a confident descender or looking to build your

Skills now because the bike felt predictable I felt confident to descend aggressively when the roads were dry and after a winter of mundane riding on my winter bike it was lovely to tip the bike into an apex again so top marks here many of my rides use roads in the

West of England that can be best described as broken here it was nice to find that biane has provided plenty of rearend Comfort while the bar also does a great job of isolating the rider from Road Buzz now larger cracks in the asphalt will be felt as well heavily

Worn sections of like that chip sealed road that the local Council seems so keen on that said I would strongly suspect the bike’s Comfort could be further improved with a set of tubeless 30 or 32 mm tires the latter being the biggest that you can fit I really can’t

Stress enough how much I’ve enjoyed taking this on hilly rides in the mendip hills and there I was not sold on the looks and kind of almost hoping that this thing would be rubbish okay so that’s me summing up what it’s like to ride but it’s time to

Address the elephant in the forest nothing about the way that this bike looks makes me want to own it I know this might seem quite Petty or basic of me but the way that the bike looks forms a massive part of my desire to go and ride it now other lightweight Arrow road

Bikes have gentler lines which sit Softly on my retinas there is for example a very straight line from here to here and yet bian has gone in all sorts of directions and I just don’t get the point I’m also if you follow me down here not a fan of that overhanging head

Tube it just kind of looks unfinished some of bian’s Rivals aren’t much better mind the sl8 has that silly speed sniffer so I’ve turned the bike around now and as you can see you don’t find the usual brand name on the down tube this rato course is the name for bian’s

Racing Department like tx’s monstrous logos it’s just a bit weird to me there’s also the matte paint with the gloss Wheels that’s just wrong it all adds up to a bike that Wows me when riding but doesn’t really have my heart at the cafe let me know how important a

Bike’s looks are to you in the Comments I’m inherently fussy when it comes to my bike setup and if you’re dropping 14k on a road bike I think you should be too ideally for me these TT tires would be swapped out for a tubeless 28 mm Tire I’d probably have something like the Continental GP 5000

St I’d also like to be able to put the 50 mm wheels from bian’s ultr RC on this but that isn’t a changeable option if you buy the special e the additional width and tubeless design would allow for lower pressures for enhanced Comfort while the gp5000

Compound is one that I’m happier with in mixed conditions I’d also want a narrower bar now biane can save you a handful of Watts from efficient tube shapes but nothing compares with optimizing your body position I made a video on this topic actually so you should go and check that out afterwards

Done here now luckily the bar width is amendable when you buy the bike and there are a host of options to choose from for instance my preferred 120 mm stem with a 38 CM bar is available which is great news for Arrow one thing that I wouldn’t change however is the group set

Now this Shimano 12-speed dur Ace di2 stuff has been brilliant the braking is dependable and really really predictable it’s also quiet when you come off the brakes which I really really like the gearing is pretty much perfect for my riding this is a 5236 up front with an

11 to 30 to cassette at the back that gives you a range of decent spinnable gears for the hills but also some faster stuff for the Flatlands now I do want to touch on the power meter it has had some bad press on the internet but the

Numbers that it’s been given me have been fantastic and I really want to believe them so I’m saying that it’s perfectly Accurate while I would look to make one or two component changes the bian special e marassi is an utterly fantastic bike to ride uphill and down Dale there is plenty of stiffness for out of the saddle efforts and an excellent geometry creates assured handling that rewards you with riding

Confidence but and this is a big butt I will admit that I still can’t get past the looks at $114,000 a bike just needs to be perfect and looks do factor into that but if you see this design as purposeful you’re looking at one of the best lightweight

Arrow bikes in the world but for me so much of a bike’s appeal is looks so I could never actually see myself buying this which is a shame because it’s brilliant if you are on the hunt for a lightweight aad bike then why not check out this

Video where ash puts two of the best these specialized tarmac sl8 and the canyon ultimate head to-head now if you want to see more reviews on the channel then leave us a like and don’t forget to subscribe we’ll see you next time thanks for watching bikes