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2012 Bianchi Highlights – 29er Mountain Bikes, Anniversary Pista & More

2012 Bianchi Super Pista Italy 150th anniversary edition track bike
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2012 Bianchi Super Pista Italy 150th anniversary edition track bike

Bianchi’s Interbike booth focused on road and track bikes and, as usual, featured some gorgeous fixed gear rides. Above is the Super Pista decked out in Italian colors to celebrate the country’s 150th anniversary of their unification as a single country. Even the chain, spokes and bar tap get in on the party.

Quit yo’ trackstandin’ and sprint past the page break for a close up on the very carbon fiber-looking triple hydroforming of the Impulso and their first ever 29er mountain bikes from Europe…

2012 Bianchi Super Pista Italy 150th anniversary edition track bike

2012 Bianchi Super Pista Italy 150th anniversary edition track bike

The Pista Sei Giorno (6-day bike) continues on with matching white tires, rims, chain, post, stem and bar.

2012 Bianchi Impulso triple hydroformed alloy road bike

The Impulso joined the lineup earlier this year as a 2012 model. The top and head tubes are hydroformed separately, welded together then hydroformed again as a single piece. The result, Bianchi says, is a stiffer overall bike. Visually, it makes the front end of the bike look very much like carbon fiber with smooth shaping and no visible welds at that junction.

2012 Bianchi Impulso triple hydroformed alloy road bike

The other tubes are welded together normally.

2012 Bianchi Impulso triple hydroformed alloy road bike

Rear stays are curved to keep it laterally rigid while soaking up some of the bumps. Their carbon fork has an 1-1/8″ straight alloy steerer.

2012-Bianchi-Dama-Via-Nerone-and-Infinito-womens-road-bikes01

Their Dama women’s versions are now available in the Infinito and Via Nerone models.

MOUNTAIN BIKES

2012 Bianchi Methanol 29 SL carbon fiber 29er hardtail mountain bike

Bianchi has finally entered the 29er category with two new hardtails for 2012. The Methanol SL 29 above is the carbon fiber top end model. The frame has quite an interesting mix of construction techniques. First, it has a mix of 40T, 30T and T700 Toray carbon fibers. All that’s woven and formed using TWT (Triple Wall Technology) where three separate walls are molded together, creating a tube with a central wall running lengthwise to stiffen it up.

2012 Bianchi Methanol 29 SL carbon fiber 29er hardtail mountain bike

From there, they run external carbon reinforcement tubes around the headtube and along the top- and downtubes to further reinforce the structure. Bianchi says this makes the frame incredibly laterally stiff and efficient.

2012 Bianchi Methanol 29 SL carbon fiber 29er hardtail mountain bike

Just visible here at the top is the Ti-Net titanium mesh that’s bonded to the bottom of the downtube to improve impact resistance. The Methanol uses an integrated seatmast, but it’s perfectly round and maintains a 31.6mm inside diameter so you can always cut it down and insert a standard seatpost if you want.

2012 Bianchi Methanol 29 SL carbon fiber 29er hardtail mountain bike

The seatstays and chainstays are shaped to provide a bit of suspension without weaking the lateral stability. They’re woven with glass fibers in the carbon to reduce vibrations. The chainstays are asymmetrical to help keep a tight wheelbase and accommodate smaller gears typically run with 29ers. Dropouts are full carbon fiber with post mount brakes. Build specs are no joke, either, and two different frames are available (click to enlarge):

2012 Bianchi Methanol 29 SL team carbon fiber 29er mountain bike specs

2012 Bianchi Jab 29er alloy hardtail mountain bike

The Jab 29 is the alloy version and no less shapely. The frame is a triple butted, hydroformed 7005-series aluminum with a tapered headtube and race geometry.

2012 Bianchi Jab 29er alloy hardtail mountain bike

The brake mounts are formed directly into the dropouts as one piece, which should keep things pretty rigid.

2012 Bianchi Jab 29er alloy hardtail mountain bike

The Jab’s geometry is pretty close to the Methanol, with 5mm longer chainstays and a slightly shorter ETT  and 0.5º slacker seat angle on the M and L sizes:

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15 Comments
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Archie
Archie
12 years ago

Beautiful hardtails, and the technology sounds impressive, but i’d love some integrated cabling to complement the look 🙁

quinn
quinn
12 years ago

You guy REALLY need to start checking your facts. Bianchi was in the 29er game a few yrs ago. With the Sok

Joel
Joel
12 years ago
me thats who
me thats who
12 years ago

this is quickly becoming the fox news of bike blogs! check facts? who does that? you guys have gotten real sloppy lately

John
John
12 years ago

I agree with quinn. I ride the Bianchi Sok 29er. It’s a fine piece of machinery. It does seem that Bianchi did a few more things right on these new models. The biggest drawback on the Sock is the rear wheel clearance, I can’t tell for sure but it looks like these models suffer the same issue.

Gilhooley
Gilhooley
12 years ago

Ever heard of Bianchi Rita and Sok 29ers ?
Well, look them up !!
Bianchi was in the 29er game way, way before other companies.

Uri
Uri
12 years ago

I interpreted that sentence as ” first ever 29er mountain bikes from Europe” i.e. not Yeager designed US market specific ones. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think that’s accurate.

@me thats who

Some of us don’t really care about your political views and don’t care to hear about them on an article about bikes, k?

Matt
Matt
12 years ago

Sorry kids, those aren’t being imported into the States. Seems like that would have been relevant info to include in the story.

me thats who
me thats who
12 years ago

uri – for the record my statement had nothing to do with politics. i mentioned a cable news network. if you automatically associate politics when i mention a news source there may be something wrong with your politics or choice of news outlets. purley stating that there has been a trend here on Rumor of shoddy fact checking. when your readers know their tech/specifics better than the folks writing it there is a problem

Mark Adam
Mark Adam
12 years ago

Tyler- Don’t be too hurt. These guys need to quit trolling and get out and ride some more. I know how difficult it is to relay info from the big shows, first hand…and I think you’re doing a great job especially considering you’re putting out more info than a lot of “competing” sites.

Keep up the good work.

Russ Morin
Russ Morin
12 years ago

I agree. Good job guys I have always enjoyed reading your site, and find it extremely accurate. It did state at the beginning that this was referring to Europe.

Before you accuse people of not checking facts, make sure you can read. And don’t get so mad; it’s called “bikerumor” not “bikefact”

And shame on you -me thats who- for making stupid analogies.

Jones
Jones
12 years ago
me thats who
me thats who
12 years ago

fact – i work in the industry (not in a bike shop)
fact – i have worked for “these kind of sites” before
fact – i actually know these guys and enjoy playing a bit
fact – people need to not get so “riled up” about stupid analogies

remember we ride bikes because they are fun and should be taken a little less seriously

Russ Morin
Russ Morin
12 years ago

4 whole facts! Whooowwww slow down there Susan thats some fancy fact throwing.

Individually labeled “fact” as well. Thats extra effective in relaying their importance!

I ride bikes for fun too, but I do not understand why to take them less seriously. You mean have a good time on them? Wait a second your trying to bamboozle me…. Good ol bait and switch.

You were the “serious” one here, when really you just didn’t read the whole post. So really I think your confused as to what your even trying to say here. Regardless to wether you know the people who do these posts, people felt you were a jerk and jumped in to say “hey jerk” cut it out.

I prescribe to you more bicycle riding since it is fun. Maybe you will become less cranky. I do not think you really know the columnists (if that would be the correct term here) because if you did you would text them your “easy to confuse with jerk-ish” jokes/ analogies and not put them on a website they work so hard on.

Totally unrelated from everything, but since you mentioned you work in the industry (as do I) you should try taking bikes more seriously. Hey maybe you will find more success. Ahhh never mind thats just crazy talk. Taking something that represents your job seriously? Nahhh not Mr. Fact, he knows people.

I hope you enjoyed my very UNSERIOUS rhetoric

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