Aren't these beautiful??

[salsabike]

Um...the Eros Donna has some Campy components. And at least here in a city built on hills, I wouldn't want a bike without a triple. Those things can always get changed out, anyway, if you wish.

[Bad JuJu]

Yes, the Eros Donna is still steel. And it looks great!

[indysteel]

Regina, you took the words out of my mouth. It irritates me that Bianchi and several other manufacturers outfit their WSD bikes with lower-end components, as if women have no need or desire for the high-end stuff. I ran into that problem when I bought my Eros Donna. My solution was to swap out the brifters and rear derailleur for Veloce. I would still like to change out the brakes and crank though. I would have just purchased the Veloce if they'd been able to snag my size without a significant wait.

I noticed, too, that some companies price their better-speced WSD bikes higher than their comparable men's bikes. What's up with that? While I'm glad that more and more companies are paying attention to women's needs, I still feel patronized to some extent. If and when I buy another bike, I'm going to shell out the money for custom steel and get exactly what I want......

With all of that said, I still love my Eros Donna.

[Kano]

So, last night, when I was reading this forum, I clicked this link, and the window was still open, partially visible, on my screen, when DH walked by, and said I must close that window and not look at that stuff.

You'd think there were kids in the room or something!

Karen in Boise

[Bad JuJu]

Kano--Is he maybe afraid you're going to raid the family fortune to snag a new Bianchi?

[Kano]

Kano--Is he maybe afraid you're going to raid the family fortune to snag a new Bianchi?

Never mind a Bianchi -- ANY road bike has him nervous! I think he's worried that I'll be riding too fast to keep up with! OR that I'll fall off and hurt myself going fast...

It's getting scary, I have to admit -- I was cruising along on the comfort-beast this afternoon, thinking, hmmm, if my butt was just up this much higher and back this much farther, I'd be so much faster! I see it happen when I put myself where the bike doesn't want me, and of course, it's not made to let me stay there comfortably and I can see the speed drop back down as soon as my body lands back where the bike says I have to sit on it...

Karen in Boise

[HipGnosis6]

They're pretty to look at, but not one of those bikes comes in a frame size large enough for me....

[freshsushi]

So, last night, when I was reading this forum, I clicked this link, and the window was still open, partially visible, on my screen, when DH walked by, and said I must close that window and not look at that stuff.

You'd think there were kids in the room or something!

Karen in Boise

I was checking out websites for a new frame last night, and this morning DH asked me, "So how late did you stay up last night looking at bike porn?"

[xeney]

The counterpoint to the complaint about Bianchi's mix of components is that at least their WSD bikes fall into that elusive "mid-range" category. When I was looking around at various bikes last week, my husband commented that with women's bikes there is this huge gap in a lot of lines: you go from Sora/Tiagra straight to Ultegra, which makes things hard on someone trying to shop on a 105 budget.

And Bianchi seems to be phasing out Campy on all of their mid-range or lower bikes, not just the women's bikes. The only steel available with Campy this year is the Eros, and that's Mirage. It's a bummer, because the Veloce was such a nice bike and the Veloce gruppo is such a bargain. Campy Only did a great review of the 2001 Veloce triple, the group that is on my bike ... it really shifts like a dream compared to the equivalently priced Shimano. (Well, it is easier to find your front chain ring with 105, but it just takes a little practice with the Veloce. If I can do it, anyone can do it.)

[roguedog]

Regina, you took the words out of my mouth. It irritates me that Bianchi and several other manufacturers outfit their WSD bikes with lower-end components, as if women have no need or desire for the high-end stuff.

The weird thing is that Bianchi's designer for those bikes that are Reparto Corse is a woman who's based here in Hayward, Ca.