Question for Bianchi riders/enthusiasts

[ace]

Thank you guys very much. It's down to the wire- I have to decide today

I went to talk to Ian, my lbs guy who so ably fitted my Serotta. He looked up the specs for the Bianchi frames, plugged the numbers into a spreadsheet he'd set up with my target measurements, and said that even with tweaks (and me bringing my own stem, etc.), none of their frames would be comfortable for me, given my knee stuff, my neck stuff, my carpal tunnel, and my looong legs. He also pointed out that I have cheater brakes on my Serotta, and the reach on the Bianchi will be even longer- I'd be pretty stretched out. I'd have to be comfortable riding on the hoods to reach the brakes. I also LOVE the stable feeling of my Serotta. He said the Bianchi will feel less stable because of the geometry. He also reminded me that I came back in serious pain (neck, shoulders and hand) from about 5 short test rides of bikes he set up to be close to my geometry when he was fitting me.

It ain't worth the risk for me, I think. So I'm going with the hybrid. Bummer. But thanks for participating in my last minute hysteria

[michelem]

Call Jewel at CC and see if she has the info on the smaller women's bike yet. You may be able to make that one work for you.

[ace]

I don't think smaller will help- I'm not small (when I was test riding stock frames, the 53/54s worked for me), just short-torsoed. Here's the comparison btwn my Serotta and the Bianchis (that are somewhere around my size). I can't get this to really format, but the numbers for my Serotta are the 480/490/174.8/73.5/11, and the other three columns are for the Bianchi 500, 530 and 550.


Serotta 500 530 550

Seat Tube, mm 480 470 500 520
Top Tube-actual, mm 490 515 527 541
Head Tube, mm 174.8 120 135 145
Seat Tube Angle,° 73.5 74.5 74 73.5
Top Tube Slope,° 11 7 6 5