Bianchi Arcadex review: How stiff should your gravel bike be
Its a strange beast, the Bianchi Arcadex. It is perhaps the stiffest gravel bike Ive ever ridden. It has design cues straight off the most hardedged aero road frames. Bianchi uses the word sculpted to describe its various shapes and edges and references highspeed bikepacking as a potential use case. It looks like it wants to be aggressive and it rides like it wants to go fast, but the fit is incredibly short, with frontcenter figures two to three centimeters shorter than equivalent bikes from other brands, so the overall effect is that of an angular supercar thats just been run headfirst into a wall. I do not love the Bianchi Arcadex. You can probably tell. Which is a bit sad for me, personally, as Bianchi has historically made a number of my Top Ten Best Bikes the Specialissima remains almost untouchably good, and the gravellite Impulso doesnt leave much to complain about. But with this one, the mark was missed. Our Field Test group bike tests are by no means paid events, but theyre still
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