15 Bizarre Facts About Bianchi

Bianchi have made some of the most beautiful bikes you've ever seen in your life. And they've also made this. To some people's horror. Although I think it's growing on me. Today we're going to learn some weird facts about Bianchi. First up, Bianchi are the oldest bike brand in the world still in business. Or are they? There's some beef here. Founded in 1885 by a man named Edoardo Bianchi in Milan, they were one of the first brands to introduce bicycles with equal-sized wheels and pneumatic tyres, like we have today. The official Guinness World Record for oldest bike brand, however, is held by Pearson, a small English company from Sutton. They opened their doors in 1860. But there's a catch. Pearson, as a business, predates Bianchi. But Bianchi started making bicycles before Pearson became a dedicated bike manufacturer. Pearson was a blacksmith first. And sure, they did some bike repairs. But they weren't manufacturing bikes until 1889, four years after Bianchi. So who should really own the record? You tell me. Did you know nobody can agree on the origins of their iconic celeste paint? The greeny-blue colour paint you'll find on a lot of their bikes today has multiple origin stories. Some say it's inspired by the Milan sky. Some say it was made accidentally from surplus military paint mixed with white. And some say it was custom-made for Queen Margherita of Italy. But even Bianchi admit they haven't got a clue. Did you also know celeste isn't even a fixed Pantone? It changes all the time. From pale mint to deep turquoise, depending on the lighting, paint batches and even marketing trends. It does always look pretty good though, doesn't it? They also made a car. Or a few cars, actually. Otto Bianchi was an Italian automobile company founded in 1955 as a joint venture between Bianchi, Pirelli, the tyre manufacturer, and Fiat, the existing car brand who provided most of the mechanical components for this venture. Its purpose was to build small, innovative cars. Think of it as Fiat's creative lab for more expensive, unusual cars. Most of them were the opposite of existing Fiats which were optimised for cost. The Otto Bianchis were frivolous and premium. And yeah, of course, there was a Celeste one. Look how sweet it is! In 1995, the brand was folded into Lancia and Otto Bianchi was no more. It might have been short-lived, but its legacy lives on in the small cars that we see today. On the topic of cars, they had another collab. With Ferrari. In 2017, they announced their collaboration and then soon after, the SF01 came out. A Ferrari red looking bike. It was basically a specialissima. One of their existing models with a bunch of custom components. Lovely paint scheme, a 780g frameset, nice, a 94g Ferrari custom saddle. Cool. The same carbon that they use in Ferrari cars! Amazing! All for the price of 18,000 euros. You know, that doesn't actually sound that much based on some of the bikes that are coming out now. They must have sold a few. Because recently, they spent 40 million euros building a new production facility in Italy. The work started in 2021 and from their own article, they say the project seeks to reaffirm the value made in Italy and the proud history associated with that phrase. The new Bianchi will extend over an area of 30,000 square metres, of which more than 17,000 will be dedicated to bike production. The production has a goal of 1,000 pieces per shift at full capacity. The production of carbon fibre frames in this plant will begin in 2023. Now some of you will know that 2023 has already happened, but are there frames being made in Italy now? Annoyingly, I haven't been able to work it out. With the exception of a few smaller Artisan builders and Basso, apparently, the majority of carbon frames being sold by Italian bike companies are produced in Taiwan or China, along with almost every other mass-produced bike. This isn't a bad thing, the factory workers are extremely skilled and experienced at working with carbon, but of course some will prefer a bike made closer to home. So Bianchi claiming to be moving carbon frame production back to Europe is a pretty big deal. And when I say carbon frame production, I mean real fabrication of the carbon frame itself, not just bolting on parts in a production line. People love an Italian-made frame, but is this true? I hope we'll find out over the next few months. Did you know that Bianchi isn't owned by the Bianchi family anymore? Things haven't always been plain sailing. They did really well early on. They made a bike for the Queen, made a motorised bike, sponsored road races, made bikes for the military, and after the Second World War ended, supported legend Fausto Coppi, a pro cyclist who rode a Celeste Bianchi to multiple Giro d'Italia wins and Tour de France victories. Unfortunately, after this era, they did start to struggle financially. By the 60s, they were deep into making motorbikes and cars, two sectors which were in decline. This is like the Cannondale video all over again, isn't it? Maybe if you're a bike brand tempted to delve into motorbikes and cars, don't. By the late 1960s, Bianchi ceased production of motorcycles and refocused solely on bicycles, probably a sensible move. Eventually, Asian manufacturers emerged with lower production costs and modern materials. Then came carbon bike frames and mountain bikes and aggressive mass market pricing. Bianchi needed some help. In 1997, Cycle Europe AB, a Swedish bicycle group owned by Grimaldi Industries, acquired Bianchi. With a whole lot more money at their disposal, they're still live and kicking, as you've probably guessed by, well, all of the previous stuff that I've told you in this video. They also sponsor world tour road racing team Arkea B&B Hotels and have just released this. Marco Pantani-inspired Specialissima. And it's only €15,000. Hey, it's cheaper than the Ferrari bike, isn't it? Speaking of ludicrously expensive bikes, some of their higher-end models have a special ingredient, something they call countervail or CV in their marketing currently. It's a material technology initially developed for NASA to reduce vibrations and fatigue in aerospace applications. It's now found its way into consumer products like tennis rackets and, well, bikes. It's a mix of viscoelastic material within the carbon used in their frames. The idea is to create a smoother ride without traditional suspension, something we've seen a few bike brands attempt in different ways. You had Specialized Roubaix with the Zertz insert rubber things and then Wilier have done it a few times. They do Gran Turismo at the moment with Activeflex 2.0. Does it work? No idea. But Reddit seems to think so. In fact, if you've got one of these bikes, I would love to know. Funnily enough, the absolute top-end Ultra that they make at the moment doesn't have countervail and one rung down from that does have countervail. Same model of bike, same shape frame. I'd love to ride two back-to-back to see if it really makes a difference. Obviously, the top-end athletes with the super, super high-end one don't want a squashier ride for racing. Maybe it affects the stiffness of the frame? I don't know, but I'd love to ride one. Anyway, I'm sure we'll see more suspension that's not suspension in road bikes over the next few years. I'm key. How did you know they've been in a bunch of lawsuits? I feel like I have to include this section just to be fair to the other brands we've made these videos on that were full of lawsuits. In Bianchi's case, they seem to have some sort of fork curse. In 1990, approximately 1,600 Bianchi Randonneur bikes were recalled due to a risk of front fork cracking. There was at least three incidents with broken bones. Bianchi replaced all the defective forks free of charge. In 2013, KTKL, a law firm, filed suit over a carbon fork failure that caused a geezer to crash following a broken clavicle and a pulmonary embolism. It was settled for $1 million. 2015, there was another serious crash at Velothon Wales, a £1 million lawsuit in the UK. Bianchi admitted liability, but there's currently a dispute around the settlement amount. 2017, there was a voluntary recall of forks on select Infinito and Intenso models. Rim brake versions only. Owners were told to immediately stop riding the affected bikes and to contact dealers for a free fork replacement. And in 2020, another carbon fork failure led to severe injuries to a customer, including concussion, facial lacerations, and fractured vertebrae. As of now, the case is still ongoing. Now, all of this sounds really scary, but after having made a few of these types of videos, it's evident that bikes go wrong and there's a whole lot of recalls in the industry from so many brands. Just maybe check your second-hand Bianchi rim brake bikes from 2017 to see if the recall has actually been done. Now, I don't want to end on a negative. Did you know Bianchi used to make a folding bike? No, not like that. Like this. A bike for the military. A steel frame that literally folds in half. Easier to transport and store for the Italian army. It was one of the first full suspension bikes in the world as well, and made in 1913. Mental. What's wild is that the first full suspension bike was called the Whippet. This has nothing to do with Bianchi, but it's pretty cool. It was introduced in 1885 and didn't even have pneumatic tyres. I guess they were doing anything they could to try and make a bike without normal tyres ride smooth. Bianchi then later experimented with lots of different types of suspension. A lot of it focused around Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, and the cobbled races. Like this racing bike from 1993 with a suspension stem. Johan Maceo's bike from 1994 with both front and rear suspension, specifically made for Paris-Roubaix. And finally, this 1995 machine with a different variation of rear shock. Right, how many facts was that? There's a lot of cool history there, and some cool current stuff too. It's nice to see them still racing in the world tour with Arkea B&B right now. I hope you enjoyed this video. Let us know who we should do next.