New E-Bike

 Plastic, electric, hydraulic...oh my!

Heather poses with her new bike

But electronic it's not! Zio Lorenzo (her personal mechanic) drew the line there. He's already grudgingly accepted Shimano vs Campagnolo, hydraulic disc braking and electric assist (same as her E-Impulso gravel bike) and now carbon-fiber construction on this Bianchi E-Aria, but Di2 was a bridge too far!

So when it was noted that cable-operated systems on just about everything Shimano were being ditched, it was time to grab one of these before they were all gone.

We waited too long for that but luckily found a barely-used one at a hefty discount off the MSRP. The seller forget to include the charger but luckily the one for the other bike plugs right in.

This one's much more responsive with true roadracing geometry rather than the long and slow handling frame design of the gravel bike. That one, named "Buzz" (as in Lightyear) will stick around for unpaved road rides while "Fausto" (shown above) will get the nod for what passes for asphalt here in Sicily. The lighter weight's a nice bonus as the all-up, ready-to-ride (bottle cages, seatpack, pedals, etc.) weight of "Buzz" is up around 35 lbs while "Fausto" is down to barely 28.

Now all Zio has to do is finish getting the noise and drag out of the brakes (oh, for the daze you just had to make sure the pads were toed-in and the rims were clean....grrrrr) and find a set of handlebars the rider likes and we're good to go! Zio even took it for a short test ride and thought if he ever needed an e-bike he'd try to find another one of these for himself.

Meanwhile, we can take more time on a custom Favaloro e-bike project idea, one with Campagnolo and traditional brakes.