Bianchi E-Road
Bianchi Aria E-Road
These bikes are actually time machines.
They don’t go into the future but a Bianchi E-Road will transport you backwards in time by twenty years.
Remember how fast you were twenty years ago? Remember taking on 60-mile rides, not having touched your bike in the preceding two weeks? Remember being able to do lots of random activities on a Sunday afternoon (without complaining about your knees) even though you did 45 fast miles in the morning? If you enjoyed riding a road bike back then, throw a leg over an electric Bianchi and hit the button on the top tube so you can relive the experience.
How does Bianchi do it? They put a 250-watt Mahle hub motor on a couple of models and stuff a bunch of batteries inside one of their carbon fiber aero framesets. They outfit the bike with Vittoria tires, Shimano Ultegra or 105 Di2 components including hydraulic disc brakes (we didn’t have those twenty years ago!), Vision aero wheels and cockpit components made by FSA.
Assist level indicator and state of charge in one button
Charging port
Fairly discrete 250 watt motor
The system can be operated simply with the single button on the top tube (toggle through low, medium and high settings with a colored LED to show state of charge) or the motor can be controlled via an app on your phone or Garmin computer. You can customize the assist system, providing a little bit of help or a lot. You can even program it by doctor’s orders: setting the motor to kick in whenever your heart rate reaches a certain threshold.
These are fun bikes. I ride the pictured E-Aria, which is a couple of model years old now. The new versions are based on the Oltre carbon bike (so very similar to this Aria) and the aluminum Impulso model. These aren’t 65-pound mopeds with wheelbarrow tires. These are high-performance road bikes that rides well with or without the motor turned on. They handle great, look like a bike should look and weigh less than 25 pounds.
Note: These bikes are not recommended for riders under the age of thirty as twenty years of time travel might actually require the use of a tricycle or training wheels.