Ducati Corse by Bianchi Road Bike -Medium

It actually looks cool.  Italian red with white accents on the handlebar wraps and saddle.  It's not the lightest road bike out there tipping the scales at 8.82kg (19.44 lbs).  It's only 454g (1 lbs) lighter than my Ellsworth Enlightenment 26 mountain bike.

Disclaimer : I'm not a roadie.  That's not meant to be derogatory.  Just a statement of fact.  I wouldn't know how a proper road bike should handle or feel.  What I have here though are my first impressions from the point of view of a mountain biker.  I haven't been on a road bike since middle school, and that's almost 30 years ago!

The first thing I noticed which wasn't surprising was just how much of the road you feel.  Every small bump is translated to a teeth jarring experience.  You also need to know exactly where you place those tires.  I can just imagine accidentally slipping the tires into a crack on the road running parallel to your bike.  Rumble strips are also particularly nasty as they shake the entire bike and rider for a while.  Now I know why road bikes avoid them like the plague.

Still on feel; it was extremely twitchy and made me feel like I needed to have both hands on the handlebar at all times or risk face planting on the pavement.  It certainly felt very excitable from your first pedal strokes and while you're riding.  To be honest, I think the geometry is off for me on this demo bike.  I had to adjust the saddle down by a few millimeters.  But more importantly, I found the top tube to be a fraction short.  I could see the front hubs which means my head was forward past the handlebar.  This am sure contributed to the twitchy feeling as well.

I placed my hands on top of the brakes/gear shifters as instructed which seems like the only logical place to place them.  Holding the handlebar under the bar just behind the brakes felt odd and holding on the top of the bar was ok but not when you have traffic and pedestrians to negotiate it took too long to reach for the brakes.  The fleshly part of my palm just below my thumb immediately began to feel the brunt of my weight and hence I had to adjust my body position to put more weight on the back.

Squeezing the brakes from this prescribed position gives you an acceptable grip on the shifters and a little less grip on the brake levers.  I miss the solid feel of having one finger on a lever that actuates a hydraulic brake.  Knowing this, I had to brake sooner rather than my normal braking points.

Yet another annoyance in feel is the fact that my toes get caught by the front tire if I turn them.  I know - I know, I'm not supposed to turn the bike, I should lean it.  But I still manage to do this a lot when I start from a standstill.  Charge this to my inexperience I guess.

Shifting feel is ultra smooth which to be honest was exactly what I expected from Shimano's top of the line drivetrain.  So nothing new here.  Maybe it shifted smoother than my XTRs even.  Maybe...

SPEED - is the name of the game for this bike though.  And this bike has loads of it in store with much more to spare.  Cruising at 35 kph can be had without much fanfare and averaging 40 kph on the flats is easily doable and can be maintained without fuss.  On the big ring / small cog combo (i.e. high gear) this bike can really stretch its legs some.  I can now see how road bikes can whiz by me in long stretches of flat roads.