The Bianchi Story...

Bianchi is the world's oldest bicycle manufacturing company still in existence. Their origin can be traced back to Milan in 1885, where the 21 year old Edoardo Bianchi started his little bike manufacturing shop. His love for cycling gave him the impetus to work at reinventing both the sport and the bicycle as well. It was Edoardo Bianchi who came up with the invention of reducing the diameter of the front wheel and balancing the gap in the motion by using a chain. He also lowered the height of the pedals, which created one of the very first modern "safety" bicycles. These were safer and easier to balance, thus making the bicycle a means of transportation.  



In 1888, he produced the first bicycle with tyres, a recent invention by the Scottish veterinary Dunlop. When his fame reached Queen Margaret in 1895, she invited him to her court and expressed her desire to ride his bicycle. To commemorate the occasion Bianchi created a bicycle for the her, which went on to  become one of the first prototypes of a ladies bicycle. He was rewarded by being permitted to use the royal crown insignia on the company logo, where it can still be seen today.

The Bianchi Company took off with their first international sport success in 1899, when Tomaselli won the Grand Prix de la Ville de Paris riding their bicycle. From 1900 to the 1920s, Bianchi presented the first bicycle ever featuring a cardan joint transmission; invented the front braking system and made bicycles specific to the army, which were equipped with wide-section tyres, folding frame and suspensions on both wheels. The Royal Light Infantry Corp used the “Bersaglieri” as an off-road vehicle from the Alps to Africa and in fact, it was  the first mountain bike, the ancestor of all the modern versions. 



From the 1920s to 1935, Bianchi's 'celeste' bicycle was winning races all around the world. The first great champion to be associated with the brand was Costante Girardengo – widely considered as one of the greatest road racers in the history of the sport and at the time said to be more popular than Mussolini. From 1935 to 1995,  the Bianchi Company was being associated with the Tour de France and many of the top racers of the time, including Fausto Coppi, Felice Gimondi, Moreno Argentin and Gianni Bugno. Today, F.I.V. Bianchi is part of a group called Cycleurope, a Swedish company of the Grimaldi group known worldwide, which they became a part of in May 1997.

By the way, an interesting fact about the Bianchi bicycles is their colour. The very first Bianchi bicycles created by Edoardo Bianchi, all came in the same color - celeste green, also known as sky blue, light azure or Tiffany blue. It resembles a very light shade of turquoise and is universally acknowledged as the Bianchi color.

Laser Lite Lane: A Tail Light with Lasers

3-Mode 4-LED Red Laser Bicycle Cycling Rear Tail Light 

First, the good news - there's more visibility available for the 'nite riders' with the new bike tail lights that work by projecting two red laser beams onto the ground on either side of the bike. The width of the "lane" can be roughly between two to four feet depending on how the lite is angled from under your seat post. You can choose from two modes, steady lines or flashing beams. It also includes a conventional LED that has three flashing modes.

Now, if you are wondering about how the laser tail light is different from any regular tail light, let me answer that for you. For one, the illumination of the red laser lane clearly marks a space or boundary between the cyclist and any vehicle that's coming from behind and helps them to pass the cyclist more safely at night. Also, it marks a safe following distance for the other cyclists. 

However, should that make the cyclist feel completely safe? Now, this is where the concern steps in, as what tends to happen with add on safety aids is that the cyclists start to get complacent. They feel that since they are riding with something like a laser lite lane marker for instance, they are visible for miles around and so they drop their guard. Well, while the visibility of the cyclist does increase for the vehicles that are following a short distance away, it's not so in the case of the vehicles that are far behind or those that are immediately upon them. Also, let's not forget that the drivers look up at the traffic in front of them and not down at the road where the lasers lines are being illuminated. 

My take on the laser tail light is that it's a good add on safety aid that improves the visibility for cyclists at night. However, it should not make the cyclists forget any of the safety precautions, which include following the traffic rules along with the essentials of wearing a reflective vest, a helmet with a reflective strip and a good headlight while riding at night.

Re-biking!

It all started a couple of years ago when I started to feel cooped up and stifled due to always having to be indoors in the three years of urban living, Be it home, work or leisure, none seemed to facilitate being outdoors, at least not in the way I defined it. I had tried going for walks, but the experience of going round and round on narrow walkers' paths in neighboring gardens felt too much like being a laboratory rat in a maze experiment. The gymn as an option was effectively excluded since the operative word was "outdoors". There was swimming, but  it was only for about four months and that too in chock-a-block full swimming pools in surreal shapes of kidneys and sun signs!

I think it was around my birthday that year when I started toying with the idea of cycling. It had been my favorite childhood sport and seemed simple enough to take up again, The decisive moment came at a friend's dinner where I met a couple, Anju and Yogen. who are passionate cycling enthusiasts. It was inspirational talking to Anju, as she encouraged me to go for it and motivated me by saying that if she could do it, then so could I. That was like a shot in the arm  and gave me fresh impetus to put my deliberations into action. I reckoned that all I needed was to: 1.Buy myself a decent cycle; 2.Find open area to cycle around, 3.Find some company to cycle with.So, I started out with Step 1 which took me to the local bike shop, but the mind boggling variety of bikes and price tags had my head spinning. Whoa! when had this happened? The last bike that I had, had been a snazzy green BSA that had sported  nifty brake cables. Ok, so this was going to need extensive research I realised. I decided to move on to Step 2 - where would I ride? The traffic on the roads was a killer even when I was inside the relatively safe confines of my car...being on a bike seemed to be virtual harakiri! That sobering thought made me pop the question to the bike shop assistant, where did the people who bought these cycles ride? Voila came Step 3 as he gave me the contact details of a local cycling group. 

Cheers to Re-biking!

The same evening.  I called the cycling group's admin, Anuj, who patiently addressed all my queries and concerns. He told me to come for a beginners ride where a guest bike would be provided to me. 10 days later I turned up for the ride, feeling apprehensive like hell about being able to manage much after a hiatus of 15 years. And one look at the pro cyclist appearance of the others did nothing to inspire my confidence. There they were, Lycra-ed  helmeted and gloved with a 'I'm-going-to-burn-the-road-today' look, while I stood with a very 'what-the-hell-am-I-thinking' look! At that moment, all I wanted was to just disappear and I guess they sensed it because they rallied around to reassure me that  I'd be fine and that they'd be watching over me.

To cut the 17 long km story short, I managed to reach the finish point on my first ride. The legs felt a little unsteady and the posterior somewhat numb as I got off the saddle, but I felt absolutely great!  The follow up ride came three days later, which proved to be the defining point. In hindsight, I can't thank my mentors, Anuj and Arun, enough for rooking me into believing that it was going to be an easy pace ride instead of the bone-shaker, teeth-rattler, bum-breaker 30 km off roader! The confidence that came from this ride is what set me off on my cyclist avatar and motivated me to invest in a bike. The how-to-buy-your-first-bike is a topic for another day, for now, I'll just say that I bought my first MTB, and there's been no looking back ever since.