![A purple Raleigh Chopper Mk2 owned by Nigel Bradley outside the Bike Hub in Newcastle Quayside](https://mike-the-bike.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IMG_2580-768x1024.jpeg)
I’ve had a few bikes in my time, from the iconic Raleigh Chopper (Mk2) and a road (racing!) bike my Dad put together out of parts from the local skip (think municipal recycling center) – I called this bike ‘Frankenstein’ and, although it looked awful, it was a pretty cool machine that got me to parties and to see girlfriends at the weekend when I was in 6th Form, at a school a few miles from where I lived (Old Burfordians – you rock!) – it was also pretty fast but cost me a fortune in batteries for the lights – they weren’t pretty, or efficient, or light for that matter! It was also in the days before really effective deodorants…..I’ll leave that one with you…
![Heavy inefficient lamps showing two retro bicycle lights or lamps from British Ever Ready circa 1975. One front light and one back light in cream plastic. The back light has a large red lens.](https://mike-the-bike.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/retro-bike-lights.png)
Then, decades later in 2008, when I got selected to got to Canada on the Joint Command and Staff Course, I decided I needed a bike to ride the 5 miles from my home to the campus, in Toronto. Now, no-one told me how bad the winters got in Toronto….I should have invested in a snowplough…. Anyway, instead, I bought a Kona hybrid bike, along with a rear rack and panniers. It is heavy and although was top quality for the time, I found it hard to ride and was forever getting shoulder injuries from it (probably from carrying it in the snow… I now know the importance of bike ‘fit’ -more on that later) I estimate I’ve ridden less than 150 miles on that bike! Looked nice though! It’s still in the garage, unused and unloved 🙁
![Kona Dew Deluxe bike model year 2008](https://mike-the-bike.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Kona-Dew-Deluxe-2008-1024x611.png)
Fast forward 10 years…. Now I’m living at the coast in the beautiful North East of England and my workplace is a tantalizing 11-mile commute. I’m getting fatter and lazier at my sedentary job so I take up cycling and long-distance open-water swimming. That decision in and of itself is a strange one to rationalize; at the time, I’m overweight, under-confident and I chose sports that encouraged me to wear extraordinarily, and in my case, really unsightly, tight lycra and rubber…. Anyway, I digress. My mate Marc, of whom you will read more in other posts, helped me pick my first ‘posh’ bike. It is a Cannondale CAADX – a thing of beauty, made from Aluminium, resplendent in Battleship Grey livery, and equipped with a Shimano 105 groupset (I didn’t know what a groupset was at the time, nor the importance of frame size and weight) – it took me a while to find the gear shifters (make some noise if you’ve had that problem on returning to cycling after a while- sometimes I still look down to the frame for those levers!) Luckily Marc, and Alex from Start Cycles in Newcastle, were on hand to advise me – thanks both! It was on this fabulous bit of engineering that I began my love affair with cycling.
![The author wearing Rapha gear on his Cannondale CAADX cyclocross bike in a lane near Keswick in the Lake District, England, UK. The author rides triumphantly with his right hand pumping the air.](https://mike-the-bike.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/3aab4a04-0bb9-4a8d-b611-b85b64f0cbe7.jpeg)
Less than a few months later, I am signed up for my first sportive – the Great North Bike ride – it’s windy, and grey, showers are forecast, so naturally I place my wife’s showercap over my helmet.. it gets a few laughs and gives me a neck strain – it’s not an aerodynamic choice! Well, it’s on this ride that I see, in the flesh, for the first time, the carbon road bike – truly achingly beautiful things. I have to thank my pal Adam Lambert (no, not the rock star, though Adam was a star that day!) for stepping up to the plate and doing the ride with me as Marc had to pull out at short notice – nothing to do with the weather forecast, eh Marc? So, having seen these race thoroughbreds on the road (albeit largely as they overtook me!) I start planning how to show that I ‘need’ one of these bikes. Now, that Christmas my wife made the mistake of buying me a subscription to a bike magazine. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, right?
![The author and Adam taking a short break during the 2018 Great North Ride Sportive. There are other bikes and cyclists in the background](https://mike-the-bike.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/5938e21f-42e0-4e4a-a692-04e14cbdeb8a-768x1024.jpeg)
So, from Christmas to Easter, I planned the bike of my dreams.. From reading the magazines, I understand about weight, geometry, endurance v sprints, tailpacks, tyres (tubeless and tubed), carbon wheels and blades, and am now pretty much au fait with every major bike brand out there. However, no matter what research I did, or how many ‘best bikes of 2019’ I read, I kept coming back to one brand…. Bianchi – oh my word do they build pretty bikes!! So, the task in hand was to build my list of requirements around that stylish, elegant, Italian brand!
I decided I needed an Ultegra groupset, and was pretty fixed on a disc braked frame. But these cost upwards of £4000, which was an ask even I wasn’t brave enough for! Eventually though, after weeks of online research, I found a bike with Start Cycles – a Bianchi Infinito CV (non-disc) Shimano 105, 2018 model and managed to negotiate a price close to £2300, including an Ultegra upgrade – given that I knew I could get close to £100 for the 105 groupset on ebay, £2200 was a much more palatable sell to Mrs M! In early April 2019, I became the proud owner of this beauty!
![Bianchi road bicycle with matching helmet hanging from handlebars](https://mike-the-bike.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IMG_4557-768x1024.jpeg)
![Bianchi infinito CV Ultegra roadbike with matching helmet hanging from handlebars](https://mike-the-bike.com//wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IMG_4557-768x1024.jpeg)
I took Marc’s advice and had a bike fitting and since then my Bianchi and I are one unit! We’ve done the Great North Bike Ride, Christy’s Manchester to Blackpool ride and my charity ride from London to Amsterdam together. It is simply a joy to ride and I can spend all day in the saddle with no aches, pains or twinges – it’s a perfect sportive and endurance bike – V (counter-vail technology really smooths out the bumps and makes for a taut and responsive, yet comfortable ride) – but of course, it is limited to road use. So, now the hunt is on for a perfect gravel bike for days bashing around the forests and lake paths of Northumberland! Watch this space!