What The Forbes 2013 Buyer's Guide Didn't Tell You

While some people looking to purchase a new bike will check out the Forbes 2013 buyer guide first, they should know that it doesn't list many great bikes that are definitely worth checking out. Though it highlights big name brands such as Cannondale that have massive amounts of funds to spend on marketing, there are other brands like Bianchi, KHS, Intense, Norco and Litespeed that are leaps and bounds ahead of the rest in terms of quality, trends, and technology. Below we have listed some of the great things about Bianchi, Litespeed and Intense bikes that you might otherwise been unaware of.

What The Forbes 2013 Buyer's Guide Didn't Tell You

Bianchi

Bianchi is the oldest bicycle manufacturing company in the world, and this year it will be celebrating its 125th anniversary. A new contract has recently been signed with Vitesse, an Italy-based communication and marketing agency, and they are on track to produce many special anniversary products that will be available soon.

Countervail

Bianchi worked with Materials Sciences Corp. to grow our innovative and exclusive function of the patented Countervail integrated vibration canceling system for cycling. And what resulted was the new Bianchi Infinito CV. The Countervail carbon material has been proven in the extreme conditions of NASA aerospace operations, and has patented carbon fiber architecture and viscoelastic material, embedded within its unique Infinto CV carbon layup. This cancels out vibration, while increasing the solidity and endurance of the entire frame.

Some of the advantages of this are maximized ride control and handling under normal to extreme vibration loads, a reduction in muscle fatigue, increased energy savings on long rides, and a rise in stiffness and top power output over longer distances.

X-TeX - Cross Weave

This is the unique process where carbon strips are molded into the carbon structure of the head tube and the bottom bracket area. This helps to provide an increase in torsional firmness and a reduction in weight, and it also helps the rider achieve the highest level of acceleration and steering response available in a frame.

THT - Triple Hydroformed Technology

This amazing technology is utilized at the top tube and head tube, and the tubes are welded together once initial hydroforming is complete, and then inserted into another mold, which is then reshaped with the same process. This provides a nice visual appearance while increasing the endurance and steering response of the frame.

BAT and K-VID

You may be wondering what those weird acronyms stand for. Bianchi Active Technology and Kevlar Vibration Isolating Device, allow the frame and fork to be tuned to stiffness and compliance. And the incorporation of BAT for the rear triangle and K-Vid for the fork and seat stay tips, along with the improved shock absorption and wheel adherence on the road all makes for a great and comfortable ride.

The Ultra Thin Seat Stay, or UTSS, also helps with increased shock absorption, as well as impact resistance and reduced frame weight.

Litespeed

From an early innovator in titanium with meek roots, Litespeed has evolved into a worldwide lifestyle and race brand and leader in both titanium and composite technology globally. It was established in 1986 with early beginnings as a machine shop that manufactures custom metal parts. Though titanium was considered to be an exotic material at the time, many people did not think of it as a material that you could build bike frames from. But in the late 80's, Merlin and Litespeed changed perceptions of this metal all over the world when they created their first modern titanium frame. Since it was the end of the Cold War, alloys were now suddenly available and no longer on restriction from use in the nuclear and aviation industries. Once people saw what they could do, interest in titanium as a viable material for bike-building grew. Litespeed used titanium to produce bikes that were both strong and lightweight, that had a ride quality unparalleled anywhere else in the industry.

While attempting to capture free speed with a carbon road bicycle design, Litespeed formulated the principle of AeroLogic. This is the combination of aerodynamic elements with the design of the frame without having excess weight as a consequence. AeroLogic is the result of many years of dedicated planning and development, and was tested and validated during the summer of 2010 with Litespeed's C-series aero road design in Charlotte's A2 wind tunnel. Recently, it has been featured in mainstream magazines like Triathlete Magazine, confirming that the so-called aero road bikes have quite a bit of aerodynamic advantage over their non-aero, round-tube counterparts. There are quite a few features included in the design of every Litespeed Archon C-series frame.

Added Benefits

Litespeed's innovative design offers an integrated seat mast that has an aero trailing edge that is lighter weight than most traditional seat post and clamp, and the adjustable seat post is much more aerodynamic than round seat posts. The bikes have a unique shrouded water bottle mount, and all the tube cross sections are tuned to be totally functional, efficient, and aero when possible. The morphed seat shaping allows for aero use, and the proprietary carbon fork is bladed and bowed to permit clean airflow over the front wheel.

So according to the A2 wind tunnel test, the way that the C-series is styled will reduce the average aero wattage by more than 20 watts, as compared to a traditional, non-aero bike. Across all yaw angles, that is a 16% benefit. What that means for the rider is a huge savings in energy based solely on the design of the frame.

Reactive Pressure Molding

RPM is a high tech method of molding that is utilized during the production of Litespeed's newest composite frames. Some of the benefits of this are weight reduction, increased stiffness, and improved durability. RPM allows control of the internal structure and wall thickness to be more precise during production. This advanced process makes it possible to design elements far beyond anything that could be reached with traditional bladder molding, and it features things like an all-carbon head tube, that is compatible with a multitude of AeroLogic aerodynamic elements.

Intense Cycles

Intense Cycles is an elite mountain bike frame builder from Temecula, California known for it’s high end fullsuspension racing mountain bikes. Known on the race circuits since 1999 as one of the best mountain bikes around and famous for their ‘handmade in the US’ alloy bikes which carry many technical advantages over the mainstream Taiwanese mountain bikes from Cannondale, Specialized and Trek. Since 2001 Intense makes also carbon fiber mountain bikes and is most famous for the production of the Carbine 27.5 and the Tracer T27.5 Carbon which won several “Best Trail Bike 2013/14” awards from several mountain bike magazines. Intense Cycles are elite frames, race tested on the world cup and recently joined by downhill champ Brian Lopes, who won first place during the Sea Otter Classics on his Intense Tracer T275 Carbon in 2014.