Bianchi Infinito CV

October 2013

The Bianchi Infinito CV is a comfort race bike that uses the latest carbon technology to do the vibration damping.

There have been a few different approaches to creating a more comfortable road bike, mostly inspired by manufacturers trying to win the famous Paris-Roubaix Classic. We looked at a few of them recently: the Specialized Roubaix’s Zertz inserts, the Trek Domane’s IsoLink, and the Felt’s Z Series’ special carbon lay-up.

Bianchi Infinito CV

Bianchi would appear to have pushed the envelope slightly. They claim that traditional passive damping of the frame, using rubber inserts and isolators, is only marginally effective and to seek a better solution collaborated with Materials Sciences Corporation to integrate their carbon ‘Countervail’ material into the frame.

Countervail uses a patented carbon fibre architecture and viscoelastic material to reduce road vibration. Materials Sciences Corporation describe it as a ‘composite material system that provides superior vibration damping while maintaining the structural stiffness and strength needed for many high performance applications’. It’s been proven by NASA in aerospace operations, which is pretty high performance even by our standards, but has also seen service in helicopters and in snowboards…

The main benefit for bicycle applications seems to be that there is no loss of lateral stiffness which you may get by using an insert or linkage. The Countervail carbon material is embedded within the Infinito CV’s carbon layup to cancel vibration but all the while maintaining the stiffness and strength you’d want and expect from a racing frame.

Bianchi Infinito CV head tube

We understand that for the UK the range starts at £3500 for Campagnolo Athena and by way of Ultegra and Dura-Ace, tops out at £5600 for Campagnolo Super Record.

[rps-include blog=127.0.0.1 post=30120]
 

Here’s Bianchi’s video presentation of the development of the Infinito CV.

 
Bianchi Website 2014 Range