Bianchi was updated to Arcadex Adventure Bike and today added a new gravel bike to its quiver. It sits alongside the Impulso gravel racing bike and offers a choice more suited to gravel adventures and multi-day bikepacking expeditions.

This means a large tire clearance of up to 700mm at 50c, which is reduced to 45mm when mudguard is installed. The drive-side chainstay is dropped and includes a full length protection sleeve. Specifications of all 4 bikes are equipped with 1x groupsets. 

Bicycles follow an upward trend by adding tube storage for spare. There is space for tools, pipes or other small elements, with protective sleeves to avoid rattles and damage to the frame. The rear through axle lever has built-in 4mm/5mm/6mm allen keys, so more tools are built in.

The new Arcadex has 2 frame grades: Pro and Comp. The Pro Bike offers a two-piece cockpit with integrated cabling, but at the Comp, the cable is semi-integrated with a small external run from the rod to the underside of the stem. Both offer a full range of mounting points for adventure riding, including bike fork leg boss with hard forks.

The bar and stem come from Bianchi's Velomann component brand, but the frame is also compatible with the one-piece carbon Bianchi Reparto Corsa bar/stem

Bianchi also comes with seat packs, bar bags, top tube bags, front triangle bags, and more. We offer a range of our own Italian-made Orma bikepacking bags to suit new bikes including frame bags, with capacities of 1 and 9 liters.

The Arcadex Pro model is equipped with a 1,530g Velomann Terbium30 carbon gravel wheel with an internal rim width of 25mm. Bianchi quotes a weight of 9kg for the Arcadex pro bike.

The highest-spec bike has an electronic SRAM Apex mullet build with 40t x10-52t gearing and a RockShox Rudy XPLR30mm travel suspension fork, priced at £4,449/€5,099. It uses the T-type Gx Eagle rear derailleur, omitting another mecha hanger, and is the design seen in the Unbound yet-to-be-released 13-speed SRAM red XPLR derailleur. 

There is a second Pro specification with the Shimano GRX RX822mechanical40/11-51t12 speed group set and rigid fork, priced at £3,699/€4,199. 

The two Comp bikes have fast red alloy wheels with rigid forks and fulcrum 22 mm internal width. There are options for either 40/11-50t mechanical SRAM Apex with gear or Shimano GRX RX610 40/11-51t12 speed shift. Both specifications are priced at £2,649/€2,999.

All bikes are fitted with Pirelli Cintrato gravel M45mm tires, and all bikes are equipped with Velomann Mitora saddles with wide cutouts and steel rails on carbon seat posts. Bikes with rigid forks are compatible with suspension forks if you want to upgrade the aftermarket.

In terms of color, you can have a forest green or a metal sand or Celeste for the famous Celeste and Comp of Bianchi for professional. There are 5 sizes from XS to XL.