Bianchi Arcadex Carbon Gravel 2024 price technical data sheet full review
Bianchi completely renews its Arcadex gravel adventure, which inherits the fast and elegant lines of the light competition gravel bike. But it's not just a cosmetic facelift: the new Arcadex gets an essential increase in clearance for wider tires, as well as modern, fully internal cables and a new storage compartment integrated into the frame. Now it's a true adventure-ready bikepacking bike, offering plenty of customization options to perfectly fit your off-road riding style.
After the first square-shaped carbon gravel adventure model, created to share the platform with an e-bike version, Bianchi now equips the Arcadex with a dedicated carbon frame. The result is a much more aesthetically successful bike.
The new Arcadex is a much more high-performance and versatile gravel bike, designed for adventure cycle touring and bikepacking. Plus, it gets a host of functional updates to take it further.
Bianchi underlines that the most obvious innovation is the new storage compartment inside the frame. This is a small opening in the downtube, under the bottle cage, with a small bag hidden inside.
You won't be able to fit much, but it could be an easy place to store your mini-tool, CO2 canister and tire levers (but without enough specific space for an inner tube in the bag).
The really important update is the increased tire clearance, a sore point of the previous model.
The new bike instead offers space for tires up to 700 x 50mm. (Or, according to Bianchi, 45mm tires with clip-on fenders). All bikes are equipped as standard with 45mm Pirelli Cinturato Gravel M tires. But you can opt for fully knobby tyres.
Bianchi has completely rewritten the Stack & Reach values on all sizes, to offer a wider and more performing range of riding positions. The reach is now at least 1cm longer on all sizes. The Stack, on the other hand, is now 21 mm lower on the smaller XS size, remains almost unchanged on the L and up to 15 mm higher on the larger bike.
Overall, the 5mm longer chainstays and 1-2cm longer wheelbase result in a more stable endurance geometry for riding day after day, without sacrificing a responsive ride.
The Bianchi Arcadex full carbon frame and fork now features full internal cable routing, with mechanical shift cables and hydraulic lines running through an Acros headset. Pro-spec bikes completely hide cables inside the handlebars and two-piece stem, while Comp models adopt semi-integrated routing through a cover bolted under the stem.
The 1x frame features a new Universal Mount (UDH) for drivetrain compatibility. It features a BB86 PressFit bottom bracket, a 27.2mm round seatpost with wedge clamp, and flat-mount disc brakes with 12mm thru-axles.
The removable thru axle lever includes a 4, 5 and 6mm hex multi-wrench. It's small, but once engaged on the external lever, it should be enough to tighten most bolts without overloading.
The new bikepacking adventure bike has two standard sets of water bottle cages inside the main triangle, a third bottle cage under the downtube, and direct bag mounts on the top tube. Plus, three-point attachments on each carbon fork slider. Price starting from around 3000 euros up to 5100 euros.