Review From Cyclingnews.com(Our own thoughts to follow):
"On Test: Bianchi 928 Carbon T-Cube, February 4, 2008
Barloworld's new ride:
The new Bianchi 928 Carbon T-Cube will be in the public's eye as the historic company makes its return to the top level of the professional peloton with Team Barloworld. Cyclingnews' Gregor Brown heads off for the hills with a Campagnolo-equipped sample on the roads near the company's headquarters.
Bianchi Product Manager Angelo Lecchi and Product Department Manager Lars Svalin announced just three months ago that Bianchi would be replacing Cannondale as the official bike supplier to Barloworld after a one-year hiatus from the uppermost tier of the sport. The Italian Professional Continental team of Claudio Corti will mostly use one of two new carbon frames for 2008, the 928 Carbon T-Cube or the 928 Carbon SL. The latter belongs to Bianchi's 'HoC' (Hors Categorie) and focuses on light weight while the stouter T-Cube is billed as more of an all-arounder. Barlowold will likely save the SL until later this spring for the multi-day tours and Grand Tours but has already received shipments of the T-Cube in its custom colours.
The lugged joints of last year's 928 Carbon L has now given way to tube-to-tube construction on our 928 Carbon T-Cube tester and the bottom bracket shell and chain stays are now more heavily reinforced. According to Svalin, Bianchi consciously sacrificed weight by adding material in those areas to satisfy the needs of team sprinters and classics specialists Baden Cooke and Robbie Hunter.
"Sometimes it is too much about the weight and not about the performance," said Svalin, who insists that the T-Cube achieves the proper balance between the two. "We did some design modifications that maybe added weight but gave better overall performance. The different bottom bracket, and in the head tube area... the chain stay is slightly bigger - or thicker-walled carbon."
Bianchi may not have prioritised saving weight on the new 928 T-Cube but last year's aluminium dropouts have nonetheless been traded for lighter carbon ones that are sandwiched with aluminium plates for protection. Claimed weight is still just 1kg for a bare 55cm frame. The matching fork is monocoque carbon fibre with the exception of the aluminium tips.
Either way, it was initially difficult to concentrate on the bike's guts in light of its classy appearance. Bianchi offers the 928 T-Cube in either white or its more famous celeste colour and both harken to the classic paint schemes of the post-war racing era. Bare clearcoated panels in the top and down tubes highlight the underlying carbon and the familiar Eduardo Bianchi badges on the head and seat tube are a beautiful touch on a modern day racing machine. Perhaps the only aesthetic disappointment is the non-colour coded fork which detracts from what could be a nicely integrated-looking design.
Get up and go
Looks obviously don't tell you anything about how a bike rides so we quickly departed for some good Italian pavement. As promised, the Bianchi 928 T-Cube offers a smart and responsive drivetrain which translated well in both sprints and climbs. The relatively short chain stays and moderately compact frame offered a tight feel as we headed up the Madonna di Ghisallo although we found ourselves wishing just a bit for a slightly longer wheelbase on the other side.
Even so, the 928 Carbon T-Cube frame provided a smooth ride on the flight downhill and handled tight bends and switchbacks ('tornati' as we call them in Italy) with aplomb. Road blemishes were well-damped; while flying down the Colma di Sormano the bike hit a sizeable crack in the road and we pinch-flatted the rear wheel. However, the flat was hardly noticed expect for the hissing coming from behind and we easily guided the bike to a stop some 200 metres later..."
