The aero Aria is the most recent bike to have popped up from Italian bike maker Bianchi earlier this summer, and it already is getting a new disc brake sibling. Designed to be a slightly more affordable road race ready version of the aerodynamic technologies that Bianchi developed for their Aquila CV TT bike (without the Countervail carbon tech), the Aria is meant to bridge the gap between racing against the clock and in a group. Now it gets consistent, all-conditions braking by way of road disc brakes.
Aria Disc aero road bike
The Aria Disc carries over all of the aerodynamic tube shaping of the rim brake bike from the fork into the downtube, to the integrated clamp for the aero seatpost, and into the dropped seatstays.
Getting rid of the rim brakes on the fork crown and seatstay bridge improves drag there, moving aero resistance to the addition of rotors and disc brake calipers.
Race ready stiffness and handling is said to carry over as well. The Aria Disc does not adopt the advanced vibration eating, NASA-developed Countervail carbon technology that shows up in most of their other race-oriented bikes, but it does share the same performance race geometry.
Bianchi says that this keeps the price down (as do more attainable complete bike specs) so that the bike can serve a wider range of potential amateur racers. Ready to be built up with clip-on aero bars the Aria & Aria Disc are designed to be everyday road bikes that can toe the line on the weekend for both amateur road and triathlon racing.
Tech Details
The new disc brake bike goes with new road disc standards of 12mm QR thru-axles front (100mm) & rear (142mm), plus flat mount calipers for 140 or 160mm rotor compatibility. (All complete bikes are shipping with 160mm rotors.)
Tire clearance hasn’t been officially specified, but the Shimano complete bikes are delivered with 28mm clinchers, and there is easily room for a few mm more of tire if needed, even with chainstay length kept to 410mm.
The full carbon frame has a claimed weight of 1150g (55cm), and gets a 1 1/4″ tapered full carbon fork.
It features modular internal routing that can be adapted for electronic drivetrains, full carbon dropouts, and a PressFit 86.5x41mm bottom bracket.
The Aria Disc is available in a wide eight size 44-61cm range.
Even though we saw a more black version, the bike seems to come just in Celeste, but is available in three complete bike builds – with Shimano Ultegra, 105, or Campagnolo Potenza 11 speed hydraulic disc brake groupsets.
