That's an interesting bike, very typical for its time. Late nineties experiments with suspension forks on road bikes for Paris Roubaix. Wouldn't call it anti.
Typical for its time? This bike has absolutely nothing to do with Paris-Roubaix or experiments.
Following the introduction of the Rock Shox Road fork by Greg Lemond and Gilbert Duclos Lassalle and the victory of the latter in 1992, Bianchi, like most other manufacturers, started to experiment with suspention too. In 1993 Franco Ballerini used a Allsop Softride stem with elastomere suspensionin his steel Bianchi frame and rode it to a second place behind Duclos Lassalle (who scored his second win with a Rock Shox equipped bike) and in 1994 Bianchi headed to Roubaix with several bikes equipped with Rock Shox forks, including Museeuws fully (which he ditched in the race final while Tschmil rode to victory with a Rock Shox equipped steel "Caloi" Merckx). After that Bianchi kept experimenting with titanium framed Rock Shox equipped bikes untill 1996 when suspension disappeared from the peloton as quickly as it came, because riders realized that the extra comfort on the 55km of cobble stones did not compensate the loss of stiffness and the weight penalty on the 200km of tarmac. From 1995 till 2014 Paris-Roubaix was won with bikes without suspension forks.
The bike in the picture is a late nineties mid-range aluminium bike with a non-professional groupset and non-Paris Roubaix wheels and tires to which somebody added a Rock Shox fork.long after these forks were used by the pros.
Typical for its time? This bike has absolutely nothing to do with Paris-Roubaix or experiments.
Following the introduction of the Rock Shox Road fork by Greg Lemond and Gilbert Duclos Lassalle and the victory of the latter in 1992, Bianchi, like most other manufacturers, started to experiment with suspention too. In 1993 Franco Ballerini used a Allsop Softride stem with elastomere suspensionin his steel Bianchi frame and rode it to a second place behind Duclos Lassalle (who scored his second win with a Rock Shox equipped bike) and in 1994 Bianchi headed to Roubaix with several bikes equipped with Rock Shox forks, including Museeuws fully (which he ditched in the race final while Tschmil rode to victory with a Rock Shox equipped steel "Caloi" Merckx). After that Bianchi kept experimenting with titanium framed Rock Shox equipped bikes untill 1996 when suspension disappeared from the peloton as quickly as it came, because riders realized that the extra comfort on the 55km of cobble stones did not compensate the loss of stiffness and the weight penalty on the 200km of tarmac. From 1995 till 2014 Paris-Roubaix was won with bikes without suspension forks.
The bike in the picture is a late nineties mid-range aluminium bike with a non-professional groupset and non-Paris Roubaix wheels and tires to which somebody added a Rock Shox fork.long after these forks were used by the pros.