Bianchi has a new all-carbon gravel bike. Called the Arcadex, it’s designed to be fast and light, with all the features you need for extended gravel excursions and bikepacking. 

The Arcadex joins the Impulso Allroad and Via Nirone 7 Allroad in Bianchi’s gravel bike line-up. But whereas those bikes have an aluminium frame, the Arcadex is Bianchi’s first carbon-framed, all-terrain machine.

According to Bianchi, the Arcadex “serves as the connection between the human spirit and the natural world beyond, enhancing every sense, from the crispness of colours to the feeling of friendship among companions”. And who said gravel bikes weren’t the future?

As you’d expect, there’s plenty of tyre clearance: up to 42mm with 700c wheels and 47mm on 650b rims. Bianchi has made the frame aero too, with kammtail tube profiles. The Arcadex comes with mounting points for a third bottle, under the down tube, as well as mudguards and a rear rack.

Bianchi claims a frame weight of 1,100g for a size 55 bike, with the fork weighing 480g. There are 1.5in headset bearings top and bottom for a rigid steering connection. It’s also compatible with FSA’s ACR aerodynamic cable routing system, used on the Oltre XR4 aero bike, which routes all the cables internally into the head tube.

There’s a sloping top tube, although with a high fork crown the head tube is comparatively short, while still giving the higher stack and shorter reach typical of gravel bikes, leading to a more upright riding position and better control off-road.

There’s the typical slack head-tube angle found on gravel bikes too, with a fork rake of 70.5 degrees on the two smaller frame sizes and 71 degrees on the three larger frames.

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Shimano GRX 1x and celeste options

At launch, Bianchi is offering the Arcadex in a single-ring Shimano GRX RX810 build with mechanical shifting and a 40t chainring, paired with an 11-42t cassette. The Arcadex frameset has also been designed to accommodate electronic shifting and double chainrings.

The GRX 1x build is paired with 700c wheels with Shimano hubs and Alexrims tubeless-ready rims, with WTB Riddler Race 37mm tyres. There’s an alloy bar with a 16-degree flare to the drops. 

A Bianchi wouldn’t be a Bianchi without a celeste colour option, although that’s paired to a blue gloss front-end. There’s also the option for the same blue painted front paired with a gold back-end. 

According to Bianchi: “The paint design and graphics give a sense of dynamism and forward movement, so the bike looks like an extension of its surroundings, and appears fast, even when it’s standing still”.

The Arcadex is available in five sizes from XS to XL. We don’t have prices yet from Bianchi.

Bianchi Arcadex spec

• Frame: Bianchi Arcadex carbon
• Fork: Bianchi Arcadex carbon
• Gearing: Shimano GRX810
• Gear ratios: 40t, 11-42t
• Brakes: Shimano GRX RX810 hydraulic disc brakes
• Wheels: Alexrims GD24 Disc on Shimano hubs
• Tyres: WTB Riddler Race 700c x 37mm
• Bar: Bianchi Reparto Corse Gravel alloy
• Stem: FSA ST-OS-188 alloy
• Saddle: Selle Royal 2315HRN, Steel Rail, Open
• Seatpost: Bianchi Reparto Corse alloy

Token has added a smart new carbon wheelset to its road line, and this one’s aimed squarely at the all-road fraternity.

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The new Roubx wheelset, in either standard freehub or XD drive, is built around Token’s D1 hub and is laced up with 24 spokes front and rear.

The rim is carbon and uses Token’s own continuous fibre construction, so the fibres run around the circumference of the rim, which itself is a hookless design and tubeless ready. It measures 33mm deep and 33mm wide externally, and the internal dimension of 25.3mm is one of the most generous gravel rim widths currently available.

Weight wise, the Roubx looks on the money, with the front a claimed 671g and the rear 823g (1,494 a pair). Unfortunately, no pricing was available at the show.

Token Shuriken oversized pulley system

Warren Rossiter/Immediate media

The heavily machined wheels run on full ceramic bearings and the cage is carbon fibre. The claimed weight of 69.5g makes it lighter than the cage it would replace, but you will need a longer chain.

By fitting the Shuriken you can use cassettes up to 34t (only usually available on Ultegra) and the capacity rises to 16 teeth for the chainrings (the difference between them) and 23 teeth on the cassette.

We’ve had good results using oversized pulley systems in the past, so the Shuriken does look interesting, sadly, though, this upgrade doesn’t come cheap with pricing for the Shuriken starting at a pretty pricey £289.99.