On my commute home yesterday the train had an unscheduled delay of 20 minutes due to a brush fire up ahead. For that ride I was sitting in a car with no company except my '89 Bianchi and a very much newer Specialized mtb. Since I had time on my hands I studied the other bike. The comparison was interesting, to me anyway because I have little experience with such bikes, let alone newer ones.

Mine is steel painted black, the mtb carbon painted black and white. Mine is a standard road bike, 2x6 gearing with "compact" 48-34 chainrings, MA40 ~19mmx700c wheels, 32 spokes. The mtb had 3x9 gearing, the large ring seeming to be upper 40's, the small ring tiny, mid-20's perhaps. The mtb's wheels seemed huge in diameter but narrow, maybe only 1". The mtb tires were marked 29"x2" and swelled out well past the tiny rim thickness. They were knobby, of course. My tires are 25mm Gatorskins.

The mtb's BB was noticeably higher. The mtb had disk brakes on both wheels, a dual-piston fork, a hugely wide handlebar loaded with fidgets and levers and grumps and whatever. The derailleurs were ugly but apparently utilitarian. My Bianchi has DT friction shifters, simple and elegant, and old-style Suntour derailleurs. It also has modern elegant Tektro DP brakes, with drilled Weinmann levers on a drop bar. Finally, my Bianchi has a traditional stem with recessed Allen-head bolts for clamp and tightening into the ST. The mtb had a modern threadless stem which seemed required more bolts per square yard than a clothing factory.

If one ignores the functional difference due to the different intended uses, there was an obvious difference in appearance. The mtb looked like a modern industrial object with no aesthetic component whatsoever. By comparison the Bianchi was a sleek artistic shape in every nook or cranny. If it weren't for the carbon frame which I'm sure was pretty light one might have guessed the mtb to weight 30lbs. I dunno', maybe it really did.

I know which one I preferred.