Bianchi Milano
 

I am thinking of purchasing a pair of Milanos.

My wife is interested in cycling and I want to
keep her company.

Has anyone here riden a Milano?
Any and all opinions are welcome.

I have also looked at the new Street from Canondale.

I normally ride a recumbent.

tom o.

Checked them out some years ago: These are nice comfortable bikes for cruising around the neighborhood or out on the bike path. Brought back memories of the 50s-60s & riding a Schwinn "Speedster"! They are practical enough to have fenders & a decent saddle. Don't expect them to give you the speed of a road bike though.
P.S. Your wife may like model with the "auto-shift" if they still make it. I prefer the manual version.

Is your bent too slow to keep up with your wife on a Milano?;)

Milano v Bent
 

I am too fast on the bent also it is not as easy to lock up to a pole or bike rack. If we are just tooling around it is hard to handle at slow speeds. Anything under 12 miles per hour and the Lightning feels wobbly.

I do not want my wife to get used to talking down to me so I figured two df bikes would be a good idea. Besides those mixed marriages (df and bent) don't always work out.

The Milano will be a bit friendlier for a casual rider. It has just one shifter, for the 8-spd Nexus hub. So there's no worrying about how to use 24 gears or which of two shifters to use. No throwing chains. No derailleur adjustments. And it has 26" tires, which puts one a bit closer to the ground. A very nice city bike.

The Street looks nice too. Easy gearing & wider range, which could give you both more top end speed and some extra low hill climbing gears. The component group, Shimano Alivio, is okay, but not great. You'd have more maintenance on this bike, but if you enjoy that sort of thing, then that's not a problem.

Easy Street
 

The "Street" that I saw at my local LBS had a Nexus 8 spd hub
and an enclosed chain. It had a rectangular tube running on both
the top and bottom sections of the chain. No grease marks or
tangling of pants were possible.

Okay, that's the "Street Premium." I wasn't aware of it.

I think both are very nice bikes. If "Made in the USA" means anything to you, Cannondale is an American company and most of their frames are made here.

An area where they differ is that the Cannondale has a lot more suspension in the frame. It has a Headshok fork and a suspension seat post. The Milano has a fixed fork and seat post. The Cannondale has an adjustable angle stem, the Milano is fixed. All of these add weight to the Cannondale, but also contribute to a smooth ride with more opportunity to tweak the handlebar position.

I may have to check out my local Cannondale dealer to see if they carry this one. The same dealership carries the Milano, which I have ridden.

Street Price
 

Those extras also just about double the price.

The Street I saw had a sticker price of around $1,200. Quite a lot for a tooling around bike.

And that from a bent owner who has owned a bike that retails for around $4,000.

Thanks for your input.

I have considered the cf bikes from Electra and from Giant but my wife is of the
"nothing fancy" school.

Wise woman.
The Milano costs a lot more than I would spend on a tooling around bike but is a very cool looking bike.

Another bike which is a nice looking city bike with the 8-speed hub is available from Electra. It's a crank-forward design, so is a bit different.

Here's what one of my local LBS has up on their page:

http://willybikes.com/itemdetails.cf...gId=1&id=10559

Very comfortable premium crank forward bikes here:

http://www.ransbikes.com/

If you like the 8 speed internal hub, and there is good reason to like it, then I'm not aware of any lower priced bike using it. That's an expensive piece of gear. The Milano at around $600-$650 is one of the most inexpensive bikes offering it.

Giant has a Cypress model that has the 7 speed hub at around $470. And Trek has cruisers named Bonnie and Clyde with the 7 speed. But the 8 speed is a nice step up. Improved design, and a wider gear ratio with nicer steps between gears.

Cannondale also offers it on their Daytripper, crank forward bike.

The Electra & Cannondale crank forwards aren't "fancy" bikes at all. They are super-comfy to ride. Not much in the way of performance though. For cruising the neighborhood they are wonderful. But kinda slow and heavy'ish to ride long distances on the road.

Tom,
Your bike is dialed in now. Winter is over. Step away from the computer. Stop doing all this research and go ride your bike.:D

"The Milano at around $600-$650 is one of the most inexpensive bikes offering it"

Shock! Just can't get used to inflation. It was a few years ago but when I looked at them(they were 7 speed then), my LBS was selling the basic Milano for $426 with the automatic shift model more expensive but I don't recall its price. Don

edit: The ones I saw must have been on a close out, I just googled Milano 7 speed & the suggested list price was $599 in 1998.

The research has already been done. I remember nearly all of this stuff off of the top of my head.

I'm a numbers guy. Once I lock into the specs, I usually hang onto them for a couple of years.

I meant to mention there is another option with the 8-speed hub, the Specialized Globe IG-8.

http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=22051

Nice bike that would offer more performance than either the Milano or Cannondale.

I've been commuting on my Milano for better than a year (about 1500 miles) and it has been a carefree bike. The only adjustment I've made is to pull the rear wheel back slightly to take up some slack in the chain. The only maintenance has been to put ProLink on the chain as needed. The roller brake works well, the fenders and chainguard are great, the Nexus 8 has been fine. It works well on pavement, gravel roads and grassy fields.

For a simple tooling around bike, have you considered the Trek Lime? About as simple as they come and pretty inexpensive.....no shifting involved.