• Group: SRAM X.O

• Crankset: FSA CARBON Pro Team Issue

• Forks: SID WC White

• Brakes: Avid Juicy 7 Disc

• Handlebars: Bib N’Bar

• Stem: Deda Newton Super Over

• Seatpost: PMP Carbon

• Wheels: Mavic CrossMax SL Disc

The Oetzi 9500 represents a testament to Bianchi Reparto Corse achievement in mountain bike design and construction — which is to say, it can take a place in any discussion of the ultimate mountain bike. As with our road bikes, Bianchi’s carbon monocoque technology endows the Oetzi with a just-right execution of all factors that determine the ride quality. Reparto Corse engineers shape the ultra-high-modulus graphite carbon fiber into variable dimensions, layers, and orientations, resulting in superior torsional and lateral stiffness, minimal weight, and vibration-soaking composure.

The Oetzi 9300 offers up the supreme control and performance of the Oetzi 9500 at a price within reach of more budgets. It starts with the identical carbon monocoque frame, so you are assured of a confidence-inspiring (and smile-inducing) ride that instantly responds to your power by vaulting you ahead. The 9300’s components add to its go-fast-now demeanor—there is much to treasure, and nothing to hide, in the mix, from the Shimano XT/LX drivetrain to the RockShox fork and Mavic disc-brake wheelset. With the Oetzi 9300, you can experience a World Cup race bike and still save a buck or two.

Sometimes names can be deceiving — the Mutt 7800 is a purebred hardtail mountain bike that is ready to go as fast and hard as you can ride. Its aluminum frame is light, stiff, and responsive wherever you venture on the trail, or wherever the race course takes you. A robust gusset at the head tube/down tube intersection hints at the long-term durability the Mutt can give you, especially compared with wispy aluminum race bikes. The Mutt 7800 also gives you the benefit of an all-star collection of components that you’d be happy to call your own.

The Mutt 7700 smartly mixes up the parts lineup to give you the alternative of a top-quality aluminum-framed ride at a lower overall price than the Mutt 7800. We’ll level with you: You’ll appreciate the cost savings but might not notice much of a difference in performance. The two Mutts share the same stout but light aluminum frame, and that’s a good thing, because one principle Bianchi lives by is that the frame is the heart of the bike. On the Mutt 7700, a great frame plus a no-excuses hardware roster provides all riders with a worthy option in the big blue sea of serious aluminum mountain bikes.

It’s been 10 years since Bianchi started making single-speed mountain bikes. At first, it was just a way to satisfy a few single-speed free thinkers out there who too often were having to cobble together their bikes. But something happened: They told two friends, who told two friends, and so on. The Lewis stands at the ready to make the whole wide single-speed world happy as can be. It has everything you’re accustomed to seeing on a high-performance 20-something-speed bike — aluminum frame, suspension fork, disc brakes — only with one go-almost-everywhere 32x16 gear. Perfectly simple, and simply perfect.

Not that we’re trolling for props, but Bianchi had serious 700C-wheeled mountain bikes in our line back in the early 1990s. Times change, and larger-wheeled 29-inch mountain bikes based on the 700C platform, once seen as eccentric, now draw a legitimate bloc of evangelists. The Rita puts Bianchi back in the 29-inch ring, with a twist: It’s a single-speed 29er. Its off-road simplicity and excellence take the same path as the Lewis, with essential modifications including a RockShox Reba SL 29-inch fork and WTB 29x2.3 tires. Bigger wheels and fewer gears, all in the name of more fun — the Rita personifies two of the many charming ways mountain biking has evolved.

The Doss 6600 is a new Bianchi model with a distinctive aluminum frame. The variable-shaped tubing assumes a box profile where the top and down tubes meet the head tube, and the down tube also curves. All the dimensions imbue the Doss with the solidity you need for big-hit action on the trail and the low weight and stiffness to get you back up the hill you just descended so proficiently. It’s not a lean cross-country racing machine, but you might not be either (and that’s just fine). Let’s focus instead on what the Doss 6600 is: The toughest mountain bike you’ll ever love.

The new Doss aluminum frame is so nice we had to make it twice. A lower-priced alternative to the Doss 6600, the Doss 6100 hangs a more cost-conscious collection of components on that impressively shaped frame. You still can revel in the big-hit, all-mountain performance of the Doss ride, downhill or up. Whether you’re hitting the trails for the first time or you just want to experience them in a different way, the Doss 6100 is a fun bike to partner up with. Come on over.

By now the mountain bike world is divided into two camps: Those who own a single-speed, and those who would like to someday. Like its similarly outfitted Bianchi predecessors, the M.U.S.S. makes it easy to make yourself a single-speed convert. With its steel frame and fork, lone 32x16 gear, and all-around tires, the M.U.S.S. won’t mind if you ride it everywhere—in town and on the trail. It will also remind you how much fun it is just to pedal a bike and be free of having to take every bit of shifting technology so seriously. Consider the M.U.S.S. your invitation. You’re welcome.

If you had slipped into a mountain bike cave 10 or so years ago and only recently emerged, the 2007 Ocelot would strike you as a high-end mountain bike. That’s how much (and how quickly) Bianchi mountain bikes have trickled down their innovations and quality to more affordable price levels. The Ocelot’s essential goodness shines in its all-aluminum frame (available in six sizes); suspension fork with 70mm of travel; wide, low, easy-shifting 21-speed gearing; and overall surefootedness (linear pull brakes, wide grippy tires, high-rise bar and stem). No time machine necessary—the Ocelot is everything you could want in a modern entry-level mountain bike.