Hello from chicago where its snowing! The only good thing about snow is that
it keeps me in my garage working on my bikes. Admittedly I am more a raleigh
man but recently I picked up an old Bianchi. Here is a link to some pictures:
http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/
I paid 20 dollars for everything except the wheels and saddle. It's a 57 cm frame, it came with campy valentino deraileurs, not sure of the crank but its steel and cottered, ttt stem, alloy bars but I dont think they are marked and they have that older shape to them. At first I thought the headset was campy but it is unmarked. It seems to be a quality headset none the less. There's no sticker refering to what the frame is made of, but built up with old fiamme sew up wheels with campy record hubs (built up with everything pictured) it weighs in at a very pleasant 22-23 pounds. As you can see it has bianchi decals on the seat tube and remenants of bianchi decals on the downtube. I cant find any sign of any decals on the top tube. There is a serial number stamped on the head tube: 5F86680 I'm guessing that this bike is from the late 60's early 70's but I'm not sure. Can anyone help me pin point the age and possibly model of this bike? I know bianchi made some "dogs" to quote sheldon brown's website and the components seem to place it at the bottom end of the food chain but this is a great bike. It's quick, responsive, everything you'd want from a bike. Again I'm more of a raleigh fan but I LOVE THIS BICYCLE! which I guess is all that really matters. Also, does anyone have or know of a source for bianchi decals of this vintage? As you can tell the paint is in great shape, there are a few scratches but with the color what it is I don't think it would be very difficult to touch up. Again, this is my first bianchi so I have no clue what this bike might be worth? not that I would sell it, but I'm just wondering if it's worth the time and money I've invested into already which is around 160.00 so far (which includes the wheels, tires, handlebar tape, saddle, and one cotter pin). Personally, I think it's been worth it and again I guess that's all that matters.
also in the albums marked raleigh in my yahoo photo page is a raleigh super course which I think is from 1973 according to the spec list on retro raleighs. The serial number doesn't match any list I've seen. Well this pretty gal has a reynolds fork. I've heard some talk about a few super courses carlton may pumped out with full reynolds frames and forks. Does anyone know anything more about this "legend?" I'm basically wondering if this is a rare bird or did I just luck out in that the original owner bought a replacement reynolds fork?
thanks in advance for any info you all may provide.
marc garcia
chicago IL