Tom Hayes wrote:
> http://www.wooljersey.com/
> Could any members please tell me the approximate the year of
> its manufacture(65?)? Whether the chromed front fork would
> have been original?
I am no expert but I think I have seen frames that looked just like that from maybe 1960 to 1965. The fork is definitely right in every detail I can see, except all the ones I've see had the upper half of the blades painted to match, with the crown and tips chrome. So the fork may have come from another frame, but it had to have been a high-end Bianchi of the same vintage, because that crown is distinctive and unique as far as I know - never seen another brand with quite the same crown treatment. Even cheaper Bianchis of the same vintage had a slightly different crown. (I think they started off as the same crown, but the cheaper model got less hand workmanship.)
Does the fork have a wooden dowel shoved up into the bottom of the steerer? Some of the high-end Bianchis have that. The front brake mounting bolt passes through it. That doesn't help me date it or anything, I'm just curious.
What does the headset look like inside? There are two kinds but you have to disassemble to see the difference. The best one is made by Campy and uses a fairly modern-style cup-and-cone design. Older Bianchis used headsets with a V-groove in the upper and lower races, the kind where the balls touch in four places - both sides of the upper and lower V-grooves - like this <o> turned on its side.
I made a little webpage about what I found out about the headsets on my
two Bianchis - a Specialissima much like yours, and a cheaper mid-60s
"Gran Sport":
http://bulgier.net/
Mark Bulgier
Seattle WA USA