When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Bianchi Project

-
I've had my bike back from the shop for about a week now. I've been riding the bike every morning. EA Bicyles did a great job getting this bike working properly. The biggest problem was with the rear wheel. I knew the bearing was loose. I didn't realize the spokes were loose as well. EA took care of the whole mess and this bike is a lot nicer to ride.

I really wonder though if anyone in Florida needs 24 speeds. I track my rides and in the course of ten miles there's a 43 foot elevation change. Yes, Florida is pretty flat. I only use about 6 of the speeds in a normal ride.


Bianchi Handle bar wrap..jpg


I seriously thought about using a blue wrap for the handlebars. I thought the blue would go nicely with the Bianchi silver. I believe that 1998 was the only year the Bianchi used silver paint. That means I'm going to have repaint this bike silver.

While my first inclination was to use a blue handlebar wrap when I thought about it a little more I decided to use the Bianchi green. Besides it says Bianchi on it. The blue wrap was just a generic handlebar wrap. I can't do that to a Binachi. Can I?


Richard Newton
Bianchi Blog
 
I'm old enough to remember when we could buy real paint stripper. The kind that would eat your skin away if you go any on you. The stuff today is sissy stuff. The big problem is all the little crevices on a lugged frame. If you don't get them perfectly clean the final product will look really bad.

Here's a perfect job. I love it. I also can't imagaine the amount of effort and skill this job took.

lugged bike fram.jpg


Richard Newton
Bianchi Blog
 
I've had my bike back from the shop for about a week now. I've been riding the bike every morning. EA Bicyles did a great job getting this bike working properly. The biggest problem was with the rear wheel. I knew the bearing was loose. I didn't realize the spokes were loose as well. EA took care of the whole mess and this bike is a lot nicer to ride.

I really wonder though if anyone in Florida needs 24 speeds. I track my rides and in the course of ten miles there's a 43 foot elevation change. Yes, Florida is pretty flat. I only use about 6 of the speeds in a normal ride.


View attachment 106182

I seriously thought about using a blue wrap for the handlebars. I thought the blue would go nicely with the Bianchi silver. I believe that 1998 was the only year the Bianchi used silver paint. That means I'm going to have repaint this bike silver.

While my first inclination was to use a blue handlebar wrap when I thought about it a little more I decided to use the Bianchi green. Besides it says Bianchi on it. The blue wrap was just a generic handlebar wrap. I can't do that to a Binachi. Can I?


Richard Newton
Bianchi Blog

No, you can't do that to a Bianchi :) since it is one of the bikes you can get away with using celeste green with (the actual name of Bianchi green, it was made by mixing white and left over drab green after wwii). I believe they used to or still do make tires in celeste green. I've been riding and working on lightweights for about 20 years, restored a couple too, feel free to ask anything, I've likely already went down that road and can tell you where you'll end up!

Where in Florida are you? Some of the road riding in this state can be more dangerous than others!
 
I've been riding the bike for a while now. It was doing just fine until I noticed my rear wheel was a little wobbly. It seems that my rear hub is worn out. It's an old Campy. I can't believe the Campy prices. This is a 32-hole 8-speed cassette. They seem to range from $350 to $500 for a new one.

My local shop says to avoid the eBay used ones since they're probably as bad as what's on my bike now. He also suggests that I avoid the off brands. He's a Campy fanatic and all of the claims that they're as good as a Campy just aren't true.

Bianchi Rear Hub.jpg


btw - This picture is pre tune up. I have cleaned everything up. I even polished the bad hub.

Richard Newton
 
I've been riding it for 2 days now. It has no gears but we don't have hills in Florida.

View attachment 102466

The bike is still in the original silver paint. Bianchi offered silver in 1998. That may have been the only year they made silver bikes. That means I'll do the repaint in silver. I can do the decals in blue.

Richard Newton

I have a silver bianchi from 1980

DSC02250.JPG
 
Great looking bike. Thanks for sharing. I was hoping to have mine painted shortly. This rear hub thing has slowed me down. The other thing that's slowed me down is an old Raleigh from the 70's. It's interesting to see the difference between an Italian bike and a British/Dutch bike.

Richard Newton
Bianchi Project
 
Here's the bad hub.

Bianchi hub.jpg


This is just one reason why it makes no economic sense to restore a bike. I paid $120 for the bike. I've got over $500 (at least) in the bike at this point. When I'm done with the hub I'll have at least $1,000 in the bike. And it's still not painted.

None of this is a surprise. I've done this with cars. When you watch the Barrett-Jackson auction keep in mind that most of those cars are selling for less than the owners have in them. Ninety percent of the owners are taking a loss.

Why should bike restoration be any different?

Richard Newton
 
Portland Visit

I stopped at a shop here in the Portland area to look at some older restored bikes. They had a couple of nice older Bianchi bikes. I did get a chance to compare decals and stickers. Some of their bikes had stickers applied on top of the paint. Others had the stickers placed between the color coat and the clear coat.

I really like the way the clear coat gets rid of the edges on the lettering. I'm leaning more and more towards paint. It seems to be a lot more money than paint but it's still nicer for a restoration. Maybe.

Richard Newton
Bianchi Restoration Blog
 
Back
Top