Lattz

There is, but no one knows so far how many different versions exist, as this whole SBX (Bianchi's own Special Columbus tubeset) myth is still in the cleanup phase. If you'd like to have a quick summary, so far 3 versions are known for sure (please someone interrupt/add/correct if needed):
- the version you have: pantos everywhere, curved brake brigde, inlet/outlet tubes for the internal cabling in the top tube. I have seen these in metallic and non-metallic shades of celeste, but Bianchigirl's dotted one is the same frame version. Chrome unicrown fork.
- OP's version (my ex as well): not a single panto or cast logo/letter saying it's a Bianchi. Pale seafoam green celeste, non-metallic, no blueish tint at all. Decals are the older winged type ones with lower wing flap in green, straight brake bridge. I call this the weird series, as there is exactly zero official info on it, and the logo drives people thinking its late 80's, but the internal cabling, plus the official availability of the SBX in the catalogs dates to 93-94. Chrome unicrown fork.
- SBX Krono (bent-tube TT version)

- there's a Caurus said to be made of SBX tubing currently on sale in Germany, but I cannot confirm the originality. It is painted everywhere, not a single centimeter of chrome is visible, not even the fork, nothing. There are forums, where people asking about SBX Caurus, but without pictures, I cannot/would not take these seriously, plus I recently discovered, that Bianchi used the Caurus name on the cheapest bikes, and on their "Proto" line as well (italians like this joke to confuse people trying to figure out retroactively, what did they do and when). Plus you can never know, who resprayed the bike, and fitted whatever decals were available. Today it is rather easy to source or reprint decals, but even 10 years ago this was not the case.

As a newbie to Bianchi, when I bought min, I had the struggle for years, if it is a real Bianchi at all. I paid ~USD 300 8 years ago for the bike (my mom didn't speak to me for a week as it was a considerable money back then, and she didn't get, why do I need such an expensive bicycle), and back then I could get a Bianchi Caurus for like USD100, but this looked and felt way cooler even without knowing anything about it. I was hoping, that I got tricked into a chepaer Bianchi model labelled as Reparto Corse, as I looked over thousands of pictures and none of the Bianchis looked like this, not even the few SBXs i saw (those were with no wing logo, with, panto etc...just as described). Then I found one for sale here in Germany 3-4 years ago, which confirmed that my model exists as it is, and also found the threads where people tried to help two guys with the same bike finding out what is it exactly.

Deerman

Hi Guys! I am yet another Bianchi steel road bike newbie. Having read all of the above, I am set to buy yet another "weird series" SBX - photo below. The bike needs a lot of work and so this will be a fun project. You may be interested to learn that I am in Hungary (a poster above is in Germany) - is there a connection because we are not so far away from each other. I am going to investigate the history of the bike and try to figure out how it came to Hungary - will let you know what the seller has to say!

Lattz

Szia and congratulations on the bike. The poster above you is a Hungarian in Germany
My heart skipped a beat before i read your text by looking at the pic I quickly checked if its my stolen one... then saw Hungary... would have been funny if it was mine as we've always made jokes with friends that instead of eBay I should search for mine on Vatera. But you might not be interested in all of this so a few words on your hopefully soon to be bike.
First and foremost this is not mine. Second... by buying it you will join a really small club for literally peanuts. This exact sbx version is so rare that you can find more top shelf Bianchis on the market at any given time ( for serious $$$) than one more from this. I must say it is a really good bike and more or less light as well. Mine was 58cm and was under 9kg with absolutely normal stuff nothing modern or carbon.
Your fork does not look original at least from the photo. That looked almost the same so even if i am right it only matters for collectors but they woild not buy this because of the condition.

This bike is in rather good shape, I must say.

If you go for it, you want to be exremely careful with the paint. 1. if you damage it it starts to chip off in fingernail-sized pieces. 2. this shade of celeste (not even real celeste rather seafoam green as it is not bluish at all) is really beautiful when polished and will earn you noce words on the street every now and then but there is no off the shelf touch up paint (not only for this but for any older bianchi color since they constantly chamged it). Have fun with it and hope to hear from you. Btw if not a secret how much does it cost now back at home? I bought mine for 120.000 ten years ago and that was before the classic boom so was rather expensive for a 17 yo bike bianchi or not. Hope you get it hope you will enjoy it and hope to hear from you soon with better pics either here or at the "show your Bianchi" section.

Deerman

Szia Lattz! Great to hear from you and thanks for the additional info. I have to say this is all very intriguing - perhaps we can understand where these bikes came from? Interesting that you are a Hungarian in Germany. I am a Scotsman in Hungary :0 The price is very similar to what you paid ten years ago... Will keep you posted on the situation with this bike and plans to rebuild. First thing will be to strip it down to the frame and add anti-rust to the innards. Hopefully it has not been in a barn too long! Will also consult a local bike paint whiz to see if I can patch up the scratches.

Deerman

Also your comment about the fork is interesting. For what it's worth it appears to be identical to Hala's fork no? Or are they both replacements?

Lattz

I never dared to make the big step for a repaInt. Sometimes planned as the chips were really annoying but then I always told myself its original once. But if it has to go it has to go.
Heres a pic of mine. You can see where it dropped the color.


and heres a well kept one obviously everybody would love to run around like this but its not 120k HUF.

as for the fork - can be my eyes, can be the photo- both look thinner and rounder at the shoulder than yours. but maybe its just me.

Deerman

A front view of the fork - this looks more like the one in your photos?

Deerman

Another area of concern is rusting where the rear brake cable enters and exits the top tube. i see from your photo that you have some black marks - especially around the rear hole? Was this rusted in any way or is this just the steel with paint removed? This bike can have similar:

Deerman

Ok guys - so I think I have a potential solution to the SBX mystery: economics. With SBX, Bianchi had their own, new fancy tubing. So they needed to build bikes to justify the investment. I propose that they decided to do volume production runs up to a certain frame size (56cm?). With this volume, it made economic sense to add detailing to the components (the pantos!). However, if you wanted an SBX frame in a size larger than (56cm?) then you were out of luck....

So. Bianchi decided to make smaller production volumes (or just custom frames?) for sizes 57cm(?) and above. It is telling that Lattz has a frame in 58cm and I am looking at one in 57/58cm also. This is a big clue! Actually one of the main reasons I am looking at this bike is precisely because it might actually fit me - like most northern Europeans I find traditional Bianchi frames too small.

Ok so if you are doing a smaller production run with larger frame sizes, you avoid detailing - because it makes no economic sense. You might also want to differentiate the bike in other ways - e.g. by using 80's style stickers?

So to test this hypothesis I suggest we answer the following questions:
1. what is the largest frame size that was produced with pantos etc?
2. are there any "weird" frames below say 57cm?

Deerman

Also the two SBX versions seem to be kind of a mish mash of the late 80's Specialissima X4 SPX: one has pantos/curved brake bridge and other other has the logos... So, it's kind of a reference to the X4?

Lattz

Hi. mine was also chipped there but never got rusted. You can see on the photo where the top tube is missing big flakes but no rust. And I was riding it all season. If you are anyway going for a respray make sure to get a good soda blast so chromed parts dont get damaged. If you eventually spray some wd40 or oil in the tubes you shlould never have a problem from the inside as well. Sometimes light rusty water spilled dripped out my chainstay but apart from that no rust.

Lattz

I was also wondering why did they built this model at all. Maybe they just made to get rid of excess material or to release a cheaper bike for people with somewhat thinner pocket which still resembles the big thing, x4. We will never know. The Italians made so many weird things in the past not even they might understand and Bianchi was no exception.
Did you check out the other threads on this model? Btw Im happy that my info proved useful as i wrote it to old long closed threads well for future references for those who are puzzled abou the model and here you are

Deerman

I just picked up the bike - it is in very good condition with no rust at all and the frame is in very good shape. There are a few paint chips but I will see if I can get my paint guy to colour match and we can just spray over these. No plans for a full respray. Thank you so much for the posts - this helped tremendously with my decision making. I will dig around on the forum for other SBX posts and let you know when the rebuild is complete!

Lattz

Hey! I am happy that you like it congrats! And dont forget to send a pic when it is ready.
Lattz

Deerman

Hi Lattz - I took the bike out today for a proper ride. I can honestly say that this frame is pretty amazing to ride - wow! I will need to upgrade all of the components / wheels etc. so this will be a longer term project. The first thing to do is to find a way to prevent further paint chipping - this will require some thought. I am also amazed to see that the frame is fully chromed - so any chips just expose chrome. This is pretty classy! Also the serial number is B008992 - this doesn't really look like a volume serial number. I would guess that B is February and '92 means 1992? So this is bike number 89 from that year? This may (or may not...) be support for my hypothesis that this bike was custom built per my earlier email? Will keep you posted on the build! Thanks again for your help. :0

Deerman

Seems you were right about the fork - you have very sharp eyes indeed! Turns out after stripping down the bike that it is not original. The good news is that the frame is in good shape. Will update with a potential solution to the paint chipping issue. Seems that this is very common for paint that is applied to a chromed underlay (my friend is a car painter so those guys run into this issue all the time).

Deerman

Some pictures of the fork below - Spinner from 1989. No Gipiemme dropouts. Also seems to have been welded at some point?