nicovlogg

Dear fellow bike slaves

I'm wondering whether anybody has some clues to slate my curiosity. I saw an ad for a battered Bianchi, claimed to be a 1994 model, for the equivalent of 28USD, and bought it on the spot. I now have it in hand and am trying to figure out what I have (in terms of age, model, original components etc).

It's currently fitted with a chromed Colnago fork, mostly Shimano 600 components (including hubs) and an ITM stem. Columbus SL tubing for the frame. Would love any insights or tips! The fork is badly rusted and I will probably attempt a rechrome. As for the frame - should I consider a respray?

The BB shell has the following numbers on:

8C
1265








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T-Mar

Wow, that's really rough with massive wear on the large chainring!

Bianchi can be very difficult to identify, as they varied so much from one market to another. Most members (myself included) are familiar with the North American models, which puts us a disadvantage when it comes to other countries. Having said that, the serial number would indicate 1988. The decals are 1990s but by 1994 I would have expected vertical dropouts. Still, the stay caps look more 1990s than 1988. Is the down tube tube round or oval where it enters the BB shell?

nicovlogg

Interesting, sounds like it may have come at a crossover period. The down tube appears to be perfectly round to my eye.

I'm hoping to find some replacements for the chainrings, shoudn't be hard, the other option is to put something like a 9 speed campy groupset on...

madpogue 

So a downtube shifter for the rear, and a brifter for the front? And a non-functional rear brifter? "Eclectic" build, sort of an inverse Lance.

T-Mar

A round down tube would having be leaning towards the 1988 date as indicated by the serial number. Circa 1990-1991 Bianchi introduced their Superset II frame configuration and one of the features was a down tube that was oval at the bottom bracket end, with the major axis oriented transversely, to increase lateral stiffness in the bottom bracket region. They had to develop a special bottom bracket shell to accept the tubes and I would consume that since this was a marketable performance feature, as opposed to just cosmetics, that it would have been adopted across all markets.

nicovlogg

Thank you for the information. I've managed to find time to strip the frame and have some more information.

The rear hub spacing is 126mm - which to me would indicate an earlier date, around 1988 as has been discussed. The rear dropouts are Gipiemme. It has a small knob to hang the chain on whil removing the tyre.

It appears as though the frame has been resprayed, which leads me to believe that the decals applied are not period correct - that's why they look like early 90's.

Finally, and most sadly, the frame has been in a bad crash, and there is a serious crack in the headtube. Fixing this might take the project way over budget, and I would assume that only a full tube replacement would suffice. Any opinions?

T-Mar

I might be tempted to just have the inside of the head tube cleaned and run a weld bead over the crack. There's a good amount of clearance between the head tube and fork. It's not a proper repair but it a whole lot less expensive. You should consult some forum framebuilders like @gugie .

semroc

Dang, too bad about the headtube crack. Rubbing wet aluminum foil on the chrome forks cleaned my rusty ones up nice. Good luck.

dddd

Gotta figure that where a crack starts is usually a highest-stress area.

Using weld to fix such a location seems to beg for a repeat performance(?).

nicovlogg

This was from a crash impact, so don't think it's a weak area in general or anything like that. I've asked a few local framebuilders for advice.

T-Mar

Typically, front end crash damage manifests itself as bent top and down tubes, just behind the head lug. The head tube itself rarely cracks, unless it was overheated during the brazing process, which lowers the strength of the steel.

nicovlogg

The previous owner totalled the fork in the crash, so I know it was intense, but I hear you - this crack is in the middle of the tube, quite strange. Have you had any experience with a TIG weld to fix this sort of crack? I might feel a bit unsafe on it.

scarlson 

With the TIG welding equipment I've used, I think it would be very hard to get in there and do anything. First, it would be hard to clean up so that a decent weld could happen. Second, I don't know any TIG torch or MIG gun that could strike up an arc and accomplish anything decent inside such a small tube like that. Doing it from outside would be harder, because there are lugs and filler metal (dissimilar metals) to contend with, and this always gets messy in TIG. Granted I'm not there to look at this bike, but that's my semiprofessional opinion (I'm not a welder by trade, but I weld things sometimes for work). You could talk to a welder about it, but at least American welders are usually more conservative than me.

Having said all this, I would think about trying it with my welder if it were my bike. What do you have to lose? Worst case, you cut the tube/melt out the braze and replace it the traditional way.

nicovlogg

I hear you on that. Might be worth a shot. Only problem is if I intend to sell it on, I would want to feel confident in the repair.

nicovlogg

After visiting 3 local framebuilders and being told by each that a comprehensive fix would blow the budget before even looking at painting, a new fork, or any other components, I've decided to pass the project on and await the next frame with less complications. C'est la vie!