Bianchi Eros frame material question, and identification
 

Does anyone out there happen to know which years -- if any -- of the Bianchi Eros were constructed from Reynolds 631 tubes?

Backstory: I just acquired a bare Eros frame, with no provenance. It is in very poor cosmetic condition, but some of the stickers are still legible. I cannot guarantee that they are original, however. One of them clearly indicates that the tubing is Reynolds 631 -- but nothing I can find online confirms that any Eros were made of such. It is TIG-welded, so that means it is a 1999 or later ( <=1998 were lugged ). If the grey/silver paint is original, the color indicates that it is a 2000 or 2004 but I also cannot find any images of those colorways for confirmation.

All that said, if the paint is not original, someone went to a great deal of trouble to acquire the infamous "100% Chick-Designed" sticker and place it in the correct location over the new paint job.

Apart from general curiosity, once I remove the paint, I might have to weld on it, so it could be useful to know from what it is made.

Thanks in advance.

Replying to myself, in case any future searchers wind up reading this thread.

I found a 20 year-old discussion about Eros in the archives of another cycling forum, that referred to detailed information present on the defunct bianchiusa.com site, and that led to me to check the magic of the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. Lo and behold, that archive shows that the 2004 Bianchi Eros was indeed made from Reynolds 631.

https://web.archive.org/web/20040406....com/eros.html

From what I can tell, 2004 through 2007 Eros are Reynolds 631 (inclusive). 2003 was "SL Chromo Lite heat-treated double-butted CrMo steel".

So if you need to know details about an early 21st Century US-market Bianchi, I highly recommend starting here ->

https://web.archive.org/web/20240000...bianchiusa.com

The Wayback Machine has dozens of snapshots from 2000 through 2022.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...653407e74c.jpg

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...6cf8b1e19b.jpg

I am now certain that the paint on this Eros is original, as-was the bottom bracket -- which I removed today for the first time since Bianchi installed it twenty years ago, and found an absolute pile of metal shavings left behind by its makers. ( And no, before anyone wonders, no aftermarket machining has been done to this frame, and these are not the shell's threads, which remain fine. )

Apparently Sky Yaeger ( the aforementioned designing chick ) needs to spend a lot more time designing her production processes, and less time thinking about stickers.

My Bianchi Vigorelli is a 2004, and has both the Chick Designed sticker as well as the Reynolds 631 sticker. Not the stiffest frame by any means, but very comfortable and fun. I think the same frame was used for the Eros (entry level), Imola (105), and Vigorelli (Ultegra), and a similar but Italian made frame was used for the Veloce (umm… Campy Veloce).