So this will be a somewhat rambling, convoluted post so please bear with me.
A few weekends ago I stopped in at the bike shop (Dakota Cyclery) in Medora, N. Dakota, located in the ND badlands. I saw this bike sitting out front and asked them about it when I went in.
It turned out the shop owners were selling it for the wife of a friend of theirs who had died due to complications from being struck while riding a bicycle. I didn't know the guy, but I always hate to hear about those kinds of tragedies.
I had kind of been casually on the lookout for a Bianchi, but it had to be celeste; I was very flexible on which particular model, but figured a roadie would be much easier to find. Anyways, I took it for a test ride around town and was surprised to find it fit me quite well as it looked so small when I first saw it. I also instantly liked the 'feel' of the bike. We went back and forth on the price for a few days, settled on one we could both live with and I went to pick it up.
I was confused in the beginning as to why this Grizzly had 700c wheels and tires on it, but figured no biggie I could also locate some proper mountain wheels for it if I felt like it. I got further confused in looking at the chainstay clearance which didn't seem very roomy even with the 35mm tires it had mounted. How in the heck did they get a 2" tire in there I wondered? I had narrowed the bike down to a 1990, possibly a 1991, but neither of those year Grizzlys were available in celeste. Hmmmm.
So I started doing some research into my Grizzly and discovered that the bike, may, in fact, be a 1990 Project 7. I found this old reply post in a BF thread started by someone who was also confused about just what kind of Grizzly they had:
"What you have there is a 1991 Bianchi Project 7 [he possibly meant 1990, as the '91s did, I believe, have a Project 7 sticker]. I owned one new and a friend still rides it. Yes it has Grizzly stickers. There were no Project 7 stickers. Bianchi figured it was a top of the line MTB w/700 wheels so when it arrived w/o stickers they put some on. There were a couple other glitches. They had wanted a bike with a 71 head tube angle, which was still considered steep for a hardtail back then. Somehow the frames got made with 69 degree heads. Then the clearance at the stays was not much."
The Bianchi catalog I found seemed to back up the missing stickers claim as the 1990 Catalog shows a Project 7 with no sticker on the top tube. I also believe I can eliminate the 1991 P7 as it had Ukai rims, not the Araya VX-400 this bike has, and that came on the 1990, assuming they are original which I have no reason to doubt. The wheels are still sporting the OE Suntour XC Pro hubs. Any confirmation from any of the Bianchi experts here is much appreciated.
I also found an old Bicycle Guide article on the Project 7 that said only 125 were produced that 1st year, which if true is astounding -- and exciting (if in fact this is confirmed as a 1st run P7)!
In another post I'll add some more pictures taken in my garage last night and comment on all of the non-OE or stock equipment I believe this bike came with.