imcorn

I was fortunate enough to find a bike that's been on my list for a while now, the Bianchi Equinox, which was Bianchi's almost top-of-the line "Cross-Terrain" bike of the time, just below its' flat bar brother the Project 7. I haven't been able to specify the year, but based on the spec it should be a 1990 or 1991 according to T-Mar in another thread. If anyone has a picture or scan of the 1990/1991 spec/geo, much would be appreciated.

I did receive it in rough condition and without a front wheel, but it looks like it will mostly clean up nicely.

• Tange Prestige fork and frame
• Full Suntour XC Pro drive train (NDS crank was cracked )
• Suntour XC cantilever brakes
• Suntour Command shifters
• Nitto 65 seatpost (to my surprise)

The frame is probably slightly too large for me, but I think I can make it work with a shorter stem (the original 120mm Nitto is a bit long for me). It will get a full strip and rebuild in the near future after my other projects are finished ('83 Specialized Expedition and '87 Bridgestone MB-1). In the mean time, I'll have to try find a matching wheel (36h Mavic Reflex SUP and XC Pro + Grease Guard hub), that I hope won't break the bank, as well as some replacement hoods or entire levers for the Suntour GPX levers on there.




Full Suntour XC Pro Drivetrain

GPX hoods are completely toast, but the Command shifters work great.

Nice surprise, a 27.2 Nitto 65 seatpost

T-Mar

Decal style is 1990-1991 but the colour combination for 1991 was a white, silver- neon yellow fade, so this should be 1990. Also, the 1991 brakes were Dia-Compe versus SunTour. Serial number?

bikemig 

I really like this bike. I had one pass through my hands that was celeste and in fine shape. I kept the parts and sold the frame because it was too large. One thing to watch out for is that I think it is built like a traditional cyclo cross frame which means that the bottom bracket is a little higher than a typical road bike. If the bike is already a little too large for you, that will likely make the problem worse.

If you do end up rebuilding this, the parts you need are easy to find if you are not set on staying with original parts. Any 110/74 bcd crank will do the job. I think this is spaced at 130 OLD, right? You could stick with indexing 7 or you could go swap the shifters for shimano bar ends and go with 8-9-10 in the rear.

imcorn

I'll likely rebuild/refurb back to spec, whether the fit is good or not, I have a good friend, and bike nerd, who would be able to fit it and take it off my hands. I believe it is 130 spacing, but haven't had a chance to take a deeper look yet. Thanks for the suggestion, I do have some more modern 10s roadie wheelsIi can always run in friction until I can source the parts I need.

imcorn

You're such a legend T-Mar. Thanks for the the amount of things I've learned from you by lurking the forums over the years. The serial reads "KS937466" and is also stamped "22" to the bottom left. I'm assuming the "22" denotes the size?

T-Mar

The frame was manufactured during November 1989, by Bianchi.s prime but unknown (to me) Japanese source. That's late enough in the calendard year to be a 1990 model. Besides, the decals are the 1990-1991 version and the 1989 version was only avialable in celeste and employed Shimano Deore XT. I don't known the meaning of the 22 but frame size sounds reasonable.

imcorn

The bike is mostly stripped and in the process of being cleaned. I'll go ahead and give the parts a good ultrasonic cleaning later today.

I am having issues with the BB, but am being patient with it and spraying it with penetrating oil daily. The command shifters also gave me a bit of trouble as the mounts are surprisingly low quality and rusted. I ended up breaking one of the mount's hardware. I spent a longer time than I would like to admit yesterday, digging through the McMaster-Carr website to find something I could replace the originals with. I'll be replacing all screws with stainless steel and I'm also considering stripping the mounting plate of its paint and respraying it.


Oops!

Poor quality!


I was able to source a '91 Suntour XC Pro crankset locally, however in 175mm instead of the original 170mm, but I think it will do. I'm still on the hunt for some Reflex rims and a front hub, but already have a lead on some. I also picked up a pair of lightly used Rock 'n Roads that I'm excited to try out - the 43mm width should be able to squeeze in.

Since the stem is too long as is, I'm also considering giving it the dirt drop treatment. Maybe a Nitto MT-10 and RM-3 bars? Or maybe even an LD stem?

Once all of the parts are clean I'll be moving on to sanding all the tiny rust spots on the frame and giving it a good wax.

Hi T-Mar !

Any chance you can look up what was the stock Nitto stem model for this in your catalog? I would love to find a similar one in a slightly shorter reach, let's say 100mm vs the 120mm it came with. Any help is much appreciated! I can't seem to find anything of note stamped on the stem itself.

T-Mar

Unfortunately, the catalogue does state the model only saying that it's " Nitto, heat treated & butted, 90 degree". I may be able to find the model in some of my retail catalogues of the era but don't hold your breath.

imcorn

No worries T-Mar that info is sufficient enough. Thank you for all the help again!

drewl

Curious, any progress on this build? Were you able to get the catalog scans? How rare is this model?

imcorn

I did get it in a running state, then the build got side tracked as I pulled some stuff to finish other builds (chain and cassette). I also swapped the bars to Sim works "To Smile" bars from the Nitto RM-14 shown that is reserved for another build. Everything has been cleaned and re-greased where necessary, but I still plan on working on the frame more by either lightly sanding the surface rust or giving the entire frame an Evaporust bath. I will also probably go back to the original cockpit once I sort out the hardware I broke and find a shorter similar 90deg stem. I'm also still on the hunt for the missing original wheel, so the Mavic Open Pros will have to do for now (which upon researching were the successor to the original Mavic SUP).

From the brief ride I took when it was running I loved it. It just felt very "sporty" and responsive.

Unfortunately I was never able to get any scans or find any elsewhere. I don't know how many they produced, but I believe this was specifically only made for 2-3 years before being discontinued. In the SoCal market they don't pop up ever, I've been looking for one for a few years and this was the only I've ever seen come up.

imcorn

I don't disagree with you, especially the bit on non-Bianchi Celeste bikes, but I also didn't buy this bike because it was simply a Bianchi (I'm far from a Bianchi fan). I just have a thing for 80s/90s bikes that were designed for "off-road" with drops and, for their time, wide tires (38c rear in this case). Not only does the Equinox hit all those boxes, but it was also built with Tange Prestige tubing, which typically was only used for the best steel MTB bikes of the era. I believe Celeste was offered for the Equinox, but not every production year had that option. This bike rarely pops up locally for me to be picky of the color.

katsup

Nice job on the bike. If you decide to pass it on, and your friend doesn't want it, I'm local .

I'd modernize it though.

ShannonM

Killer bike! In the late 80 & early 90s Bianchi were making bikes that the rest of the mainstream bike industry wouldn't start making for another three decades... which is weird, considering that the cycling press adored the original Volpe back in 1986, and every review asked the same question: "why is this the only bike that's built like this??!!?"

--Shannon

PS: I will propose one exception to the "if it's not a Bianchi, it shouldn't be painted in a color that anyone could reasonably call celeste green" rule, which is otherwise vaild:

The Rivendell Atlantis. It's always and only been available in that kinda-but-not-quite-celeste Testor's russian-submarine-bulkhead green color, and it's a fabulous-looking, unique, totally awesome bike, so it gets to hang out in celesteville. I bet Edouardo would have dug 'em.

--Shannon

drewl

I have the same bike in celeste. Any good options for pedals for this bike?

imcorn

I think it comes down to your preference. My bike came stock with Suntour XC Pro pedals. If you prefer flat pedals I do like the RaceFace Chesters, however, I don't think it matches the "vintage" look of the bike.

drewl

Yep, my thoughts, modern pedal with a bigger face, but something that appears retro would be nice.

imcorn

For anyone who's interested, I was able to find some mostly legible scans of the 1990 Bianchi catalog from an eBay listing for some geo and spec information. I also entered some geo specs on BikeInsights.

imcorn

I recently wanted to add that I found a 1991 Project-5 in a similar colorway and in a much better size for me. I basically swapped all the parts from my Equinox build over to the Project-5 (not shown).

katsup

Thanks for the scans. I ended up finding Equinox's little sister, the Tangent, and it's nice to learn a little about it. I bought mine as a frameset, so it's built it as a flat bar for the time being. It's a cool frame, I like both the fuchsia as well as my yellow.

ShannonM

Re: Pedals

Ideal would be XC Pro Grease Guards, but good luck finding a pair for less than "you've gotta be kidding me" money. Pretty OG, and a great choice functionally, would be Shimano Deore / XTs. Specialized or Zefal MTB toe clips would be appropriate.

If you're not going to be riding singletrack on the bike, and if you don't need period-correctness, I'm really, really loving my MKS Urban Platforms with Soma toe clips and Velo-Orange straps... the best uncleated road setup I've ever ridden.

--Shannon