Fairlane63

Well I recently picked this up from my local CL. It looked so original and in great condition so I had to buy it. All original sans grease tape and cables.

Not a lot of information about this model but what I gleaned from this and a few other sites is maybe this was third down from the top of the line for 85?

It rides incredibly smooth quiet and fast. Could not be happier as I wanted to get my feet wet in a vintage steel road bike. Alwaus wanted a Bianchi in Celeste but this blue really speaks to me too. Blue is my favorite color after all.

My older brother always had great Italian road bikes with the exception of a chrome Paramount when I was a kid and could not afford one. Well this spoke to me and when I ride it I think of my late brother. Good feeling.

This is a minute and a half ride from my office. Some great trails and streets to ride at lunchtime.






Seems to be a one year tube type in 85?

Full Campy Victory components.

JSL

Very nice :-) I always thought the victory crankset was underrated and looks absolutely perfect on your bike.

Soody

gorgeous

Bianchigirll 

Beautiful. That is a fabulous looking Bianchi, I wonder if it was ever ridden. Yes despite all the money and time spent on research and development of this fabulous tubing Bianchi transitioned to their Formula tubing in ‘86.

T-Mar

In my opinion, the 1985 Bianchi Special tubing was a marketing faux pas. Bianchi offered 14 road models in 1985 and exactly 1/2 of those were spec'd with the Bianchi Special tubeset. It's common practice to use the same tubeset on multiple models but it's typically only two or three models. Using the same tubeset on seven models, is excessive. I doubt owners of the 2nd from the top Mondiale appreciated riders on a 9th position Limted coming up to them and saying ," Yeah, well your Mondiale may be a $1,000.00 more expensive but my Limited uses the exact same tubeset and only weighs 1 lb more!" A friend of mine who had a Bianchi dealership at the time, told me that it was very hard to upsell a consumer to a higher model, when so many models used the same tubeset.

From a marketing perspective, it was wiser to sub-divide this large model range with several distinctive tubesets, to provide more individuality for the models. Consequently, 1986 saw this model range split into Columbus SL/SP, Formula One and Formula Two. I believe the marketing and sales disadvantage was the reason why the Bianchi Special tubeset only lasted a single year and that one of the Formula tubesets was simply a renaming of Bianchi Special.

JRD

WOW...That is a nice find! Congratulations!

smd4

That bike is in amazing condition! Beautiful.

hbsyncro

Super clean. Gotta love the white hoods!

poprad

Get your feet wet? I'd say you jumped right into the deep blue end of the pool! Congrats on a great find, that looks like a rider for sure. Maybe your brother had a hand in that discovery...

Fairlane63

Thanks for all the information and kind words. Bianchigirll that is an amazing reference and a picture of the same color bike!
T-Mar I wondered after doing some limited research why they changed the tubing formula for 86 and 87. That makes sense now. I am not a small guy, 6'2, 225 and the frame is rock solid so whatever formula they came up with its very rigid and sturdy.
Might change the seat though as there are so many better ones on the market now and just put this one away for safe keeping.
Compared to my mountain bike(s) I have ridden for years this is a big change and when I am on it I feel like I am back in Jr. high when we rode our 10 speeds everywhere and racing your buddies to see who had the faster ride.
Hard to beleive we would give friends or better yet girls rides on them home, to the store or to the movies etc. How did we do that?

VtwinVince

What a beauty, and in my size. I would have grabbed that in a heartbeat.

smd4

Looks like the chaistays don't have those crimped "dimples" to make room for the chainwheels--always an added mark of quality in my book.

That bike is a real survivor. A stellar example of mid-80's bike goodness. And I like the blue way better then the ubiquitous Celeste, anyway!