Friday, June 29, 2007

The Pink Bianchi

This was the first road bike I’ve had since… well… grade four…? I had a “five speed” then. This bike was probably not so bad in it’s day. I have no idea how old it is. I think the frame was butted cro-mo, definitely lugged and brazed. It was originally hot pink but had severely faded from years of just sitting in the sun. I discovered this when I removed the front derailleur as the clamp had kept the small part of the frame under it preserved.

I picked it up at Flash Cycle for $40. It had no front wheel at the time. I spent about $100 on a decent wheel with a double wall rim?! I put some new tires on it (Panaracer Stradius Pros? Another $50 or so?) and a different seat I had kicking around.

The original front derailleur broke one day – parts of it were plastic! One of the down tube shifters (also plastic) broke as well. These were both replaced by old Shimano 600 parts I found in the used parts bins upstairs at the Bike Doctor ($5 each).

I probably put a new chain on it at some point. For a while this might have even had one of my brooks saddles on it. I also found some old Shimano non-aero brake levers and rewrapped the bars with some pink cork tape I found.

It rocked. I rode it everywhere for a summer and a half. I even rode my first (and last, to date) two road races on it.

I traded it away to a friend when I picked up my Cannondale ‘cross bike and I’ve been kicking myself ever since. I swapped the Stradius’ onto the ‘cross bike for the summer and rode that everwhere and I fiured I didn’t need it anymore. Having horizontal dropouts it would have made an awesome fixey!? …well, except for the fact that it probably was a touch small for me.

I think I put different brake levers and a different front wheel on before I traded it away. Definitely kept my Books saddle…

(Remember: click on the picture for a bigger version)

The Bike Pile

I've aquired a few old beaters over the years. Some have been given to me by their owners, others salvaged from the dump, etc. I have no room to store them indoors anywhere so they remain outside. Some I've stripped of parts, others I'm not sure quite what to do with them. None of them are currently rideable. I just can't stand seeing them rust in the dump. They'll proabaly have to make their way back there someday... this was the state of them a winter or two ago...

Getting Started...

Well here I will post non-sense and pictures about bicycles... when I get around to it...