Classic and Vintage Bicycles: What's it Worth? Appraisals and Inquiries - Bianchi Leggera

Have an opportunity to buy an 80's? steel Superleggera frame with everything except the wheels and chain as far as I can tell. I don't look at the Italian and French stuff very often, so don't know much about them. It has Campy chainset. How does it stack up to say a mid-range Miyata or Fuji of the same era?

blows them away. The SuperLeggera was the top of the line Bianchi. Should have Campy Super Record
components, and had tubular wheels.
There are scans of the 81, and 83 thru 86 Bianchi catalogs here:
http://bulgier.net/pics/bike/Catalogs/

Marty

You're getting me sorta jazzed over here. I've looked at your scans. The bike "frame", with some components, I'm looking at is Celeste blue with darker blue lettering on the downtube. I didn't see that in the scans. It's not the earlier, maybe an 87. The brakes are Campy, aero levers, with chrome rear triangle. Having looked at alot of 80's Japanese steel, I'd swear that the cranks are Sugino or Shimano of the 85-87 era. I don't see Campy cranks at all to place them. The frame comes with stem, bars, & levers. If the frame is sound, would this be worth $250?

Well, it's not all that I thought it could be. The only Campy on it are the brakes and 1 brake lever. Seems to have a mish-mash of Japanese parts from there. Shimano 600 crankset and 105 headset, SR seat post and bars, the stem just says "custom" on the front of it. I'm kinda disappointed and kinda stoked. The frame looks pretty solid to me. As I said, I don't know diddly about euro bikes and was getting an education from this site and others about Japanese bikes. How does this Columbus TX steel stack up to the high-end Japanese steel?

OK, I'll post to myself, because I just like seeing my own words on the internets thingy. I'm having to learn Italian which is funny cause I ain't got Engles down yet. I've been duped, it's not a superleggero, and not even an 80's bike. I'm appalled. It does seem to be a Bianchi, early 90's Columbus TSX. On the right chainstay it reads "Costruita nel reparto corse". Apparently, Bianchi makes a bike named Reparto Corsa. That's all I have for now.

Did you buy this off of Long Beach Craigslist?

Reparto Corsa is the name of Bianchi's race department.

Ya. That's the one. Know anything about it? I'm pretty clueless about Italian bikes. And just clueless about the others.

Imagining the potential!

$250 for a rough TSX frameset with rough high-mileage components is kind of high. By the time your done with it you'll have $450 into and its still going to rough.

Regardless of it being a 'reparto course' 'made in Italy' Bianchi, $250 is high.

Yes, I agree. The right price was probably between $150-$200. But I'm not a bike flipper, I just wanted a quality bike frame that I could work on and be proud of owning. This one's pretty rough, but the frame seems very straight and sound and the size seems to be spot on. I'm looking forward to riding it. A few other factors about the price: If you've been following the asking prices for steel bikes in the bay area to LA these days, they are out of sight. A lower end Miyata, Fuji, or even some other the more obscure stuff with start out at $250-275 if they are in ridable condition. Forget about Trek. I've also had the experience of having bikes that I really wanted sold very quickly even though they had just been posted. So I was willing to pay a little more to ensure that I got this one. The intangible, I like the bike. And finally, I felt that I had some banked good fortune that I felt made up for any over pay on this one. In the past 2 months, I found an 80's Specialized Expedition at a garage sale that I bought for $25. Then I found a Giant Cadex 980c at the Goodwill that they were selling for $39.95. That's the one with the 105 group that I will use on this bike. Two and a half bikes for $315. My wife is concerned, but I'm pretty happy right now.

The bike is cleaning up real nice. I can't wait to ride her. Spent the 4th BBQing a brisket, drinking Sam Adams, and cleaning this bike. It's my first time breaking a bike completely down, except for the BB, don't have the tools for that and wanting to replace the headset after I noticed pitting around the fork race, but don't have the tools for that either. Couldn't find a headset anyway. Called every bike shop for 20 miles and none of them had a 1" ISO threaded headset.

I still don't know the model or year. Even took it to a Bianchi dealer, he couldn't tell but thought it probably was a Super Leggera. Not sure I trust his judgment though, I handed him the brake and he sold me some Kool Stop pads for it, turns out there the wrong ones. I need the ones with the notch cut out in the middle for the retainer bolt. Anyone have a good method for cutting this notch without butchering the pads?

Amore Italia style. Finally done. Cleaned up real nice I think. First complete bike build except for BB and had cups and race pressed on. Never found out the model. I'm thinking mid-90's though.