For EL-OS bikes (and possibly others), in the early 90's Columbus (the tubing manufacturer) supplied the forks pre-built to the manufacturers. My (non-bianchi) EL-OS bike has an identical looking fork that used columbus dropouts. When the welds at the crown started cracking, the distributer I bought the bike from gave me the explanation about the forks comming direct from Columbus when he supplied a warrantee replacement. I have never been particularly enamored with these "MTB" looking forks on a nice road frame, my other complaint is that they are sized for such tight clearance at the top that larger tires will rub the crown.