Maybe news of Bianchi's current crop of great bikes has not made its way to Nebraska.

For the last several years Bianchi has been doing an outstanding job of building fine bikes; not just racing bikes but all across the range from commuter bikes to mtb's to racing machines. The Oltre is a fine machine; it is competitive with the best road bikes around. On the other hand, the Bianchi Methanol 29SL is an outstanding mtb.

Several Pro-tour teams have ridden Oltre and Sempre bikes to podium position.

There may not be much hype about Bianchi bikes in your neck of the woods, but the rest of the world has certainly taken notice.

As for people's reverence for old Bianchis, over their modern counterparts, some of that reverence may be misplaced and due, to a some degree, to a lack of knowledge about Bianchi history. For most of its history, Bianchi was a huge manufacturing company. Unlike many of the boutique Italian bike makers, making racing bikes was not Bianchi's only business. Along with top end bikes ridden by the likes of Fausto Coppi, Bianchi made a lot of "Walmart-type" bikes aimed at an Italian market where bikes were the principal mode of transportation. Post WW2 Italy, like many of its European counterparts, was a country in ruins. Unemployment was high, people were poor and the infrastructure was in shambles. Accordingly bikes were the key to economic survival for most Italian families. (For an interesting and accurate take on the importance of bikes in post WW2 Italia, take a look at the movie The Bicycle Thief.)

Bianchi sought to capitalize on this need for bikes by mass producing a LOT of bicis. So along with the pro bikes that Coppi and others rode, Bianchi also made a lot of cheap bikes. As BianchiGirl herself may attest, not all Bianchis out there are "hot commodities" (or as hot as some of the sellers in eBay or Craigslist would have us believe) worthy of the high selling prices that these sellers are asking for. (If you want to know if an older Bianchi bici is hot or not, ask BianchiGirl, I have been following her posts here and she knows her Bianchis.)

Some older Bianchis, especially the ones built with Columbus steel (especially SLX) and sporting chromed lugwork, are true works of art that are also fast on the road. Many older Italian steel bikes of that era are equally beautiful and functional. On the other hand, the newer crop of Bianchi bikes, like the Oltre and Sempre are beautiful, fast machines. If I had not bought my Colnago C59, I would have certainly bought an Oltre to join my Infinito and my 1989 Bottecchia.

Billy, send me an IM the next time that you are in So. Cal. and I will show you some beautiful new Bianchis.

Peace out!