Originally Posted by
martl
.. Except for Bianchi, Pinarello and Colnago. Of course I would dig a 50ies specialissima or a 60ies Colnago, but most are mass produced/outsourced very average bikes of their Era, nothing to them that a lot of competitors with less glamorous names didn't have as well.
I've always respected Bianchi in a weird way for this. They're like the Ford Motor Company of Italian bikes- there's something very egalitarian about how they were willing to put their brand name on the hallowed bikes of Coppi and (insert Italian cycling mythos here), but then go ahead and put that same brand name on a plain black Bianchi city bike. In the age of Specialized/Trek/Cdale/Giant/etc doing the exact same thing, maybe that's a silly thing to praise, but out of all the Italian companies, they always did seem the most like the everyman's bike company.
It also allowed them to do a lot of cool stuff, mostly involving 80s Japanese bikes with awesome Japanese tubing of that era. Some of them were mid-entry level bikes, sure, but a Japanese Bianchi with Ishiwata or Tange tubing will ride wonderfully, and Viratas with Tange Prestige are absolute killers. And early Bianchi mountain bikes might not have been Italian, but a Bianchi Grizzly/Super Grizzly will always be hot.