Baldanzi

I don't get it? Dodging what question? - I NEVER said the parts did not exist. The only bike [I know of] that is part of the cycles europe/bianchi empire *and* has at least track ends is one of their carbon fiber track bikes.

I was (I thought) taking my time explaining the big differences in Bianchi USA and Bianchi. There were several posts here regarding - "oh the f-d up and could have used the Milano/volpe/san jose frame". I thought I was trying to be in the spirit of these forums and "share" some insight. Just because we (a bunch of forum sufing monday-morning quarterbacks - like me) think its "easy" doesn't mean we know what thier business orginization is capable of doing between divisions and between continents. The Panigale is for Europe....the Bianchi USA bikes are not available over there. Also as I said, for whatever reason, There are VERY FEW bikes on the market in Italy that use internal hubs. There is not one internally geared bike in all of cycles europe's brands. Cycles Europe is a huge company and could have done the bike right - but did not. Obviously they could have made a frame with track ends or front facing horiz drops.


I really hate to use wikipedia as a source...but its the quickest thing I can find right now....

Bianchi USA is the United States division of Bianchi. Located in Hayward, California, they produce bicycles specifically (and only) for the American market, which are built in Taiwan and Italy. The design director for Bianchi USA is Sky Yaeger. The "Chick Designed" decal on some of the US bikes is a reference to her. In the United States, only the Reparto Corse range are still produced in Italy. Non-Reparto Corse models are not available elsewhere.

Do a web search for "Sky Yeager" and you start to understand the huge differences in the Bianchi USA bikes and the Bianchi europe stuff. If it was not for her, it sounds like there never would have been a Milano, Volpe, San Jose, etc. She really understood the USA market and the whole fixie/singlespeed/internal hub/steel-is-real trend in the USA. When you look at the dogs breakfast of a bike that Panigale is you can see she had NOTHING to do with it.