shotshot

So today I bought a really sweet Bianchi Pista, vintage track bike. I looked at catalogs here https://bulgier.net/pics/bike/Catalogs/Bianchi-85/5.jpg and my bike looks exactly like this one in the 1985 catalog right down to all the stickers etc. but I have been known to get these things wrong lol. The bike is in amazing condition, a couple of scratches here and there but no weathering or rust whatsoever. This Pista was hung up in a garage for the past 20 years and never ridden. The rims are tubulars which sucks so even though the entire bike is stock I'll have to get a new wheelset of clinchers. The wheelset is Montreal Ambrosia 700c tubulars, Ofmega track hubs, still with original Vittorias if anyone is interested in them. One strange thing about this Pista is that it has no serial on the BB or seat tube. I looked everywhere and couldn't find a serial #. Maybe I'm just missing it but I really can't believe it just doesn't have one, not like it's a prototype or something. All in all I love the bike and with a new set of wheels, maybe a longer stem, some sweeter drop bars I will really be happy so I guess you can't put a price tag on that but I feel like I paid a premium. I spent $700 on it. I did some research beforehand and couldn't find anyone selling anything similar in any size (mines a 52 cm). Not on craigslist, not on ebay, nowhere. I found some info about them going for $500 + back in like 2005/2007 but no more info lol. If anyone can tell me if $700 was a good deal I'd appreciate it. Thanks for reading my long ass rant

FastJake

Sweet bike! Keep the original wheelset when you put the clinchers on, it belongs with the bike. No idea on the price, but if you're happy with it, who cares. I think you did just fine.

jmagruder10

I think that is a fair price. I am a track bike collector ,but not an expert on Bianchi. I know Bianchi made two models in the era of this bike the top bike was the Super Pista and the lower model was the Eco Pista and I would have say this is the Eco version. The super pista had Campy dropout and campy equiptment. But it is a very nice bike,I also would keep the original wheelset with the bike.

Poguemahone

Decent price on a vintage lugged trackie. You done fine.

shotshot

Thanks for the responses and the positive feedback I know, as long as I'm happy price really doesn't matter but I didn't want to find out the bike was worth like 300 and I paid over double lol. I agree that I want to keep the wheelset but I can't rely on tubulars, the tires are so expensive and not all bike stores have them readily available, plus from what I understand I have to wait for the glue to dry and all this just to avoid pinch flats which I never get. Unless I'm just not aware I can put clincher tires on tubular rims. I could re-lace the hubs to new rims etc but that would be costly compared to getting a vintage clincher wheelset off craigslist. I did some research on this frame and it doesn't seem to be an eco-pista and definitely not a super pista, I could be wrong but I believe they sort of combined those two bikes and released this one being just "Pista" around that time.

norskagent

you can not put clincher tires on tubular rims. You can either build or have built clincher wheels w/ your hubs + clincher rims + new spokes, or just buy a set of clincher track wheels, which would be cheaper most likely.

FastJake

You can get good inexpensive clincher track wheelsets here: https://www.velomine.com/index.php?ma...ihsej5dm86cm47

In your choice of color (if applicable) then keep the tubulars for show, racing on the track, when you sell the bike, etc.

Bianchigirll 

Great looking Pista! I agree, considering the condition of this bike you did pretty well. The bike is actually an '86 as pictured in the Bulgier link, that is not the '85 catalog. here is how I can tell, 2 bikes per page V 1 in the '85 catalog, the Centenario is wearing Cobalto brakes instead of Deltas, and also that red line across the top. The Folks at Bulgier did a great job posting catalogs but got a few years mixed up.

Also '84 seems to be the last year of the Eco and Super, there was no '85 Pista cataloged, and the '86 model was just called Pista.

As for the wheelset, unless you can relace the wheels you better off buying a set of prebuilt clinchers with a 'flipflop' hub. then simple remove the tubular wheels and install the clinchers. I would suspect that with tires you can wheels for half what it would cost to rebuild your hubs. I bought a set of road wheels from this place and they seem like nice wheels for short money. these would be perfect for that bike. OH is it drilled for brakes? If not I would not ride it on the street. https://www.bikeisland.com/cgi-bin/BK...heelsets-Track

shotshot

Thanks for clearing that up bianchigirll What the hell would all of us Bianchi owners do without you? I'm happy with 86! I'm definitely going to look into all the wheels everyone mentioned and thanks again for all the <3. When I get the bike all set up proper like I'll take a few nice pics with my dslr and post them. No worries on the fact that it's not drilled for a brake, I'm an old (semi old haha) nyc messenger and have been riding fixed for many years. Strangely over the years I always fantasized about having a vintage Pista but never found one, at least not in a size I could ride so finding this bike was like a dream come true :~D

shotshot

@bianchigirll : You wouldn't happen to know why I don't have a serial # on this frame? I've owned other vintage Bianchi bikes and can always find the serials either on the seat tube or BB but there is nothing on this one. Is it really possible that these 86 pistas had no serials or is it just hidden somewhere?

Bianchigirll 

Thank (blushing) You. No I don't did you look under the BB shell? the dropouts, headluggs and seat lugg? left side bottom of the seattube?

Some of my Bianchis from '86/87 have hard to read serial numbers it is always possible that it is simply obscured by the paint. Perhapsn it was accidentally omitted. I know Bianchi never did a good job of tracking serial numbers, I suspect they only used them as means to track batches for recalls.

shotshot

Yeah, I looked everywhere imaginable but still couldn't find a serial