So the other day I picked up this bike for a pretty good price. The decals look totally aftermarket but I figured even if the frame was a total flop it was still worth what I paid for it with the Chris king headset, campy record crank, and mavic wheels. The only reason I'm fairly sure it is an actual Bianchi is the name etched into the upper left side of the bb shell. The only serial numbers I could find are stamped on the underside of the bb shell which are 55 and H357. Nothing stamped on the dropouts or anywhere else that I can see. Some other things that don't really add up are the factory drilled spots for front and rear brakes and internal cable routing for the rear brake despite it having horizontal track drop outs and track geometry. The guy I bought it from picked the frame up from a local bike shop who he claimed got it on consignment from some guy along with a second frame. He didn't have any other information on it, not even a year but it has to be fairly new as it's tig welded and has a 1 inch threadless steerer tube.
Can anyone help me solve this mystery? Is there a better spot on this forum for this question to go? Any help would be appreciated!

I'll have to look through some of my late 2000 catalogs but something is surely amiss here.

To my knowledge Bianchi never used a SLX Bianchi decal I am not even sure the SBX decals said Bianchi. The decal style looks wrong for a tigged frame, not to mention the orientation of the seattube decal. I think the straight blade fork is not a Bianchi thing.

I believe most of Bianchi later Pistas say late '90s when a "fixie" became hip were track geomentry but drilled for brakes. The internal cable is another matter.

Any pics of the dropouts?

I'll take a few more pictures in just a second, any other parts of the bike you'd like me to take a picture of while I'm in the garage? Thanks for replying! My friend steered me towards posting on this site and said hopefully you would chime in!

I've got that same Salsa bottle cage on my Paramount! Cool find

I got some more pictures, the drop outs do have Campagnolo stamped on them along with something else I can't quite read.

The seller kept bringing up how much he loves those salsa bottle cages and puts them on all of his bikes. It is a nice cage!

Well I a little stumped. I will say I am certain it is a repaint and the decals are replacements. I don't believe since maybe the mid '80 if even then Bianchi put CampI decals on at the factory. The headbadge appears to be badly off center in the vertical and the Columbus fork decals are way too high. Again I don't think there was ever a SLX Bianchi decal but there was a SBX Bianchi decal, but that tube set was designed exclusively for Bianchi.

I don't see any reference to internal brake routing on any of the RC Pista frames. I also don't see a tigged frame with standard round tubing, most have the noticeably oversized DT that ovalizes at the BB. I can't imagine anyone went to the trouble of taking say a EL frame and putting track dropout on it and also having it rechromed, nor can I see someone having internal cable routing pout in a Pista frame.

I may pass these along for someone to look at and see if he has any ideas.

Thanks so much for looking in to this for me! I may give the shop the previous owner bought it from a call today and see if I can get some extra info from them. Bianchi never did any custom work or limited edition bikes recently have they? I just can't imagine it not being a Bianchi with the name pressed into the BB shell and the serial numbers do seem fairly small.

I agree with BG, this is a strange bike.

Not only is it strange to see internal brake cable routing on a Pista, but it also has water bottle bosses, which is also highly unusual. Those rear dropouts, the high flange hubs and that geometry do spell track, but the other things say urban fixie...

Better get some clips on those pedals!

Looks pretty nice though. Do you have a full view picture of the bike, (that's not upside down?)

It must have been made for the Australian market.

The first thing that struck me as odd was that it appears to be a welded SLX frame. SLX decals are readily available, though.

Me too. Also I don't recall Bianchi ever using a SLX/Bianchi decal.

And that is one mystery the OP can easily solve although it may require removing the BB to do so

OH RATZ!! he can't do that with the TIG construction. Maybe he can see the ribs in the TT but I doubt they are actually there.

My contact at Bianchi is stumped too. He will look around a bit but I doubt we will get to the bottom of this.

Are the dropouts Campagnolo?

Is there any markings on the fork ends? is the fork steel? Are there actual bosses for the bottle cage? What do they look like? Would you be willing to remove the fork and see if there is anything on the steerer tube?

I think I have an answer. I overlooked something when I trying to figure out the SLX thing.

Sorry some of the pictures were wonky! Here's a better one. What exactly can I look for that might help you guys identify this frame? I work at a bike shop so I can get the bottom bracket out easy enough if I needed to. The guy I bought it from got it as a frame and fork set from a different shop and built it up himself so none of components would match up to a stock Bianchi. It has a 170 Campagnolo record pista crank set, chris king head set, origin8 hubs laced to Mavic CXP22 wheels, WTB saddle, origin8 seatpost, easton stem, generic riser bars, clarks grips, and some cheaper alloy flat pedals. It's set up as single speed currently but I'm getting a track cog and lock ring and then I'll put some cages or clipless pedals on it. He also threw in some ergo drop bars with lizard skin brake levers and a second easton stem.

Drop outs are stamped campagnolo, it has actual bottle cage bosses, the fork is steel and I don't see any markings on the fork ends. I could take the fork off tomorrow at work to check the steerer tube.

What a great find and an interesting thread to read! Like reading a murder mystery and BG is honing in on the culprit...

Pedal4ward - I agree with the statement in your opening post.. even if someone went through a lot of effort to make the frame look like a Bianchi, you still got some great parts! And the last pic you posted, it looks like a nice bike - so regardless of the outcome it looks like you'll be able to enjoy a great ride!

Just call me Kinsey!!

Everytime I think I have a answer something else tells me I am wrong. If I thought it would help I would ask you pull the BB to confirm the presence of the ribs to see if we are dealing with SLX tubing but I am afraid the tig construction will make that impossible. I am using tig as a generic welding term.

At first I thought this was a road frame someone drewed and made into a FG with dropouts but why spend the money to rechrome and repaint?

Then I thought it was a Pista that someone put bottle bosses on when repainting but then I remembered the internal cable thing.

The one thing I am 99.9999 percent sure on, maybe, is this is not SLX. It is a good bet it is one of the Nicacrom tubesets but which one and was it a road bike turned pista or a pista turned Fixie?

Very intriguing as I had thought TIG frames meant no Campagnolo dropouts. I would say not a Bianchi but the stamped BB shell leaves me wondering. Just an FYI, the cranks are road not pista.

Ah thanks for the heads up! Any idea what year the crankset is?

So another thing I noticed today was the seat cluster lug seems to be off center. It appears to be purely cosmetic and doesn't change the ride quality of the bike at all but it is something I feel a company like Bianchi would catch before it shipped out. Could someone have possibly built there own frame somehow with a Bianchi bb shell or stamped that themselves? But why would anyone go through all the trouble of hand making a custom frame to their particular tastes and then go through even more trouble to make it look like something it isn't? It's like the farther we get into this the more confusing it becomes. Do you guys think it would be worth contacting Bianchi on and running the serial numbers by them? Hopefully they would have documentation of it seeing as it had to have been made in the past 15 years.

I already did and he is stumped too.

it's an either 9 speed or 10 speed Record crank, from 90's.
still doesn't mean anything to identify where this mystery frame is from.

my wild guess is kinda opposite to what ppl have been wondering.
what if someone mod'd a pista frame with internal routing and the bottle cage bosses and repaint it?
it's hard to guess someone replace DOs and chrome it, but the other way is relatively easier, right?

the frame geometry seems quite aggressive—still don't know about the straight fork tho—so it might well have been a track frame?