Greg Softley does a number of vinyl grpahics, much easier to apply than varnish fix transfers.

https://shop.ebay.com/gts753/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562

for a number of his products, if you do not see it send him a message anyway.

Easy to deal with, but he is busy, the graphics are just a spin off business.

Vinyl, the Breakfast of Champions.

I am glad you found a beautiful Bianchi to enjoy.

Since I believe the bicycle is a 1988 Super Leggera, this seems like an appropriate thread to post in. I checked the catalogs posted earlier carefully, and the colors of seat and brake brackets match (owner told me all components were original).

Attaching picture. Seems to have Campagnolo everything...including brake pads. Crank has a number 32 with a square around it. Celeste seat. D/T shifters matching the ones in the 86 catalog picture (which Bianchi Girl has said is actually an 88, right?).

Just looking for an identification and an approximate value. This is my first road bike! Paid $150 for it. Did I get a decent deal? Thanks, everybody!

Dustin

Since this thread has come back to life, I thought I'd post an update on the frame that started it all a year and a half ago. Since then I've been accumulating parts and have almost finished the build. The 87 SL came with an odd variety of parts so I scrapped the idea of building a faithful recreation and instead have built it largely with Campy NR/SR (brakes, levers, crank, derailleurs, pedals (not pictured)), 1970s vintage Record High Flange hubs, some period correct pieces (Cinelli 66-44 bars, Bianchi labelled saddle) and some odds and ends I happened to have (90s Chorus seatpost, knock-off Campy hoods). I've been hunting for some Ambroisio Elite rims to replace the present Arayas. One really "off" item is the Technomic stem. I plan to ride her in a century this fall and needed the extra bar height to be able to survive it without crippling my back. Her maiden voyage awaits an overhaul of the Regina freewheel.
As you can tell from the celeste and blue water bottle cages, I'm in the midst of a debate over whether to trim the cages, bar tape and cables in blue or celeste. My prior Bianchis have all been all blue in those areas but I'm leaning toward blue cables and cages with celeste tape. I'll likely let me daughter make the final call, but if anyone wants to offer their opinion, I'm all ears.

Are you refering to the catalogs on the BUlgier site? yes the catalog (partial at that) listed as the '86 is actually '88. There are subtle differences between the '88 and '89 one being the frame the 88 being SL and '89 SLX unfortunately someone removed the tubing decals from the frame and fork. Another way is the decal and this one with the redline looks like a '89 to me. Does the shifter for the rear derailleur have a small lever next to the main lever? Or a knurled ring? The 2 levers would make it an '88. Eiter way that is a fabulous bike and I hope you enjoy it for a long time. That origianl Chorus is, IMHO, the most beautiful group Campi ever put out.

This looks FABULOUS!! I think this is much better than the OEM fit. I am not sure why Bianchi made that such a mishmash since the only two bikes above it were the Giro w/ DA and then the Mondiale with C-Record. (Well there was the X-4 but that was just a fancy Mondiale) It must of had something to do with either the availability of SR parts or the exchange rate at the time.

Personally I like to use blue housing and tape although I do have just about every combination imaginable. Black cables and Celeste tape, black cables and blue tape, even one bike with celeste Cables and one side of the bar blue and the other Celeste.

Thanks for your reply! Yes, it does have two levers for the rear derailleur shifter... I had been wondering about that design. It seems to shift more accurately if I keep off the smaller lever, so maybe it's a sort of adjustment device. '88 it is, then.

I am totally new to the Bianchi legacy and had no idea what "celeste" was until a couple days ago (or even down tube shifters, honestly). I'm having a blast, and am already very attached! (I've named it "Ferrari.")

I do plan on enjoying it a long time. I'm training up for a local duathlon next March, and the Bianchi is part of the plan to win it (I took 23rd this year with a 39-pound WalMart mountain bike). I'll post a link when I do!

For now, I'm just enjoying the beatiful craftsmanship of this machine. The D/T shifting is honestly addicting (almost like a stick shift), although it took a little adjustment. The day after I got it, I took it out of my shed three times to do loops around the neighborhood. This is an awesome bicycle!

Despite my lack of experience with road bikes, I took it on my 10-mile course and chopped two minutes off my previous best time with my old bike, and felt refreshed at the end instead of spent! Can't stop raving about this bike.

Did you happen to know offhand if you think I got a decent deal for this bike for $150? Thanks for your help again, and I look forward to making happy memories!

For $150 you got the deal of the century! That sold for about $1600 new and I worked 35-40 hours a week at a second job to pay for mine.

If that is shifting well don't mess with it. Keep it very clean and find a old mechanic who remembers when that bike was new, maybe he can fix it it is needs repair.

That smaller lever is to set the shifter to friction shifting should there be an issue with the rear derailleur, like getting bent in a crash or a wheel change with a team mate or something.

Thanks again! Everything does seem to be working just fine...it will even handily run through all the gears in one motion with no grinding, which is handy because I'm still a bit unstable shifting multiple times at max speed at the bottom of one hill just before starting up another...

You'll be pleased to know I'm not a modifier, so I won't be committing the sacrilege of painting it some awful color, turning it into a fixie, or swapping for brifters. From the beginning, I realized this was a bike I needed to change myself to fit, not the other way around. My reasoning is twofold: one, I'm cheap, and two, I realize this bike is approaching a museum piece. I love history!

$1600, WOW! These must have been some of the very best in their day, then! I might have been more willing to cough up the $150 if I knew that it cost so much to begin with. As it was, the guy gave me the bike for $100 less than asking probably because he liked the idea of getting someone started in road biking.

I don't see bikes like this come up for sale very often...how much are they fetching these days? I have seen a few of the early-80s models listed for $2-4k recently, but those were the top models in those years. By the late 80s these were a few steps down, no?

When you looking at high end Bianchis, or any bike for that matter you have to remember there were simply fewer of the top models. This is the lowest I have seen one go for and a real fluke. For a really lean one I might pay around $500.

As to the older Bianchis selling for 2-4K I think a lot of those sellers are dreaming. I have seen a few especially for the Europena market that while very nice, and in some cases obviously repaints, if you start looking real close you see things that don't add up. Incorrect brakes, wrong style of decal for the period, a bike that should have a mix of stuff being offered as original but it was converted to all Super Record.

Yeah, I have definitely seen some of those repaints with non-spec componentry. Some of those are nice, but, yes, I am definitely a factory type of guy. I am going to look at an 88 Superleggera tomorrow. Supposedly in like-new condition, being sold by an old fellow that used to own a shop a long time ago. It sat in a box for over a decade before he put it together, then rode it himself very little after that. Not quite as low as $500, but not too much more. We'll see...it sounds promising, but you never know.