My First Bianchi!
 

Turn back if your expecting something cool, Celeste or anything close to being cool. lol. Short story first because because I like stories. After my trip to Madison for the Cronometro swap this past weekend I was planning on picking up a Bianchi hybrid that was on CL for awhile. No dice since I forgot his info but stopped at Dream Bikes. I heard they were more like a co-op store with stuff really reasonably priced so that's a big bonus for me. I was walking around but didn't see much besides a decent Paramount MTB for $200. After walking out I checked out the bikes they had lined up outside and noticed a Taiwan made Bianchi Nyala MTB made more into a hybrid for $100. I said what the hell as it in decent shape and had all the tune up parts done(cables, chain, tires) and it rode pretty good.
I wasn't looking for something crazy but just shifts stops and looks decent. But I was thinking of giving cross county racing another shot. I'll keep it rigid but toss some beefier rubber on it and tossing my clipless and some better bars. One thing that I noticed that was a bit odd was the frame construction. It has would look like lugs but then the tubes are TIG welded to each other. Just on the top tube and on the down tube were it meets up with the headtube. Mondo Bizarro! So anyway it's a Bianchi and my first. Sorry it's not that exciting. With my part selection it'll be more of a quasi CX build since I have more road parts then mountain parts. :lol:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/DSCF3011.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/DSCF3024.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/DSCF3021.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/DSCF3019.jpg

ive seen tubes like that before, but i can not recall where.

i look forward to the cx build.

[SARCASM]If it's is not painted Celeste(*with a lisp*) its not a real Bianchi[/SARCASM]

Ouch! I took off the "Made in Taiwan" decal under the headbadge decal so it's cool now. Too bad they don't make long reach cantilevers cause I have a unused pair of perfect Campy low flange 700 tubular wheels.

I'm kidding, you know. I think Bianchi fanatics going ga ga over a color is dumb. I had a made in Japan Bianchi(blue) that I took in at a bike shop. The mechanic noticed my ghetto beat up bar tape and he suggested I get a [LISP]Celeste[/LISP] colored one to replace it. I never went back to that shop. I don't understand this obession about Celeste. It's just a stupid green pastel color that belongs on the set of the Golden Girls.

What's wrong with "Made in Taiwan"? It's the new "Made in Japan". Is it because it's not Eyetalian? Eyetalian racers cheat you know. I saw one put a bike pump through a poor American rider's wheel during a race causing him to crash. True story.

Half lugs? Interesting.

I just noticed the half lug stuff too after finishing up my troll.

Hmmmmm Did the poor American guy ride a red Masi? Hmmmmm Was his name Dave Stoller? Oooops! I seem to be Breaking Away from the main topic in this thread! ;)

The Super Lug construction was discussed in a previous B.F. thread .... http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/in.../t-667534.html

(I noticed the Tange straight gauge chro-mo sticker, as well as the superlug sticker)

how wide are those bars? the pic makes them look huge.

and the superlugs are pretty cool looking imo...

Thou thinks you lisp too much. (read what you like into the paraphrase).

The pictures do not lie. These things are honking huge with the Coda bar ends. The hybrid bars are coming off once I figure out what to use for bars. If I do drops what brifters will work with the Acera derailleurs(7x3)? Any suggestions? I don't really want to do barend shifters. Otherwise I could hack up some drops and do some bullhorns and keep all original levers and gripshift since they all work perfectly. The sofa saddle came off and now sports a white leather Concor saddle I picked up at the swap. I'm thinking of some 26x1.9 Kenda Smallblock since their not huge and have a small knobby pattern like on seen on alot of CX tires. I'm still debating on maybe heading back for that Paramount MTB as it's a Paramount and not a Paramountain in pretty good condition.

I have a Bianchi Nyala much like yours, but mine had double butted tubing. I like the frame pretty well, if you can deal with the 1 in headtube then it'll be great.

Here's my build:

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t...0613001427.jpg

It had a mix of Deore and XT parts on it. Now it's getting stripped and repainted, I'm going to rebuild it with some old Deore LX and a 90's Manitou fork.

Enjoy your Nyala.

Very cool ride Jonathan. Gives me hope for this Bianchi still! lol.

great looking Nyala. the SuperLugg construction would make it around a '95ish but i am not sure how long they used that style.

I always thought Celeste is simply a fancy name for turquoise, bike shops love colours like Celeste, because they can claim they need to special order it, so it's more expensive. What I don't get are the Celeste bike, with the Celeste tape, Celeste cable housings, Celeste saddle and Celeste tires. Simply because it's like those houses they build now with the whole house one colour, it gets boring. Now put the Celeste components on a Black bike, that would look cool. IMMNSHO on a Celeste bike, using Black actually looks better.

Update! She got quite the makeover the past two weeks to get her ready to play in the snow. Now that I want to dabble in commuting during the winter she had to get some loving. With just a hair under $100 invested in her. She's ready to tackle some NE Wisconsin weather on a twenty mile round trip commute.
I added the following
-Innova Studded tires($20 Craiglist)
-Schwinn rear rack($17 Walmart)
-Bell luggage bag($15 Walmart)
-Zefal front/rear lights($17 Walmart)
-Kalloy flat mtb bars(mine)
-Planet Bike fenders($30 Nasbar)
-Sakae pedals w/Christophe mtb clips(mine)
-WTB saddle(mine)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/135_0102.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/135_0099.jpg
I've got enough tools to build a bike in my bag or keep one running. Two multi tools, spare tube, patch kit, pump, zip ties ,bungee cords and still a decent amount of room for my lunch. I'll probably pick up bag for the front also to add some more luggage space. I've never had a bike built up like this before and think it's pretty rugged and cool looking. Normally Walmart isn't my main choice for bike items but I purchased the same light combo before and they worked great. Commuting starts tomorrow so wish me luck and hope to keep it under an hour for my ten mile ride.