Please help me identify a vintage Bianchi I just brought home from the local bike recycling co-op. I'd put in a request for a 27" wheel road bike -- anything from a frameset to a complete bike -- and this showed up a week later. (If it's not bent, it'll be rebuilt with parts off my wrecked Nishiki.) It's missing its model decals entirely, and been stripped down almost to the frameset as most parts were only good for scrap according to the co-op mechanic. It has had a rough life. It was also only $20.

- serial number DS316540 on bottom bracket
- Ishiwata 022 CrMo double-butted steel tubes, forks and stays. Lugged. No labels on the dropouts, but the rear ones have adjuster screws.
- painted cherry red (metallic sparkles, like car paint) with chromed fork tips and stay ends. Chrome continues under the paint for some distance. Black cable housing and what used to be black cloth bar tape. Must have been gorgeous new.
- hexagonal decal near top of seat tube, Piagg[damaged] with a symbol like a playing-card spade.
- old-style cantilever brakes, probably alloy, Dia-compe. Front is still functional, rear is missing its cabling and the part that connects the two cables.
- brake levers, Diacompe drillium. Burnt plasticky goo indicates someone melted off the hoods!
- Suntour downtube shifters on braze-on mount
- other braze-ons: 2 sets bottle cage bosses, cable guides (top tube, under bottom bracket, drive side chainstay), plentiful rack/fender eyelets, derailleur hanger
- alloy stem and drop bars. Two stylized logos on bars with wreaths around them. Left side "win"? Right side "Winpista"?
- seatpost, Strong (Japan), probably alloy
- bottom bracket present but too greasy/dusty/rusty to see any labelling

I have no idea what that is but it looks like a great score for $20

Well, I've been trying to research this and having not much luck. So far decal style suggests early 1980s, latest 1987. I haven't got an earlier limit yet -- not many 1970s catalogs available for comparison. Between the red paint, the serial, and the Japanese parts, it's probably a Japanese Bianchi. (Not that I mind, since then it would be excellent quality.)

The combination of cantilever brakes and many eyelets on drop-outs probably means it was a touring bike. I can't even find a list of Bianchi touring models, though I did manage to rule out a few model/year combinations. It is probably from the Canadian or US market.

Anyone else got some ideas?

Welcome to the forums Wyn! The most likely candidate (IMHO) would be an '83/84ish Randonneur although ours came with a more pedestrian frame made from Mangalloy and had a vertical drop. Oddly Bianchis touring offering in that period had flat bars and regular side pull brakes.

Yes I am pretty sure this come from Japan. Are sure about the tubing? The Piaggio decal is the Parent company of Bianchi and for some reason (maybe Italian marketing?) most Bianchis carried that decal through this time period.

Thanks Bianchigirll. I had eliminated the 81 Nuovo Touring and 83 Rallye stock configurations. So I had been starting to think Randonneur too but had noted the tubing and colour didn't match stock. The 022 CrMo on the tubing decals is very clear but I will look again, and try to find the good camera.

So, because of the Piaggio decal, it can't be any earlier than 1980 no matter the styling. The chrome socks on forks and stays were trendy on 1970s bikes going by what I've seen (random internet + 1975 bike book). The early 80s Bianchis don't seem to have them stock -- all the ones I've seen are all paint, or paint with chrome fork, no chromed-both-stays. I will be taking a closer look at those chromed areas to see if they could have been originally painted over. (I can tell you it wore wheels on that chrome long enough to make marks on the drop-outs, though.) That suggests either this is a (1) red Limited frame with lots of paint worn off and touring braze-ons, or (2) custom finished frameset, probably Randonneur, because the buyer really wanted both pairs of chrome socks with sparkly red paint.

It depends which material your looking at online. A lot of the online Bianchi stuff comes from the states and Europe. Up until the later '80s, I think '89 specifically, the Canadian market bikes were different from US bikes. I have learned from this forum, T-Mar, Randy and many others that it seems chrome 'socks' were used on lots of Canadian Bianchis up until '87 or so and even all chrome forks on lower end models.


I can't tell from the pics but I think the shorter dropouts and under the BB cable routing would rule out anything much earlier than very mid '80s.

I think the chrome running under that paint is just manufacturing. The areas to be chromed are high polished but then the frame is dipped a few inches deeper so there is a few inches of 'rough' chrome for the paint to stick to creating a better transition area between paint and chrome. Of course I am not a smitty nor trained in the arts of metallurgy so that may all be crap.

I haven't been looking for Canadian material specifically, although I should try that next. I am happy with it having chrome socks -- I've wanted a bike with those since reading that bike book as a teen -- but you can see why they were a confusing clue, since all the material I had seen pointed to them as more a 70s thing.

I did find the good camera and batteries, so better pictures later in the hopes of solidifying the identification. And then perhaps I ought to get to testing the frame for straightness, so that I will know if I have bought a frameset or a good story...

Here we go, usable pictures at https://www.flickr.com/photos/bronwyn...7637281379335/

The tubing decals are definitely Ishiwata 022 CrMo, on both the seat tube and the forks. There is also a code, 0383, on the inside of the Dia-compe brake levers, which Vintage Trek says is a simple date code, so March 1983. I may find a few more when I start taking it completely apart for cleaning. The bottom bracket is Nikyo, with what looks like a measurement after it. (The only other mentions I can find of this company are also on Bianchis.) At least if it needs replacing I'll know what size to get. While on Vintage Trek I poked around, and the brakes look like Dia-compe 960s or GC960s, and the closest match on the Suntour shifters is the Blueline series, which had a touring rear derailleur, so that makes sense.

No luck in finding scans of any Canadian-specific Bianchi catalogs. I suppose I could ask Bianchi Canada or see if they know of any long-established dealers who might know.

Today I tried to check the frame for straightness, and as best I can tell, it is. Measurements that should match either match or are 1mm different at most. I can't feel any dents, and the tubes seem straight when compared to a straightedge. This frame looks like someone left it in a dump, and they set the brake hoods on fire, but the frame is still true, right down to the drop-out spacing.

Trying on the wheels -- my front 27" wheel fit, going by the position of the old brake pads. The fork seems to be straight, and the wheel seems to be out of true. (This front wheel was in an accident that killed my old Nishiki Rally frame, so if it can be trued and reused, I'm doing well.) I also tried to fit the rear wheel, but it wouldn't slide in. I think the diameter is ok (though I will measure again), and that the problem is the stay spacing. The spacing is 125mm on the frame, and my old wheel has a 6-gear cluster. I could either get help cold-setting the frame, or switch to a 5-gear cluster. Maybe I should get my old drivetrain parts evaluated, and see what's in the bike co-op parts bins, before making a decision.

Next I had better clean it and find out if anything is dangerously rusted. If not, I have a ridiculously good $20 frameset plus a story.

heres a old thread of a canadian user asking a similar question. the bikes look pretty identical.
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ce-%28sexy!%29

im guessing its a model for the canadian market. i have yet to see any canadian bianchi catalogs online unfortunately

I've been going through some of the older identify-my-Bianchi threads, and not getting much further except for one possibility. This bike looks a whole lot like the dark green tourer in https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ication/page10 , which is tentatively identified as a San Remo.

Please let it be a San Remo. Then I won't have to worry about the Randonneur fork recall from 1990!