the beef

It comes down to this - yeh either got the passione celeste or yeh don't. And while road bikes in the celeste paint job account for nearly all of Bianchi sales in Europe; America has been notorious for, well... not feeling the passione. Some say the color comes from the eyes of the Queen of Italy or the sky above Milan, and some say that it looks like a shade of 'puke green'.

I personally would love to own a Bianchi in celeste. I even noticed that my garden hose was a sort of celeste the other day and I got really excited. And if I happened to actually puke up a shade of celeste tommorow I'd be thrilled! (Well, maybe not.) But I'm still curious to see if there are other bianchisti here that share the passione. What does celeste do for you?

branman1986

It gives me a stirring in my loins...I want one bad

OPC

Great color, but within reason. My Virata is a mostly Celeste frame ('05 model), but I will not go with Celeste pedals, tape, saddle, etc. Just the frame, thank you very much.

-José

Hipcycler

I think the bike in your first picture is drop dead beautiful.

It might be an age thing for some of us.

I just remember that back in college, that WAS the only color of a real Italian bike. Seeing that color to me meant the rider was on a really good bike. Celeste=Quality.

Me Like-ee....

Miller2

I have a Bianchi and it is not celeste. It is blue and gold. Thats what the shop had in stock as it was NOS. Frankly I could pass on celeste. If the bike I wanted at the price I wanted to pay was celeste I'd probably get it, but I wouldnt go out of my way.

Sawtooth

I can't think of another color I would rather have. I don't have one now but I will. The celeste is part of the draw for me.

pathdoc

My only Bianchi is an offroad singlespeed and its white. Wish it was celeste.

DocRay

Bianchi is the only frame company that has a distictive color that is part of its history.

R900

Is there any other color...



I've been looking at some carbon Bianchis, and they just don't have the same draw as a celeste bike...

John

Trogon

Very simply put, I think everyone who is serious about cycling should have at a minimum, one Celeste frame on their place. Maybe you ride it, maybe you never build it and let it hang from the rafters. But everyone should have one.

The nice thing is one can find them relatively easily and for not a lot of dough. My Boron XL came from eBay, NOS and only cost $400. It's currently built with Chorus, and is about to be stripped and turned into a single speed.

No collection is complete without one.

OPC

It has not been around as long, but I think Gios Blue gets a nod, too.

-José

necromancer

I painted my 1989 Schwinn Circuit Celeste. But hey, at least the tubing was from Italy.

Now I'm thinking of getting an '06 Vigorelli, but it only comes in red.

nobrainer440

I used to not care for it, but it grew on me.

sportbiker

When I bought my Bianchi in the mid 80s, celeste was reserved for Reparto Corse bikes. Even though my model was made in Italy it was a series bike and so deemed not worthy of the signature hue. Because of that, when I saw a celeste Bianchi on the road I knew it was one of the finest road bikes available from the land of fine road bikes. Nowadays celeste is available even on lower-priced models so, for me, the color has lost some of the exclusivity.

jyossarian

You pretty much know what it is as soon as you see the color. The Veloce's gonna be the bike I never lock up outside while my other two are my blue utility bikes that probably end up seeing more action and love. Still, when I finally decided on a roadie, the Veloce was the choice cuz it was steel, Italian AND Campy and not super duper expensive. The celeste green just grew on me.

euroford

as said above, frame only please, okay jersey as well. but the frame must be.

40-Dan

Buddy I ride w/ has one - WITH the matching jersey.

I'm not comfortable enough w/ my manhood to do that myself, but I can still admire it.

Dan

lsits

I rode my new Vigorelli with the club on Sunday. It was about 50-50 on the remarks about the color. About half said that they didn't consider it a true Bianchi without the Celeste. The other half said that they never liked that "baby puke green" but liked the red color. (Ferrari red?)

The red bike looks much better live than in the photos.

Wil Davis

I mine -





- Wil

my58vw

Of course I was not there to see the beautiful bike on Sunday (I was in vegas )

harlond

Couple years ago I worked with this guy, maybe 23 years old, he decided to move to SF where he wouldn't have a car. I had a 1991 celeste Bianchi, all Campy Chorus, that I didn't ride anymore. I told him he could have it, so he came over to look at it. He hadn't laid eyes on it more than 2 seconds before he said, "I could never ride a bike that color." And he didn't take it.

I like the color myself, but I'll admit it takes some getting used to.

brianallan

*sniffle sniffle*

the beef

Gah. Nice bike. Is that yours or somebody elses'?

I was just wondering about the Shimmy WHR-550s - what the heck?

brianallan

She's mine, now on campy wheels. Steel, my 23lb race bike.

the 550's are crap, but they were super cheap and I had a conversion casette, so it kind of worked out. Never again will I buy Shimano wheels.

mollusk

I had a celeste Bianchi in the early to mid 1980's: Columbus tubing and mostly Campy NR and SR, Record hubs with Arc-En-Ciel tubular rims, Brooks Pro saddle that I had owned on previous bikes, and PINK Benotto tape. I LOVED that bike. While I had ridden many road miles on other bikes, this was the one that got me to switch to real bike shorts and jerseys and to stop riding in tennis shoes and buy a pair of Dettos.

Then one night someone broke into my house and stole my bike. I then knew why horse thieves were hung. In my haste I settled with my insurance company and bought a highly modified Cannondale R-series bike as a replacement. If I had only waited a few months longer I could have gotten my ride back as it was instantly recognized at a local bike shop when someone brought it in for service. Too late for me because I didn't have the cash on hand to buy it back; that had been spent on my replacement ride. The bike shop that recognized it was able to buy it from the insurance company and needed to make a profit. I was able to buy the saddle at a reasonable price because it was worth WAY more to me than anyone else. I have had that saddle since 1980 and it must have almost 50K of my miles on it at the time. Now it has well in excess of 100K miles with my butt sitting on it and is on my rainy day/back-up road bike. My wife tried to buy the rest of the bike for me as a surprise, but they wanted more than we could afford at that time for a secondary bike.

So I have a soft spot in my heart for celeste. But somehow it should be a steel bike ... with Campy Super Record ... and tubular tires. Ahhh, first love. Nothing is ever quite the same.