I fear robots as much as the next man, but don't robots make most of our bikes now?

Stupid robots, they always seem like your friend but then they start with the carnage...

are you sure they are made by robots? most bikes in taiwan are made by humans.

All entry level pre-built track bikes must sacrifice quality in certain areas to get the price low. Like Ira said - entry level bikes are often made from cheaper tubing, skimpier hubs and rims, and so-on. If your Pista/Langster/ect. is your first track bike then you probably won't have an idea of what you really want in a bike until you have a chance to ride the hell out of it.

I recently sold my first off-the-peg track bike and now ride something that I built to my own liking. But I wouldn't have been able to put together the Spicer without knowing what I did/not like about riding. Thats what the first bike helped me figure out.

I see some around here, not a lot, more green than chrome. I like em, had a good first impression slavering over the chrome ones at a BTAC show.

Dude, my bike (which just hit FGG; #3,303) wishes it was a Pista. But I couldn't talk my wife into the expense of another new bike, so I had to convert an old Strada LX.

Love your Pista. I do.

here's my issue with the bikes, it's that people aren't buying them so much to ride, but instead to be a part of the hip new thing (ok not new, but you get it).

I look at most things from my perspective, as that's pretty much the only one I know to be true. My first fixed-gear was a conversion, that I built myself, and I ride the hell out of it. Do I ride it to get noticed by some hot fancy lady walking down the street? NO! ok, well yeah... hell, I'd be hoping to get seen just walking down the street, but my insecurity's are not what's up for debate right now....

any way, back to what I was saying, I ride my bike because I love to ride, and I found fixed gear to be my prefered style of bike. Not because it's hip or cool, but because I love the simplicity and the challenge. So when I see someone riding a fixed gear to be hip, screw them. And most people who are doing this are riding chrome bianchi pistas...

sorry this is all a bit jumbled and nonsensical, I'm not currently sober...

drink more!

bull****. you should be ashamed of yourself.

You don't like the bike because you don't like the people on the bike. I'll assume you've never really got to know any of these people, nor have you ridden the bike. Drunken Bro, you're wasting your brain cells.

bianchi rules

haters: 0

lovers: 1

I ride a 2005 chrome Pista, I got this bike for $300 bucks. It replaced my Specialized HardRock. I use it to commute to and from work and run errands. I also like to do laps in Central Park or ride up to Nyack when I get the itch. It all goes back to what you do with your bike. Look at all the fat roadies riding on $3000.00 full carbon rigs who can't climb a hill to save their lives. If everyone just rode there bikes and quit with making it some sort of scene, things would be a lot cooler, since when does riding a bike make you tough or elite. Maybe I'm just cranky, it was long day.

bull ****? Yeah, good point, can you point out anything in specific as to why I should be ashamed?

you're right I don't know anyone who rides one, you got me, I guess that girl I knew who bought one just to be a part of the hip dc barista scene was a figment of my imagination. Seriously you don't know me, so how can you say what I know?

The drummer in my band rides one as well, with him he was 16, really liked fixed gear, as it was within his means, he got a chrome pista, and he rides the hell out of, and not just to bars...

and yes bianchi's are pretty rad, but only riding one to be cool is not. as someone's signature used to say "fixed gears are the new white belts" or something along those lines.

It's kind of like diesel jeans, the may be nice pants, but f the hipster socialites that wear them for status. hipsters are the new yuppies.

The anger directed at those who disagree with you is consistent with what you reveal in the original post.

i've never met or seen somebody who rides a bianchi pista, or fixed gear at all, just to be cool or hip. i think the pista-riding hipster is a myth. a myth, i say, a myth.

right.... you don't like my opinion so obviously I'm angry. I'm just lashing out at the world. It's my opinion, you can accept it or not, I respected everyone else opinion, and called out those who I beleive to be attacking me personaly.

I didn't like it when everyone and their mother got into skateboarding, it made previously affordable parts crazy expensive, and affordable parts junk. Companies like IRO make affordable quality products, well not make but assemble with quality parts. where as most of the "affordable" bikes coming out use low end parts that end up wearing out super fast, and costing the owner more than they were initialy intending to pay.

The people who ride the bike and do so just to ride, right on, those who ride it to be cool, lame. No the bike itself is not lame, but it definately has become the flag for hipster bike crew.

And a pista is still more fun to ride them my slack ass angled conversion.

I'm sure that recumbants are fun to ride too.......................

Ah, but the big question is, is that are you a hipster for bagging-out on the Bianchi coz it's not an NJS Nasagawa....or are you a hipster for buying one in the first place?

*strokes chin*

I ride a schwinn traveler conversion, with IRO wheels. the nicest part is my cinelli stem bar combination...

I'm not rich enough to be a hipster. call it class envy if you want. I call it growing up on a farm.

what year were they gray/grey? i just saw one today in a looooong time and was reminded at how FREAKING AWESOME those are. now if i can get the answer i need i will promptly begin rooting around to pick up a frame set for 3 dollars and a small fry.

2003

I'm pretty sure your Pista was made by aliens. Enjoy the ride!

So answer me this -- why does it matter to you if people bought one just to be hip? Why do you care that some chick bought a Pista to be part of the barista scene? Isn't that one less car being driven as a part of the barista scene? Isn't it good that Bianchi is selling bikes?

Does their purchase of a Pista -- or their reason for buying one -- have ANYTHING to do with how much you like riding or your reasons?

I'm with you, man.
I couldn't give less of a **** why people buy the bikes they buy.
Or anything else for that matter.

no, but hipsters riding around, not knowing how to properly stop their bikes, running into things, messing up their bikes, and... their... pretty... faces. . . . . . . ok now I'm for them.

seriously, I'd rather see someone riding safely on a recumbant than out of control on a fixed gear.