you're not posin if you're ridin it

I own a 2005 Bianchi Pista. My longest ride on it was the Tour of Hope in Washington DC.

In this area it is a perfect fast city bicycle.

I really do not care what others think but I will listen and learn.

I "personally" prefer to use a bicycle as designed; which is the real reason for purchasing the Pista.

The Bianchi Pista seems to be a good value but I would have preferred Celeste paint to Chrome finish.

Stay away from the applecart guy, someone I know got a bike from him and the frames was bent pretty badly.

Nope Campagnolo never made frames, maybe the frame you found has Campy droupouts, or some other parts.

And what about older true track frames/bikes? If you look around a bit, you could probably find something for a price comparable to what you'd spend on a Pista, or building up a steamroller. Granted, I'm talking used, but a bike used only on the track usually doesn't get that much abuse unless it's been crashed.

Sorry, not a Campagnolo frame, a "Campania" frame, which as far as I can tell, Google doesn't think exists. It's just an old ten speed steel frame, nicely lugged, but a little on the heavy side. I figure it will be a good experiment for converting: the strip down, the clean up, the new parts, the rebuild. If I screw up, I haven't messed anything nice up; if I don't enjoy riding fixed gear, no big deal either. If I love riding fixed, well, now I have some experience for building a better machine.

Or... maybe I'll just go buy a Pista. I would have to repaint it though. I think the chrome Pista is about the ugliest thing made by human hands. I liked the old colors. (Maybe I can find one of those used; there was one on craigslist recently, but the guy had some exceptionally offputting mods on it.)

Wildjim wrote:

"The Bianchi Pista seems to be a good value but I would have preferred Celeste paint to Chrome finish."

I have heard the Celeste finish mentioned several times, now.
Tell me something about it.
Where can I see it?

In doing a search for Bianchi Celeste I found everything except a picture of the color.
Blue Green, right?

Anyway, I came across this:

"The oldest bike manufacturer in the world, Bianchi brings over 150 years of experience to their bike line. Known for their famous 'celeste' paint jobs, Bianchi has been producing bikes for world champions and Tour winners for generations."

Oldest in the world, and Italian.
How interesting.
Beretta, the arms manufacturer, and an Italian company, has produced firearms longer than any manufacturer in the world.

The Italians seem to know something about metal.

Celeste is bianchi's signature color. The only recent track frame I've seen it on is the european pista concept. Otherwise, you could try to find the reparto corse track frame from a couple years ago. Those are very nice frames, much nicer than the pista, and actually made in italy.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/b...omo_pista.html

Who knows if he still has any, and his price was quite a bit higher than I've seen around ny for that frame.

aren't the 2005 pista concepts celeste?

I followed luckycat's link.

"No one has been making track bikes for as long as Bianchi. The Reparto Corse-built Pista frameset extends the lineage into the new century. With its track-specific, acceleration-happy L Chromo Lite frame (made of MegaPro double-butted chrome-moly tubing), this Pista’s only speed limit is your own power."

Seven Hundred and Thirty Dollars.

What an absolutely beautiful color.

I would not have known this frameset even exists.
Thanks.

Oh, and thanks for destroying my illusions about the Pista as made in Italy.
Just don't tell me who makes it.
Leave me something.
(OK, I gotta know: tell me)

Anyway, I had decided on the Bianchi Pista as my entry bike, with the thought of someday building the dream bike on a Steamroller or Gunnar frameset.
Now I have a new dream.
What an absolutely celestial color.
Knowing the ways of the world, Bianchi probably does not make this frameset any longer, but I imagine one could get the color formula, or even the paint itself, from Bianchi.

Surferbruce wrote:

"aren't the 2005 pista concepts celeste?"

I visited the Bianchi USA site.
Yep.
It looks like Bright Pistachio on their site.
Not bad, either, but not as nice as it looks on Sheldon Brown's site.

I haven't seen this year's pista concept, so it could be celeste. Last year's european model looked nice though.

Sorry Ken, I think even the pista concept is taiwan made these days. Doesn't mean they aren't good bikes though.

And I think the reparto corse frames were selling for around five hundred the last time I saw one. Still not cheap, but a very nice frame.

But... for a couple hundred bucks more than that pista, you could get this:

http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/swapmeet/taylor3.jpg
http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/swapmeet/index.htm

A great deal on a very sweet frame and parts...

Ken, I think Celeste is perhaps the most aweful color ever done. I have a celeste road frame, it's horrible.

Anyway, you can buy Celeset Paint from Bianchi. It's two stage, and pretty easy to apply.

here's an approximation. keep in mind that there a ton of variables, not the least of which is that changes from year to year.

On the Sheldon Brown page, on MY computer, it looked sort of silvery-sage-turquoise.
It kinda went downhill from there. :)

yeah, it's pretty much impossible to get correct on a monitor.
silvery-sage-turquoise is a pretty good description imo.
i'm not a fan of the color myself.

Blasphemer!

You could buy an off the shelf track frame, and a set of track wheels, then build the rest yourself. That will give you an intimacy with the bike but still present you with a "polished" option.

As a standard I will now pitch IRO. You should get an IRO.

Milo

i second the iro.. mine is ruining my work relationships.. but i cant get off it.. my poor road bike

I don't think I'll go for an Iro. If I can find one to test ride, I'm willing to consider it, but I am, in general, not an aluminum fan. Plus I don't like the aesthetics of the new big-tube aluminum style. I'd be more likely to buy a Pista and paint it. We'll see what happens once I convert this frame I got, though: looking at specs, the geometry of the Surly Steamroller looks most my style, so if I decide I love building out fixies, maybe I'll start with that for a frame.

IRO also has a steel frame in ther lineup. The Mark V.

Oh, so they do. That's more my style, and a nice price, too. That will definitely be on my list if I go shopping for something off the shelf, or kitwise.

Bluejack wrote:

"the Surly Steamroller looks most my style"

I sure like the looks and concept of the Steamroller (nice color and bigger tires), but I just can't get into one and get riding as cheaply or as quickly as I can a Pista.
Someone, perhaps on this thread, said IRO offers a prebuilt bike comparable to the Pista in price and quality.

$549.
http://www.irocycle.com/fixedgearand...einc/id78.html