In a message dated 7/13/02 3:46:18 PM Pacific Daylight Time, hughwthornton@hotmail.com writes:
<< The bike has a typically shoddy Bianchi lugged SLX frame from
Reparto Corse and I only keep it because of the funny derailleur (and the
classic colour of course) >>
Bianchi was one of the few "mass producers" of high end bikes that got a lot
of things right. For instance, they actualy had different (and correct) fork
rakes for each change in head angle. A lot of makers had one guy bending
forks, and they were all the same! This resulted in small bikes that handled
well, medium sized bikes that handled ok and large bikes that were terrible.
They also saw the benefits of putting a thicker down tube and thicker
chainstays in their "Bianchi Special" tube sets. Normally you would pay a
custom frame maker to come up with something that innovative. They didn't
spend a lot of time filing and I'm sure detail quality varied over the ears,
but they were well built, rugged frames that handled well.
Stevan Thomas
Alameda, CA