The first possible sponsor that springs to my mind would be the filter company MANN. It has been around for a very long time and their colour is green. Have a look at:
http://www.mann-hummel.com/
Bob - I do not know if my photos at:
http://www.flickr.com/
would be of interest for your timeline?
Very best regards
Johan Ericson
Stockholm, Sweden
> Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:13:50 -0800
> From: freitas1@pacbell.net
> To: curmudgeon1957@yahoo.com
> CC: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> Subject: Re: [CR] basement find Bianchi
>
>
> I always refer to these bikes as the missing links.
> Bianchi distribution was dodgy here in the USA ranging from 1968 till
> maybe 1978 or so. A time line would be interesting here as distribution
> switched from outlet to outlet.
> Anyone know when Bianchi USA actually opened its doors?
> All Pro bikes I have seen in this time period all seem to be
> ''gray market'' bikes that found their way over here via direct import.
> Based on the decaling(black) and the seat tube marking (73-74) we might
> guess this to be a 1975 bike sourced in Europe, thus the MANN badging.
> Was MANN a shop or Team I could not say.
> I have a small collection of photos showing bikes from this time
> period and probably should organize them into a time line.
>
> Anyone who worked for a distributor or shop that handled Bianchi in
> the 1970s could you pipe up here? Even if its anecdotal it would help. I
> know Ben Lawee distributed Bianchi until 1968 or so and then at least
> here in the West there was a small time distributor(1970-1972) who could
> not deliver much of a selection then in the late 70s Bianchi USA appeared .
>
> Also about this particular bike, note the Campagnolo dropouts, all
> Reparto Corsa production used them, bikes produced at other facilities
> used lesser types and its an easy indicator of origin.
>
> BOB FREITAS
> MILL VALLEY, CA USA