Skip to main content

1988 Bianchi Axis V1.0-1.5

I found a great deal on a Celeste Bianchi from a woman in Cary, NC. Evidently her brother in law collected bikes and had recently passed away, so they were selling his bikes. I'm happy to have been counted as one of the new owners. From what I gather this is a Japanese made Bianchi from 1988, with serial number JS763901. It was difficult to piece together an exact date but through research and catalogue cuts, its the best I can decipher. The first year the Axis shows up in a catalogue is 1988. This example is Japanese and a pretty poor quality pic. 


The 56cm frame is lugged Bianchi Superset Tange crmo steel and has more mounts and eyelets that I know what to do with. Outfitted with VGC982 Canti brakes, not sure who manufactures them,and a Sakae FX crankset with a Campagnolo BB.

Evidently it had been used as a touring/commuter bike. Very awkward looking. But a BEAUTIFUL Celeste. 

Nice Campy pedals with cages and a Campy C-Record front derailleur. Lousy Huret rear derailleur. The pedals went on the Ciocc where they belong.
It has bar end shifters and Mavic G40 wheels laced to Campy Record hubs. 

Made a few changes, different stem, removed the rack and fenders, added a different seat and brake levers and new 32c tires. It didn't stay this way for long.


Popular posts from this blog

1990 Basso Loto

UPDATE: Already switched up a few things. Swapped the threadless stem with black Cinelli bars, 1R stem and seatpost. Keeps the black and white theme going well I think. Much more comfortable with a little height on the bars.  Score! I finally found a Basso Fior di Loto. I've been searching for this color variant and model for a while now and this one popped up on Ebay from Brownsville Texas. Super excited to build this up with the Campagnolo parts from the Pegoretti upgrade that's in the works.  From what I have gathered so far, this frame is most likely from  1990. Its a  55cm  Columbus SLX steel frame and fork,  Basso Fior di Loto model in the Caribe colorway. It has a few fandom stickers on it that removed fairly easily and with a little elbow grease. The paint polished up nicely afterward and there are only a few nicks and scratches.  This 1990 Catalogue cut shows the color variants available for this...
Read more

1989 Pinarello Treviso

I was able to find a new frame update for my collection, this installment is a 1989 Pinarello Treviso, Cobalto Smoke, 56cm frame. It was in decent shape when I purchased it locally off a bike forum member in SC. It has some ugly stickers on the top tube (subsequently removed) and a paint scheme that can only be described as.... classic 80's italian. An odd "smoked" blue, thusly named Cobalto Smoke, from the catalog. Here are some pics from the forum post. The paint was pretty dull and very fragile.  One of the first tasks completed was to remove the unwanted stickers and try to rehab the paint. I tested a few paint options, using thinned testors model paint, and found a near match for the base blue. My brush technique wasn't great but it worked well for small scratch marks. Added a duple-color clear coat after a thorough polishing. Turned out well and should be better protected. Next up was to replace the decals, which were long gone, but g...
Read more

1984 Bianchi Nuovo Racing

Finally got sick of the Origin8 tiki mustache bars, so I decided on a change. I really dislike them. Only one comfortable position, out on the ends. Went back to one of my favorite configurations for this build. Bullhorn bars with Suntour bar end shifters. Even broke out some left over celeste bar tape and the old celeste Selle San Marco Ponza saddle from the 2008 Bianchi.   The first changes came quickly as usual. I ran into some trouble putting 700x32c tires on the Mavic rims with 700C wheels. Surprisingly not enough frame clearance for the rear brake bridge. So,  decided to swap the 650b Wheelsmith wheelset with Weinmann Zac19 rims from the Gios and install some SKS Bluemels mudguards. Wiped it down with Gibbs Oil so we'll see how long it keeps clear of rust. Just recently added a set of Suntour barcons and will give that a try for a while.  Below are the pics of the first build.  Its missing one of the toptube cable braze-on guide...
Read more