Quote:
Originally Posted by intakexhaust
Another quick pic but hiding behind the Trek-
Owner confirmed its a 1961.
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That looks like a beauty. I wish mine were so clean!
These bikes have some quirks. The biggest is the headset. Proprietary Bianchi integrated headset using 1/8" balls. The parts are unobtanium and no other headset fits. Servicing requires a special pin wrench, I had to spend >$60 for a vintage VAR tool. The headset on my bike was bone dry, and rough. Crossed my fingers and rebuilt it with new balls and lots of grease. Result - it is serviceable, not too bad.
The bottom bracket is 70 mm Campagnolo, I can't tell if anything else about it is weird, but I'm re-using it anyway. Nice and smooth after repacking and new balls.
If I even do re-finish the frame, I will probably sacrifice originality and do it in Celeste. The early 1960's Specialissimas were not imported to the US in Celeste, but they could be had in Italy with that color.
The bike has an interesting history. Under the pump, there is a Dymo tape label with a name and a Berkeley address that is in the hills, a few blocks from where I used to live. But the bike was found in Central Oregon, with evidence of repaired collision damage (which is okay to ride, per an inspection I had done). I located someone of that name who lived elsewhere in Berkeley, and wrote the wife a letter, real pen and ink because I didn't have an email address. She emailed me back and gave me the history of the bike. Her husband had a long and distinguished academic career the UC Berkeley (I found lots of papers published by him). He bought the bike for cash plus the trade of a used car, and rode it from their home in the Berkeley Hills to a field station in Richmond where he did his research, every day for many decades. That would be about 10 miles of hills up to 10%, or more depending on route. Then he suffered a brain injury, and could no longer cycle, but he kept trying to ride his bike, so she gave it away to a thrift store in Oregon where they had a second home. The husband was very angry that his beloved bike had been disposed of, and was very happy to hear news of it. He wrote me a letter, quite garbled, explaining how he bought the bike and that it had been ridden down a hill too fast, crashed into a telephone pole, and never worked right after that. The time sequence of his narrative was confused, but I
think the crash was in fact how he sustained his brain injury. From the dates the wife gave me, he would have been 79 y/o at the time of the crash.
So when I look at the bike, I think of a man who bought a bike was strong enough to ride the Berkeley Hills in 45 x 26 for most of his life and was still riding when almost eighty. I've preserved that Dymo tape strip, and it will stay with the bike.